It's not about numbers
Though it's nice when it adds up
But about sharing
Whatever it is that might move you
For good or ill
And perhaps it be
Poetry
Art of the mostly misunderstood
Which is ironic
Since it's laid so bare upon the artist
Which is probably why it's so
Alien to those who keep fully dressed
They probably don't look at their own
Self
Naked
Naturally
They will find poetry either
Fascinating  or
Repulsive
It's mostly about adding something
To the collective
And being proud of it
Going back on it
To the place in your mind when you
Wrote it
From a different place
Hopefully resolved
Others may see it from whatever place They are
And some can relate
And put words to their feelings
Others can understand
It's not about numbers
But it is about addition

I have no idea
Which ideas you have
Nor do I want to hear
(****, man!  Nothing rhymes with have)
And this is relevant to me and you
We do not rhyme
And you must know that to be true

You didn’t have anything to do with it
You’re not the guy she’s trying to forget
But you carry his burden, too
That broken heart he left for you
You’ve left a few burdens, too
Had a couple left for you
Through
Burden chain
We’re all a link
Some more than a few
Each of those links
Have their burdens too

We all have stars in our eyes
Invisible to some
And often most
But stars are there
In every one
Not really reflective
But probably the most I can see
Through someone’s eyes
Is another version of me

I want to bring chaos into your order
Order into your mess
I want to flip you up over
Spin you around
Smack it up
Lick it up
Rub it down
I want you to look for me
When I’m not around
I want you to be willing
To make a sound

My poems are ever evolving
I’ve edited
Along the way
The beauty of these tools
Or maybe a curse, too
The loss of the shadows in the
Light when it was new

He doesn’t think I’m not worth looking at
I see him looking
He sees me looking too
It doesn’t seem to bother him
Though sometimes he pretends not to
Notice
Sometimes I pretend not to be looking
Sometimes we smile
And with all that pretending
It is a surprisingly genuine
Vibe
He and I  
Little moments
Over time

I go off
Whether you notice
Or not
Check out other spots
There’s gotta be one
Somewhere
Who I’d rather love than you
It would be healthy for me to
Focus on someone new
I know this to be true
And if I know you
You wish it for me, too
Wonder what a girl can do
With everything I’ve learned
Through you

Your biggest gripe with the world
Is that you’re not permitted
To walk your dog on the beach
And yet
There you are
Griping

It will happen
One day
When one you trusted
Will turn and betray
You’ll feel like a sucker
Let yaself get played
But you’re not the one on the fade
The real fool in the room
Is the one who
Looses you

I am a fuzzy lollipop
Kicking around on the floor
Awaiting some enterprising
Sweet tooth
To run me under some warm water
And then
The fun starts
Until I am done
Or kicking around some more
Tempting to someone
Industrious
Some fuzzy lollipops are
One of a kind flavors
Buzz infused once the
Fuzz is removed

I don’t know what I’m searching for
With this poetry
It certainly means
Something to me
My ego massaged
Maybe
To be the Creator
Of poetry

The dragon is withered,
His bones are now crumbled;
His armour is shivered,
His splendour is humbled!
Though sword shall be rusted,
And throne and crown perish
With strength that men trusted
And wealth that they cherish,
Here grass is still growing,
And leaves are yet swinging,
The white water flowing,
And elves are yet singing
     Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
     Come back to the valley!

The stars are far brighter
Than gems without measure,
The moon is far whiter
Than silver in treasure:
The fire is more shining
On hearth in the gloaming
Than gold won by mining,
So why go a-roaming?
     O! Tra-la-la-lally
     Come back to the Valley.

O! Where are you going,
So late in returning?
The river is flowing,
The stars are all burning!
O! Whither so laden,
So sad and so dreary?
Here elf and elf-maiden
Now welcome the weary
     With Tra-la-la-lally
     Come back to the Valley,
          Tra-la-la-lally
          Fa-la-la-lally
               Fa-la!

