give or get

I met one day, a day,
that was dressed up
as yesterday
I asked, “Why not live in today,
than the previous day’s cotton?”
All it could simply and sadly say
“I hide in yesterday
for fear, tomorrow
I’ll be forgotten.”

I didn’t catch the days name
But I guess it’s the same
Monday wanted to be Sunday
Tuesday wanted to be Monday
And so on and so long
That I guess it was true
by the end of that week
I forgot which day
was who anyway

Frankie said, “Jane’s okay”
and Jane,…well
she never really liked
Frankie’s way,
Yet his charm and that tattoo
of ‘Mom’ on his arm
made him seem like a nice boy

You see…
he never won her heart
just stole her mind
“In just a matter of time”
he’d brag, “She’ll be mine”
no sooner she was won
with a ring fit for her thumb
Frankie found himself a new toy

you should not push an opinion
nor force it into a small mind
it may explode at the ears
and lose the hearing the next time
when opportunity may arise
where those words may be recieved
into small parts, in smaller bits
and pushed in with ease

A silver spoon
still never feeds the soul

A silver lining
still cannot hold back the rain

A silver moon
still brings on the howling

A silver chain
still holds the weakest link

I have a monkey
for my thoughts
hanging around
dangling down
by the tail
till it’s caught

often chasing
swing to swing
a string of a thing
I cling
carrying the thought

people say
no monkeying around
stop the thinking
the red wine
your drinking
and cage your mind

but with a jacket
and matching
white pyjamas
Tonight, dinner’s at the circus
and I’m going nuts
and bananas

Strong men who sleep while men die
are like big beautiful mansions, settled on the quiet hills of a graveyard, vacant, while dead bodies lay outside.

Inside my garden is a little book
It’s pages grow me flowers
each scent of smell
my soul knows well
the fragrance and its powers

Each page I turn
from fauna and fern
I guard the garden that is mine
from the chapter on ****
and the sachet of seed
between the cover and the spine

I lost my button
off a thread
on the day when I wed
left with a half open tux
Though it hung for awhile
it fell, rolling down the isle
and down dropped my trunks
The people ‘woo’
and applaud
My future wife
was appalled
“Do you realise it’s all about you?”
I pulled up my pants
bowing at the chance
I smile, replying “I do”

I found myself a seat at the table
among greens and violated vegetable
and I’m wondering if I am able
to stay calm and sit there stable
while staring into a Buddha bowl
searching for some peas in my soul

I’m looking down so hungry
the side dish appearing so angry
like that smashed green avocado
near the pile of mashed potato
and the cut and diced main dish
beside the chopped chives
and sliced spinach Quiche

These vegetarians are not so nice
beating the egg and whipping the rice
and this fruit punch I’m drinking
by dessert, has me thinking
they’re as aggressive, and more
violent and cruel, as a carnivore

You can’t keep holding on
to disaster
Disaster has no heart
but to destroy
You need to live
happily ever after
Danger is not a toy
I say this because I love you
I say this because I’m a friend
I say this because I need you
I need you here to the end

I’ve stolen your heart beat
snatched straight from your chest
I placed it inside me
to give my own heart a rest
but it’s a step and tap out of time
to the rattle of rock and roll
I didnt want to skip a beat
to the rhythm in my soul
I pulsate to your heart rate
threw me off the beaten track
not knowing if it’s a heart break
or I’m having your own heart attack

I’d love to slice your eyes in little pieces
scatter them across night skies
so you go and glow my nights away
from the starlight in your eyes

I’d love to pluck a kiss from your lips
to plant in my garden of growing weeds
so when all fails to bloom too soon
your sweet scent is sent from your seeds

I’d love to clip the smile off your face
and toss it to the sun at morn  
so when night has lost its fight for light
I’ll have burnt your smile into the dawn.

