P   picture perfect paintings

O   of openmouthedness
       oversimplication

E    evolving erudite
       eclamations
T    terminal tepid
       translations
R    rancid rich rauccous

Y     Yearning yesternight's
        yottabytes

I knew I was in "purgatory"
I couldn't make up  all the grade/s
Didn't really matter much
My pocketknife had a  broken blade

The "I's" are ever on you
No one hears or cares to understand
The questions put before them
Are lost to time by sand

So fling the words before me
My pearls before the swine
The path placed as pure adjectively
While you sit and mull your time

There was my life before me
In the parking lot of life
A beat up old "63" Rambler
With the "Club" attached  to the steering wheel of strife

Choking . . .
on the fumes of life
I give in
when too much strife
I though I had
made sure the plans
But they slipped through the fingers
Like sand in the hands

When devoured
our thoughts perverse
The truth be told
it goes from bad to worse
Porcelain smiles from a
crystalline face
The age has yellowed
The trust misplaced

You sit on the park bench
In the middle of night
No one bothers you
they can see
you are lost
in the midst of your plight

The thought of dawn
rising
far to the east
myths are on without
the peace
All my time is second hand ware
Ticking goes tocking
burdened by wear

You always wore
your face of frowns
Like a Queen possesses
all her crowns

The mornings found you
so depleted
All your will
had been defeated

You paid your dues
for cost analysis
They held the cup
for urinalysis

It's all there in
the black on white
Carved in skin
so pink and tight

You find
you're found
Roped , gagged
and bound

Estranged from
the freedom of life
Entangled
with all it's strife

And as , at last
the evening calls
Before the ghosts
stroll the halls

You prepare with such anticipation
For another night's
exhilaration

He sweats in Nephilim
and has nightmares of little men named Dave
Life is the giant slayer
of the thirteen year old boy afraid to shower at the school gym
But that was long ago over many potholed highways of chance and circumstance

Today's pockets have fishhook's sewn in the threads , borne bare from reaching for too much and beyond

Delete my words of care and condemn them to your black hole of desperation

Eternal bound frauds cut the bubble wrapped dragons of division and petrify their legacy in granite monuments on lawns that never raised a leaf to this life

We flee our desparations
as autumn butterflies before first frost
when the tardy become proof of natural selection
Fears turn into our reincarnation from years of future past alienation
Yet we wimp at the thought pummeling through our heads
of what the first frost might do to us

I woke up this morning
With a pistol in my hand
Hung over and ******
And my pockets full of sand

Oh lord ! What did I do ?
The front door was open
And in walked the man
neatly dressed in Blue

Put the gun on the floor
I'm aiming right at you
Blink one eyelid buddy
And I'm putting a bullet right on through

It just happened to be Sunday
Following a Saturday night
All I could remember
Was I got into a fight

Some girl sure screamed
And the bullets began to fly
I remember running for the door
Before I was to die

I tripped and fell as a bullet
Whizzed right there by my head
Please oh Lord I'm not ready
Won't you take him instead

I must have passed on out
I can't remember anymore
That will be my last visit
To Horse face Mary's bar
On 5th and Delanore

So listen up to me people
As they lock up my cell door
Drinking and guns
Aren't worth the dying for

Just a crack in the brick wall
A red rubber ball
The last time you can't remember
When you stood tall

The monotonous hologram
The seaside hotdog stand
The regrets piled higher
than any mountain can

Four stringed guitar
Home in an abandoned  car
Courage in a bottle
Wishing still on the first star

Still he caresses the neck
Presses down the frets
Sings three octave blues
On life's reef of wrecks

He's free lost in the chords
The music opens doors
The pathway is as bleak as sin
While inside he reaches for more

He goes off to sleep
He has his dreams deep
About a paradise for losers
And a five string guitar

Never had I more than a chance
To look at the future but
with a glance

I saw the world from
the rear window of a car
While being driven to
destinations that were near , some far

So many miles
before I was five
Before I even realized
I was alive

And home was where
my grandparents lay
Maybe we could go visit
on Christmas day

I learned to walk long
and I fought hard
Always drawing the shorter straw or the
the blackest card