Human part in there
Somewhere
Your ego so fragile
You find it a fault
Being fragile
Fragility is the human condition
We all break
Some of us
Find people to fix
One of the few ways
To heal from a break
Some refuse to break  
Hold whole to a bitter end
The recovery rate from an almost break
Is much more grim

Be doubtful of assumptions made about
People
You don’t particularly like
Your view is skewed.
And you are probably blind to it

It’s not really love
I can’t call it that anymore
It’s adulation, or even worship
Probably maybe
Unhealthy
It should be
It doesn’t seem to have that effect on
Me
But maybe that’s something I don’t want to see

I wonder what the chances be
That he has never noticed me
Slim, really
And yet, here I still be
Waving my arms so vigorously
He need not acknowledge that he see
These poems aren’t only for him
They’re also for me
And I share them to he
So he can see how beautiful I think he be

You’ll probably see
Some things about me
If you should bother to look
The quirks and the dreams
And the never before been seens
Within this open book
Pages ripped out
Room for some more
The best should be yet to come
Bring yourself to the story
When the mood hits
It might become your favorite one

My grandkids are playing with an
Adjustable bendy track
On which to run their cars
And this has quickly escalated into the
Race track wars
Of course
It is true
All the pieces look exactly the same
But
There is a particularly special piece
The little one thinks she has claimed
And now, out of the fifty other racetrack
Pieces
That could do the job
Her older brother
NEEDS that one
Particular piece
Apparently
For no other reason than
To **** with me

Mostly I don't like you
Because of your hypocrisy
You have rules for you
And then, for everybody
You only respect physical strength
And flashy new money
You have no sense of fairness
No sense of decency
I wish I could avoid you
All and entirely
But you are there
And I pretend
Not to see

Ego got the best of me
So I'll turn it into poetry
All the things we think we know
Resist with force to being shown
Performed my little dance and song
But you were right
And I was wrong

I wanna **** poets off
If just for a short wile
But I don’t no what too do
Poets tend to be pretty calm
A stoic, nobel crew
I ca’nt figure it out yet
Wat could possibly werk
To annoy that otherwise
Accepting and loving groop
But as far as accomplishments
Its’ sum thing ill surely
Figure out how too due

I feel the effect
Of your neglect
But that’s something you’ll never see
When you don’t ever look at me

Shame on the moon
For gazing at you
That moon up there has some nerve
It’s  always spying upon you
Loneliness is what it deserves
Shame on the sun
For kissing your skin
Inviting you out of your clothes
But if I had the power to do that
I would, too, I suppose
Shame on the ocean
Engulfing your body
And lapping you with it’s waves
The tide comes in early when you are around
It’s clear to see what it craves
Most of all
Shame on me
For feeling so strongly
Impotently
One day you may know
How deep my feelings go
Until then from afar I will swoon
Look to the heavens
And shame the moon

Art is magic
I’ve often used it
Reliably
But you, sir
Possess immunity
To every wile I got on file
I’ve thrown
What I’ve known
As ignorantly
As what is known can be
No wonder
You don’t want to see
Silly me

Old souls carry old bones
The past settles in between
Weight of spirit
That we imagine can fly
With these old bones
It is the weightlessness we lack
Attached to the Earth
More and more
Old backs

I fall off the e
                     d
                     g
                     e
                     !

On a warm summer's evening
On a train bound for nowhere
I met up with a gambler
We were both too tired to sleep
So we took turns a-starin'
Out the window at the darkness
The boredom overtook us
And he began to speak

He said, "Son, I've made a life
Out of readin' people's faces
And knowin' what the cards were
By the way they held their eyes.
So if you don't mind my sayin'
I can see you're out of aces
For a taste of your whiskey
I'll give you some advice."

So I handed him my bottle
And he drank down my last swallow
Then he bummed a cigarette
And asked me for a light
And the night got deathly quiet
And his face lost all expression
Said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy,
You gotta learn to play it right.

You got to know when to hold 'em,
Know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away,
And know when to run.
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealing's done.

Every gambler knows
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep.
'Cause every hand's a winner,
And every hand's a loser,
And the best that you can hope for
Is to die in your sleep."

