He is my muse
Rarely on time
Though always with the right line
He will never be mine
But these poems live forever
As part of me
Which is probably more
Than most lovers
Have in store
And ever will be

You flowers have it pretty dull
Yeah, you’re lovely
But helpless
Even the ones with thorns
Thorns are pretty easy to breach
Smelling good
A curse and a blessing
Probably
You are a commodity
But if you hadn’t been
Lovingly bred
Your entire species
Would probably be dead

This is not me begging
This is me asking earnestly

The top
          Is
            Not
               A
Stable place
          Ready to fall
          Any time and place
          Sometimes second best
          Is better than being number one
          Nobody gunning to take you down
      Vice presidents don’t
Typically get shot in parades
Or theaters
When all the world is a stage
Better to be
The understudy
In a play
Nobody wants to see

I would take you seriously
If you were capable
Of seeing me
Selective blindness
Reversed kindness
Knows only hatred or love
There’s no moderation
Of imagination
In humans who cannot rise above
It’s all either so wrong or so right
To those incapable of sight

At some point
Some time
We all take too long between showers
Some days
Have ways
Of turning into a week

If you wrote a poem for me
It would be beautiful to see
Even if it was angry
But
I don't think it would be
Though your draw was
Unpredictability
I'm not sure if I know you
But I'm pretty sure you know me

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Hey, farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don't care about spots on my apples
Leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Listen, late last night, I heard the screen door sway
And a big yellow taxi took my girl away
Now, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Hey, now, now, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
Why not? They paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Hey, hey, hey, paved paradise to put up a parking lot
I don't wanna give it, why you wanna give it?
Why you wanna give it all away? Hey, hey, hey
Now you wanna give it, ah, she wanna give it
'Cause she's giving it all away, now, now
I don't wanna give it, why you wanna give it?
Why you wanna give it all away?
'Cause you're giving it all, giving it all away, yeah, yeah

Addictions are accidental
Nobody sets off
To be an addict
We all know it ends badly
And yet
So many of us start
Foolishly
Maybe addictions
Can’t possibly be
Accidental
You’ve gotta work at getting addicted
And pay at it, too
I’ve never seen an addict
Who didn’t know what they were
Getting into

Never made it as a wise man
I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing
Tired of livin' like a blind man
I'm sick of sight without a sense of feeling
And this is how you remind me

This is how you remind me of what I really am
This is how you remind me of what I really am

It's not like you to say sorry
I was waitin' on a different story
This time I'm mistaken
For handing you a heart worth breakin'
And I've been wrong, I've been down
Been to the bottom of every bottle
These five words in my head
Scream, "Are we havin' fun yet?

It's not like you didn't know that
I said, "I love you," and I swear I still do
And it must have been so bad
'Cause livin' with me must have **** near killed you

And this is how you remind me of what I really am
This is how you remind me of what I really am

It's not like you to say sorry
I was waitin' on a different story
This time I'm mistaken
For handing you a heart worth breakin'
And I've been wrong, I've been down
Been to the bottom of every bottle
These five words in my head
Scream, "Are we havin' fun yet?"

The version of me
Tethered to you
Is artistic and funny
And hopeful, too
Something more and better
Than myself alone
Sort of almost going home
You bring out the magic in me
Bibbity boop and alicka zee
Your mojo and my magic
There’s no limit to what that could be

You are so smart
But so dramatic
You could really be a thoughful person
If you thought about other people
I see it in you
The desire to care
But you just can't seem to find it
In there

Come to me
Through miles and mountains
And so much blue
We touch with our minds
Me and you

Sometimes we forget
Approval is free
Among friends
We can expect
Acceptance
Freely
Among friends
If you feel uncomfortable
About who you are
You are not
Among friends
You’ve strayed too far

We got something, we both know it
We don’t talk too much about it
Ain’t no real big secret all the same
Somehow we get around it
Listen; it don’t really matter to me, baby
You believe what you want to believe
You see, you don’t have to live like a refugee
Baby, we ain’t the first
I’m sure a lot of other lovers been burned
Right now this seems real to you
But it’s one of those things
You got to feel to be true
Somewhere, somehow, somebody
Must have kicked you around some
Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped
*******, taken away, and held for ransom
Honey, it don’t really matter to me
Everybody’s had to fight to be free
You don’t have to live like a refugee

He is water on fire
Exotic hamster
Invisible high wire
He is thick warm moss
Climbing up the side of this tree
He is spiral giggles
And I like that he notices me

Back in the day
When the biggest drama I saw on tv
Was  Bobby Brady scared to climb a tree
And of course
It ended splendidly
When he lost his parakeet
And found it up there
Somewhere high
And Bobby Brady was no longer
Height shy
And saved his beloved parakeet
And got over his fear of climbing trees
Oh to be back in the seventies
When that was the biggest drama
I saw on tv
Although, as much as Bobby seemed to love it
We never again saw that parakeet

My expectations
Do not overstep your abilities
They stretch
I expect you like to stretch

