Today is a day unlike any other day
You finally took your hurtful words
Got in your car and drove away

Oh, to turn back time
A wish that all have
Standing in empty parking lots
As Chevy Impalas run towards setting suns-

-Bespoke of fetid misery wafting from the bloated corpse

Place fingers to Mickey Mouse arms;
Spinning them on titanium axis,
Praying to watch the sunrise again,
Feeling wrinkles pull taut,
And see those majestic beasts return

But 'ol Mickey keeps on waving-
His smile holds no warmth
One finger upturned and moving clockwise

We're all moving clockwise

...tick tick ticking away

Why do people disagree
With such fire in their voice
When a disagreement can be punctuated
With a handshake and pleasant goodbye?

No sweeter treat
Than knowledge you're among
A true community

Inspired by a recent poem by Emmanuel Phakathi titled "Who knows it feels it."

Your brush touches paint the same
Spread simple over varied canvas
Meant to make art for eyes
That ache for scenes of beauty
And such beauty is abound
In every nuanced color of our lives

We paints do not get to choose our color
Lead stepped in manure to produce white paint
never got to choose its fate
Nor did the dyes trapped in cochineal insect
destined to be crimson
Weep for all the ground-up bones
Used to enhance beautiful ebony tones
Or the powdered precious stones
Called ultramarine, translated "beyond the sea"

We paints don't get to choose our medium
Like wooden tapestries of African Artists
Rich and earthy, beyond beauty
Or painstakingly bound hempen thread
A dedication of Italian artwork
Or the unknown fresco origin
Which gave painters joy on the Isle of Crete
To the modern U.S. canvas
Made of cotton, PVC, and ingenuity

We do not choose our color
Red, white, black, green, yellow, blue
We do not choose our canvas
From developed nation to those without
We do not choose our origin
We do not choose our ethnicity
We can only choose our actions

I choose to believe
That we are all beautiful paints
Not meant to separate
But rather to blend together
In truest of beautiful form
And spread vivid hues of color
Across this tapestry of Earth

The scent fills my kitchen
Powerfully of garlic and cumin
Crockpot steaming as chili heats
With the aroma of coriander
Wafting to the neighbors
As the lamb begins to broil

The kitchen is awash
As the fragrance of yeast grows
sweet bread baking in the oven
Cinnamon and nutmeg
Dance a pirouette delectably
As apple pie cools

This kitchen is alive
The delights that we shared here
We made love once
It was on a cold night after dinner
Right there on that counter
Currently occupied by flour

This kitchen has grown cold
Only salt and pepper do remain
like sentinels to lost times
The microwave dings
It's all I use since you left
TV dinner turns to ash in my mouth

He proffered his gloved hand filled with guarantee
His blue eyes flickered greedily like the swirling of the sea
His hair was dark and soft, as if of silken twine
His crocodile smile beckoned, "your soul it will be mine"

His arms and legs bent to and fro, waving impossibly
I could smell his want burning my nose ever so pungently
His deal, he swore, "Was better than any I'd ever know"
He towered over, leaning forth, his wickedness did grow

A red bowtie, two-button suit, his clothes immaculate
I stared at him, wondering, too much time to contemplate
And in the end, I shook his hand, my resistance was futile
Each of us has fallen for a dark reptilian smile

Keep your lips closed tight
I know what happens,
When you open your mouth
Spitting bent words,
Crooked like a boomerang
And one day,
Your words will return to you

she was made
of tender things;
treads of gold,
and silvered strings,
with little bones
and broken wings,
buttons, pins,
and rusty springs
~
her mind was filled
with little dreams;
to be a queen,
a crown to gleam,
a rainbow bridge
out into space,
a quiet room
to hide her face
~
too delicate
for this world;
a tiny bed,
with a tiny girl,
who's window felt
like iron bars,
so she left her body
and went to the stars
~
no longer small,
no longer frail,
no longer sadness,
and wicked tales,
out in the stars
she burns so bright,
a golden glimmer
lights up the night

Vans come and vans go
Through godless streets of violence
Through angry crowds who thirst
For blood

Eat the weak on Easter
And feast upon the poster
Children in the garden of Eden
Or maybe rest upon the rock
In Babylon

Freedom isn't free
As we line up, cattle feed
Imbibing of the hate machine
A big blue F that desiccates
Human experience
And makes it bite-size
To represent the life-size
For our ******* pint-size
Pea-brained attempts
At *******

We all stand alone
Atop the heap of corpses
Left in our wake
And smile for the cameras
In our pajamas
Weak-willed
Like those who came before

A lack,
Off the beaten path,
And without track-
Empty even of hunger,
Hollow of desire,
And slack
A mouth free of teeth,
Growing mushrooms so black
A poison of nothing-
Stretch souls out on rack
Taints vacant vacuous veins
Covered in blanket
Of fact-

Gaze upon empty,
Let eyes focus with strain,
See fallout of mistakes,
And husk left after pain
Gaze up at the sallow,
Pallid and weak,
Of humanities failings,
The topic we speak

One will make you smaller, the other make you big
One will make you happy, the other make you sad
So take your pills, Darling
Eat, drink, and be merry
Before you end up crashing
We all crash in the end

We could all be 10/6ths worth of humanity
If we weren't buried in being 1/2
of a person

And I wish that I could get high
And float like butterfly wings
Fly through heavy jungle
As I crack through my cacoon
After every imagined insult

Don't you see, we're down the rabbit hole

There are monsters lurking
In hedge mazes made for you
Don't be afraid to walk through it
If you don't, you'll be late
We're always in a state of late

While you watch for monsters
You may not even notice
My disenfranchised smile
And feline eyes burning in the night
As you cry
"Off with his head"