And when he finished speakin'
He turned back toward the window
Crushed out his cigarette
And faded off to sleep
And somewhere in the darkness
The gambler he broke even
And in his final words
I found an ace that I could keep

Took him to the playground
Run around and wear himself out
Was the plan
But then, I got to playing
With little man
And now
He's wide awake
And I'm so exhausted
I can barely stand

I come to see if you brought it
Like only you can do
Gentle tickle
Of my soul
Your presence
Ignites me
Simmer shiver
Brings me to my form
Gentle and warm
To a brisk simmer
It’s a new summer
And you are the sun who makes me shimmer

It must be an ugly side
I display
How can I not
When I display so openly
Of course there is an ugly side
I cannot see
Glaring obviously
To everyone
But me
I been kicked around
Occasionally
Some of those bruises never leave
Become invisible to me
Eventually

My muse
Is working overtime
He’s full up
Of inspiration
The cup runneth over
He breaks through
To deeper level
Laid on out
Through time
And he inspires me to put it
In a thousand little rhymes

Is there a proper protocol for walking away?
Am I obligated to say
We have had our final day?  
Games we almost play
Forfeited for the too long wait
Stayed around way too late
I suppose an explanation isn’t
Necessary

Moving away isn’t easy
I knew it wouldn’t be
Sometimes I like to pretend
You are missing me
Not enough, though
You’re much harder than I am
To let go

It was a waste
Adding in simply to agree
When anybody
Who disagreed
Would believably be
Claiming insanity
But I put two cents in
Seems too petty small
I wonder if the millions of two cents
Even add up
At all

Lady, your kid is a brat
But I imagine
You already know that

Gone
I may be
But it brought him no joy
To get rid of me

Imperfection within myself
Present, surely
But you ain’t gonna make me see
When you say it meanly

Chances that are not earned
End in failure
999,999,999 out of a billion times
I’m not saying you
Won’t be one in a billion
One day, maybe
But the effort you think I got
To put into a one in a billion shot
Makes me see
You ain’t even one in a million
To me

It’s a mission
To show you who I am
***** it out here for you to see
Which has to mean everybody
I think I’ve got likability
But I just happen to like me
I don’t know what you see
Brash, brazen, unapologetic me
For who I be
And what I want
And what kind of beautiful picture I see
In a future of you and me
If we get friendly

I see you there
That look on your face
Wondering if you made a mistake
But no harm, no foul
My head is not bowed
It's pretty clear I'm too good for you now

I’m not bleeding
Crying
Or claiming needing
Trying
By feigning my brain is frying
Or want to dying
I’m not berserk or flipping my lid
But would it help me if I did?

Time disappears
The blurry becomes clear
The power of writing poetry
Almost immortality
As much as any human could be

The winner of the argument
Is probably
The one who does not want to argue

I’m stuck on you
Against my will
Hostage to your neglect
The things we humans self inflict

Poisonous spiders
Venomous snakes
Vampire bats
Crocodiles from lakes
Cockroaches
All other yucky bugs, too
Lions and tigers and bears
Oh my
Possums pretending to die
Rats and **** throwing monkeys
Skunks and all their funky
Lots of creatures that we love to scorn
All these things made it onto that ark
And not one unicorn

I have no follow through
When it comes to denying myself of you
And vice versa, too
The desire to share
Myself
To you
More compulsion
If I’m being true
Not sure what a girl can do
Once she’s become an addict of you
In my veins and bloodstream
My waking thoughts and sleeping dreams
I am exactly as I seem
Hopelessly bound
Pitifully desperate broken wing moth
Open wound
Bleeding on your porch
Who needs a mess like that?  
Nobody but you
If you do
What you got
Inside of you?

I want to ****** your dark places
And spaces
Tell me what keeps you from sleep
Unburden yourself from the secrets you keep
Give me your story of guilt and remorse
Walk me through your mind’s obstacle course
Show me your ugly
Share all the bitter
Truths and lies that make up your litter
Splay yourself all over the scene
In my mind’s eye
Lose control; laugh and cry
Pound your fists on the ground
And ask God “why?!”
Share who you are
Give it a try
I promise you no matter what I see
I will search for it’s beauty
No matter how ugly it be

Did you know
And pretend to not?
How much guilt have you got?
Did you look the other way
Or justify
“Well, they want to play?”  
Are you mad at yourself
For what you didn’t say?
Would it have helped
Anyway?  
That thing been there
******* out all of the fresh air
Eating away at the game you love
All that **** you could never scrub
Is that why you walked away?  
Burdened with too much weight
Of all those things you couldn’t say
“Games” you didn’t want to play
And if that be the case
Will the justice long delayed
Have any effect on
Your decisions from today?

Your soul is old
But your problems are young
It's a dichotomy
The part of the journey
With the fork in the road
That hits right between
The young and the old
You stare down the problem
Quizzicaly
And the best you can do is say
"Ahhh!  **** me!"