Now you're just spitting out
Hollow air
Useless words
Nothing there
You were genius
Before people started noticing
How good you were
And suddenly
You're putting out nonsense
And ****** content
Unfinished,
And not meant
To make it past the drafts
But you were brilliant once
And you can rest on your past

Here we are
Bored with eachother
Frankly, I couldn't care less
About your day
And how it was a mess
I know you couldn't care less
About mine
Either
Because you never ask
You want to know things
Like where your boots are
Or what time is supper
But not where I learned
How to cook it
We got a tree full with fruits of
Conversations
Yet neither cares to shook it
Overripe fruit
Rotting on the limb
We sit here now
Our light has dimmed
No need for tears
Or blames or angryness
But frankly, however it goes down
It has to go down
Because I can't care any less

She is growing tomato plants in the back yard
I have named one Greta and one Nelson
She remembers
And calls them by name
Greta and Nelson
Tomato plants
Loved by somebody

The problem with me
Is
I’m such a fan of my poetry
Each written honestly
Feelings bared
For all to see
Which naturally
Bums me out
When nobody notices me
Got my **** right out so publicly
Jiggling, wiggling, ******* are free
All this soulful ******
And not a soul who wants to see

I’m gonna have to pause and reflect
He obviously sees me with my neck
Chopping block ready
He’s holding the axe
And instead of giving it a good whack
He’s waiting for something
I don’t know what
Apparently for me to make my own cut
He’s got no plans to feed this chicken
And he ain’t gonna eat me, either
I’m just a self-teaser
Thinking the thoughts
Saying the words
Being ignored, instead of heard
It ain’t his fault
It’s all my own
I went to town
Like a clown
Wondering why he’s not coming around
Silly fool me
I showed up naked
For the costume party
And thought I could see
A really great guy maybe looking at me
Wondering if he could like what he sees
And deciding it’s not worth….

Any effort at all
He’s gonna let me run into that wall

“Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream,” she said
“The one that makes me laugh,” she said
And threw her arms around my head
Show me how you do it
And I promise you, I promise that
I’ll run away with you
I’ll run away with you
Spinning on that dizzy edge
Kissed her face and kissed her head
Dreamed of all the different ways
I had to make her glow
“Why are you so far away?” she said
“Why won’t you ever know that I’m in love with you
That I’m in love with you
You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You’re just like a dream
You’re just like a dream
Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone, alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me

It was nutty of me to fall for you
Like us out of whack girls will tend to do
At first I thought you broke me
But now I think I broke you
The fallout from when
A nutty girl falls for you

The man in the moon is no pretty boy
He’s a pock-marked
Grown man
Stuck in his
Reclusive teenage habits
Relying on his Mother Earth to keep
Him around
Which she does

At arm’s length

I think you’re an insensitive ****
And also a hypocrite
Too
You should also get over yourself
If you assume this poem is about you

The masses love corny
And I’m full of flakes
So I’ll keep on pouring
Until someone takes

Most of the world’s diamonds
Are still buried in dirt

“Hit the road, Jack”
Just might be the most
Poignant line
In all of music

Repeating five times
“Please don’t do that again”
Might as well be begging
A breeze from gale wind
The storm in the middle
Is where you choose to stay
Knowing that you
Should get out of the way

Just a good old boys
Never meanin' no harm
Beats all you never saw
Been in trouble with the law since the day they was born
Straightening the curves, yeah
Flattenin' the hills
Someday the mountain might get 'em, but the law never will
Makin' their way the only way they know how
That's just a little bit more than the law will allow

Timmy the tick
On a high blade of grass
Spied a delicious looking
Furry thing
Sleeping
Near the back path
At sunrise he started
Making his way
Getting all through the yard
Took the entire day!  
Timmy made it
And got all the way there
Only to find
A furry teddy bear

Sometimes
I feel tingly and on top
Others
Itchy and on bottom
Fluctuation
Plurally
Sometimes
Is otherwise
Almost always
Numb and in middle

And this is for the questions that don't have any answers
The midnight glancers, and the ******* dancers
The can of freaks, cars packed with speakers
The Gs with the forties and the chicks with beepers

The northern lights and the Southern Comfort
And it don't even matter if your veins are punctured
All the crackheads, the critics, the cynics
And all my heroes at the methadone clinics

All you ******* at the I.R.S.
For the crooked cops and the cluttered desks
For the shots of Jack and the caps of ****
Half pints of love and the fifths of stress

All the hookers that are tricking out in Hollywood
And for my hoods of the world misunderstood
I said it's all good and it's all in fun
Now get in the pit and try to love someone!

Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy
Diggy, said the boogie, said up jump the boogie (Love someone)
Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy
Diggy, said the boogie, said up jump the boogie (Love someone)
All the gangs gettin' money and the heads they bang - bang
Wild mustangs, the ***** flicks
All my homies in the county in cell block six

The grits when there ain't enough eggs to cook
And to D.B. Cooper and the money he took
You can look for answers but that ain't fun
Now get in the pit and try to love someone!

Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy
Diggy, said the boogie, said up jump the boogie.