I’d love to cut open your heart of hope
carve a heart beat out with a knife  
so if my passion is dead after I’ve bled
you may bring me back to life

Heaven has a street called ‘Hope’
It leads from earth and is thin like rope
It’s a tight walk across earth to sky
Those who walk may fall but learn to fly

Heaven has a street called ‘Love’
It starts from here through to clouds above
It’s thinner than Hope but is stronger still
Those who walk may lose their way but not the will

Heaven has a street called ‘Faith’
This path is unknown but one can trace
both Hope and Love and where they intersect
They that walk may lose their life but not the respect

I can only carry these thoughts
as far as the wind will blow
Even when I lay me down
they’ll dictate where I go
Beside a tree I find my rest
only to rise when they’d say so
Beneath its branch I sow a thought
like leaves I watch it grow

By a river I make my bed
where my thinking freely flows
like rushing water, runs my head
my thoughts ebb and flow
Near the fire I watch the flames
I light my thoughts aglow
they’ll burn tomorrow new desires
I have no strength to say ‘no’

I dug a trench
to keep you close
growing the hedges
with rope and hose
I filled a moat
to keep you in
a buoy, no boat
if you tried to swim
I planted flowers
bushes, no tree
lest you could climb
and found you free
I paved a road
there you cut a path
far from the garden
away from my arms
now I’m building a bridge
across a sad sea
if you ever decide
to come back to me.

Of such things
I cannot tell
The glory
of heaven or
the smoke of hell
yet of such
and much
my eyes do swell
so shut the shutters
lest the smell
rises to heaven
from the windows of hell
through the gates of God
and stink as well

Some kids hide in attics
some in the wooden shed outside
a hide away,
away from trouble  
and leave the world aside

but when I was younger
I’d hide up on the roof
leaving them below to wonder
“Where’d he go, just ****!”

but, “I’m just here, aunt Molly!”
here at the top, way up high
pretending I had wings
and a little closer to the sky

peering down on people passing
writing poetry on the roof
watching the world below me changing
still high and still aloof

till that day I come down wondering
where’d all the people go?
now that I’m much the more older
I’d really like to know

I’m hanging off a building
that I’d decided not to jump
now I’m wishing I was thinner
not so heavy or as plump
for the weight in my belly
is now heavier than in my head
yet it’s hard to hold on, I know
for a man whose well fed
this change of heart in me
has me cursing on the edge
a change of mind, I fear
is too late on the ledge
sure, the worlds a little heavy
now thinking of all the food
all the meals and the delicacy
I wish I’d never chewed
If a little had I to nibble
I’d be much lighter now
yes, I’d have cheated death
and still hold on somehow
but now these greasy fat fingers
which held once a burger or two
are hardly hanging on
and now are slipping through
oh the life I’d give to live
a chance to change my mind
to find some strength, to weave
to push up and to climb
with only one hope now
in sweets, thats kept me alive
just to hang in there or let go
maybe bounce back and survive

A vacated ghost town
where the dust has settled
and only the few passerby’s
poets and dreamers
stopping over for the night

I am so alone
can you hear me?

Hello…

Hello?

Why is it every time
I want to write a poem

that is real
that is raw

I start every line with
“I am alone”

Hello??

Can you hear me?






Is anyone there?

I don’t know where it’s been
I just know where it got

I don’t know where it is
I just know where it’s not

I don’t know how or why
I just know where is what

I don’t know about you
but words won’t let me sleep
They slip and steep
into my covers
before I do

I don’t know about you
but rows of prose
run through my head
I’m hugging thoughts
close to me in bed

I don’t know about you
but my dreams
are filled with them too
it’s all I think I do
I need rest from this mind
waking with words all the time

I don’t know much about you
but what if I was to
really get to know you?
Maybe you’d save me
from being lonely, poetry
and another rhyme

I hate sunsets
the calm summer breeze
fragrant walks of jasmine
restful shade of cherry trees
I hate the hope of open sky
The whispers of oceans blue
because everything that is beautiful
reminds me of you

I hate old smiles with wrinkled eyes
The sound of children's glee
bedside books and biscuits
the scent of cinnamon tea
I hate the silver moonlit nights
the love infused fumes of two
because everything that is beautiful
reminds me of you

I hate the white in this paper
the black that bleeds this ink
The very word ‘beautiful’
and every time of you I think
though my life be filled with beauty
the things I love are a few
in as much as I hate everything
I’ll never stop loving you.

In my mind I have you dancing

In my heart I have you sleep

In my soul I have you forever