We're down the rabbit hole, baby

Rage
Unstoppable
Unfeeling
My breath takes life
Burns fields and kingdoms alike
Terror
Unfiltered
Unadulterated
This visage washes over
Scattering the strongest of warriors
Vanity
Unrelenting
Unresolved
I am pictured perfection
You measure against me, faltering
Elegance
Unerring
Uncompromising
You marvel beneath shadows
Cast upon by my wings

Ordinary
Underwhelming
Unsatisfying
My body, feeble human
But my mind breathes free

We, us, they, and them
dissolved in solutions
of I, me, and mine;
Selfish pink sprinkles
cover selfless vanilla cake
Like oil on oceans
choking communities of fish
choking community
choking me
I choke

No words
Describe today
Sunshine beating me
With warming rays
Sweat on my brow
As I plant some grass
Knuckles ******
As I bust my ***

My lips try to whistle
But no tune presents
Hard work in silence
Gray dust of cement
Ripped jeans
And muddy leather gloves
A heavy sky
No cloud above

My mouth is empty
Of moisture and song
Of well-wishing words
As I toil along
Each movement of dirt
By steel headed *****
Gives way to the big empty
As I dig my own grave

Unbridled love set free, in Calgary
A young couple beneath a weeping willow tree,
Sad omens of two people to be,
Opposite and exact in their symmetry

Each passing day of warmer wet tears,
As measured steps were taken to walk away,
A belief in success is defense against fear,
And nothing but a thing they both say

They screamed silence from their corners,
Both blue and black with bruised hearts,
The same through equal alienation,
And sweet sorrowful apologies, unheard

Both walked the long walk to the pub,
Each, in turn, to drink the other away,
Both want the other to make the first move,
A shared relationship fades to dust

An empty valley, save for a few boulders and a lonely tree
Afghan mountains on each side, snowcapped in late winter
The patrol stands alone, overwatch promised
A familiar promise, sometimes kept
The sound of fire, a PKM I think
“Get Down,” shouts A.J., on his stomach behind a boulder
No.  No.  I wouldn’t fall to my knees today
I would see my enemy on open ground
Frustrated from days of unseen attackers
Hidden behind rockets, and distance, and civil population
Invisible threats around each corner, on each hill
Invisible and everywhere
I stand alone in this empty valley, determined to see my enemy
He’s far away, upon a hilltop
I see him crouched behind his gun, an RPK perhaps
Even at this distance, I imagine his eyes
He stares at me with rage worn on his face like an old shemagh
But I imagine I see more behind his eyes
A fear I think, a frustration, a nervousness
Feelings born from years of cultivated hate
Years and years of lack of civility, lack of security
I imagine I see his eyes and I know he can see mine
Two lives intertwined
Brothers who bear arms to defend their beliefs
And enemies forged of inmost hatred
I imagine I see him hesitate, his finger rested on well-worn trigger
Waiting and weighing my life and worth
His split-second decision never comes
The guns of overwatch bark like dogs of war
The familiar promise is kept today
Some men came home as evening set, some did not
As Afghan mountains watched over an empty valley

Trouillot once said,
"We all serve as actors and narrators
That compose the truth of history"

Your 'now' is tomorrow's history,
Your decisions will echo and ripple,
Will you act a courageous scene?
And speak truth,
To cut through pools of lies?

Never let anyone silence you,
And that includes yourself

Great words are spoken every day
But so many of them go unrecognized
Because great words are rarely about the words themselves
But about the timing
And about the audience
Perhaps it's time we stop and listen

There is no exception
to being exceptional
based on perception

I leave trails with tracks
Of ruby and slick
No way to go back
Across rivers of Styx

My mark being left
Through pine forest dale
Each lost drop of blood
With skin growing pale

Your words are like ticks
Your frowns become leeches
Each weakening pulse
On sangria beaches

The needles you carry
Take their own little *****
You've drained all my blood
And left me anemic

Stop
hiding behind
rationalizations
and excuses
for your
cruel behavior,
savage taunts,
wicked ways,
life failures,
evil thoughts,
feeble resilience,
weak fortitude,
that have left
a trail
of those who
loved you
and face yourself,
by yourself.

You feast
and grow stronger
as I fade
slowly away

Even greatest deeds
can not forever hide
our truest intentions

half a cup of coffee,
with two-thirds left in a day,
one-thousandth the satisfaction,
when I chose this fractured way,
only a quarter of my attention,
as I rifle through it with my hand,
no longer pain and only numb,
now I'm only half a man

Muddy boots and snow thawing
Next to central fireplace
A heat that bakes the ***** floor
A floor to which we all walk
Day in and day out
As leaves fall from trees
Until the day
We lay face-up
With hands folded
As we return back to
This dark baked clay

My fingers
caress the fuzz
on your lower
back

My hands
grip the fuzz
at the base
of your neck

Our
arguments
in my mind
are growing fuzzy

The day
that you left
out the door
is oh so
fuzzy

My fingers
caress the fuzz
on my unshaven
cheeks

My hands
grip the fuzz
of my long hair
I'm such a freak

How the hell
I got here
I don't know
It's so fuzzy

See your picture
through empty bottles
on the nightstand
it's growing fuzzy

My heart is a gecko,
Turning green and looking lean,
Scampers along my ribs,
Eating butterflies that escape,
Desiring the cool,
So it climbs to my feet,
Until curiosity strikes again,
Ascend and ascend,
It takes over my head

Generosity is not in giving what you have aplenty
But in sharing what you lack
Altruism is in balancing the scales of suffering
Even if you have only half a sandwich
Then two people
Are only half hungry

pervade
invasive
drifting through walls
and crawling through our ears
we live in empty spaces
as they haunt through our fears
specter
and shade
lifeless
they're made
with every misstep we've taken
and stupid game that we've played