The drama queen is long and lean
Always frets about her fat
Sighing in the mirror
From this angle and that
She looks for a reason
So she can take offense
And can't stop pestering you
When you're hanging with other friends
She likes to show her body
And believes the big response
Hundreds of fellas
All of those tellas
Thumbs up, compliment
Making her feel heaven sent
Because they acknowledge
And attention from strangers
Feels like love to her

He is soul groove
Pops on in
Busts a move
And goes on out
Again
Leaving me wanting more
Here I sit
Watching the door

Sometime soon
You’ll come around here
To check
What did I do
And you won’t help but notice
I was thinkin’ about you

Trying to appear edgy
Not smooth
Rough neither
Wannabe something in between
Smedgy
That’s you, white bread
Pretending to be exotic
Smedgy

My children are my legacy
But they are grown
And don’t need me
So now I write my poetry

Women can sometimes be kinda daft
We call disloyal men “dogs”
I’m not sure if we do so because we don’t
Know men
Or maybe we don’t know dogs
We don’t know pigs, either
Snakes, though…
Snakes we understand

I’ve
Started a poem
Then picked a boogar
On a two year old
It could have been an interesting poem
But the boogar was more important
And maybe it boils down to
A boogar on a two year old
Few more things are more pressing
Than a boogar on a two year old

Maybe it never meant anything
Maybe nobody paid attention to it, but me
But that cannot possibly be
When I play the fool
It’s usually something everyone sees

Her bio said she was from
Uranus
And that’s all we need to know
To make the easy decision to scroll

The heartbreaking part
Was the person that drug
Made you to be
Still so fun to be around
But such dishonesty
You became a thief
And a liar, too
I couldn’t stay long
Near the drugs and you
I have anger
For things you did under the influence
Or more usually trying to get under the
Influence
I got out pretty easily
I left that time I took you somewhere
And you stole from my friends
Of course, you say it wasn’t you
But you know I saw you were in that room
The heart breaking part
Was the loss of that absolute wonderful guy
On account of you skeezing to chase that high

It’s not about you
Until you see yourself in it
Then it’s ALL about you
And also
Somebody else
Poetry never runs out of
All of itself
To give
In solitary
And so receives
The one it must be meant to be
Sometimes that someone is me

Money talks
But it don't sing and dance and it don't walk
And long as I can have you here with me
I'd much rather be forever in blue jeans
Honey's sweet
But it ain't nothin' next to baby's treat
And if you'd pardon me, I'd like to say
We'd do okay forever in blue jeans
Maybe tonight
Maybe tonight, by the fire
All alone, you and I
Nothing around but the sound
Of my heart and your sighs
Money talks
But it can't sing and dance and it can't walk
And long as I can have you here with me
I'd much rather be forever in blue jeans, babe
And honey's sweet
But it ain't nothin' next to baby's treat
And if you'll pardon me, I'd like to say
We'd do okay, forever in blue jeans
Maybe tonight
Maybe tonight, by the fire
All alone, you and I
Nothing around but the sound
Of my heart and your sighs

As the son of a son of a sailor
I went out on the sea for adventure
Expanding their view of the captain and crew
Like a man just released from indenture

As a dreamer of dreams and a travelin' man
I have chalked up many a mile
Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks
And I've learned much from both of their styles

Son of a son, son of a son, son of a son of a sailor
Son of a gun; load the last ton
One step ahead of the jailer

Now away in the near future, southeast of disorder
You can shake the hand of the mango man
As he greets you at the border

And the lady she hails from Trinidad
Island of the spices
Salt for your meat and cinnamon sweet
And the *** is for all your good vices

Haul the sheet in as we ride on the wind that our
Forefathers harnessed before us
Hear the bells ring as the tight rigging sings
It's a son of a gun of a chorus

Where it all ends I can't fathom, my friends
If I knew, I might toss out my anchor
So I'll cruise along always searchin' for songs
Not a lawyer, a thief or a banker

But a son of a son, son of a son, son of a son of a sailor
Son of a gun, load the last ton
One step ahead of the jailer
I'm just a son of a son, son of a son, son of a son of a sailor
The sea's in my veins, my tradition remains
I'm just glad I don't live in a trailer

It will most likely be
You never will see
The value of me
It’s not blindness on your part
But inundation of gorgeous art
I cannot expect you to notice me
When you’re surrounded by so much
Beauty
It must be everywhere you
Peek
Someone displaying the best they got
For you to see
Then, there’s me
Amidst adoring faces sea
And in that boat in which you be
There’s so much beauty
Within a few feet
To bother with what’s in the faraway sea
Where I be
Making little waves
Adoringly

Your death
Was the least violent part of your addiction
You beat your body up
Starved yourself
Went through daily sickness
Forced your loved ones
To alienate
Resigning themselves
Against their will
To your self destructive fate
Programs; outpatient and in
Everything they could to stop this
Disease from winning
You revolted
And bolted
To be “free”
To live in a cage
Voluntarily
Your body wracked with this
Horrible disease
Until you went forever to sleep
Did you get what you wanted?
In death are you finally free?