I learned to spell struggle
with colored crayons
With black and blue
and red when hit on

I learned to run away
at the age of three
There were no fences
that could stop and hold me

Snakes and snails and
puppy dog tails
Emotional distrust
and a *******

No little boy
should ever be a knapsack full of momentos of forgotten history

Come black night
I envy thy heart
It dwells upon indecisions
It lashes out in dark

Thy cold comfort
Is the age within my bones
Your sly wink foretells
That I won't be here for long

Everything's so futile
Like the flowers on a grave
I see Eleanor Rigby
No one would be saved

"All those lonely people"
Words to a forgotten song
Two rights joined together
Don't constitute a wrong

Blue eyed beauty
One determined in her ways
Her love torched
the Panchos of her days

Love was hot and fast
like the lead
that they
were never spared

While life was short
like the stars of night
They both knew that
it would never turn out right

Pancho died of bullets
Luz while she was fast asleep
Both now just memory
One I will to keep

Like the soft green grass
'neath
the morning dew
I'm thinking 'bout you

The tides and change
happens to everything
and everyone that
you ever knew

I can't remember
the whens or whys
we were divided
in two

Cassidy . . .

Ah ! The nightime stars
appear so near
yet they are so far
We have cut their beams

We had our plans
The world was our's
if it was only
in our dreams

Oh ! Cassidy

You drove your car
a Cadillac
the top pulled down
and the radio on

I asked you ,"Where ?"
you said,"I don't care
as long
as we are moving on."

Remember those
night time wails
and the days
we spent in jail

The women we met
The broken drum set
The times we said ,
"We're going to Hell !"

Oh ! Cassidy !

In Mexico you
met your match
on the railroad tracks
trying to escape the pain

Your hand was hot
but the deck was stacked
so you cashed
out of the game

The Tequila was warm
but the night
was cold
and your clothes were thin

You went to sleep
and left
the pain behind
never to wake again

Cassidy , oh Cassidy !

Like the soft green grass
beneath
the morning dew
I'm thinking 'bout you

The black teenager gave the two white police officers a thumbs up and yelled Trump at them . The two officers looked at each other then beat him to a pulp just to be sure .

I was always a different one
Out of place with hair undone
Seeker of the fates unknown
Collector of dead rats and their bones
I loved the chill that made bones ache
The desert's sun that kills and bakes
I lay upon the mountain tops
In all kinds of weather and falling rocks
I hid in the forest where
none could see
Swam muddy waters of the Tennessee
I give thanks when none is due
For the seeing eye over all I do
I was never planning on staying long
The mindful plans knew that all along
So the plans of rats and man
Are far beyond us to understand

I was just a cowboy
whose story goes untold
I rode the range in
summer's heat and
the winters long and cold

My legs were bent and so bowed
From years
on horses that I rode
And memories that I made
were my treasure trove

I saw every sunrise from across a coffee cup
And every sunset wrapped up in a blanket as I sat and supped

I am no more lonely
than a wolfen howl
While underneath the stars I find myself blessedly so wowed

And everyday is like the last in my paradise
I have no chords that bind my life
to your civil strife

Give me open range
and ways that are ever fittingly so free
And kindly please
will you let me be

I'll never be the one
flipped and done
Kiss the sun
Burn your buns
I guess you won

You stabbed my heart
With paper darts
Made me ****
Tree's stripped of bark Apple à la cart

Look down below
Summer's in the snow
Wondering you know
How we just blow
Separately on the go

I was aways opening the door
Backing up on the floor
Stumbling ! Falling !
The fabric of life just tore
Tattering
Who's keeping score ?

You look at me and shake your head saying without a sound , everything is to be implied

I return the effort made while digging up a shallow grave ,"So what if it's in the middle of the night ?"

And the Sundays fled and the eagle flew off with the cat

So don't tell me up and down that everything is going ginger right

Now if rain could change a name , make the letters wash away

Or if you could choose your place in time , do it now so you don't have to stay

But what it really boils down to is does it really matter if it's in the middle of the night

After all having nine lives didn't work out so well for the cat

Like new summer wine
We were green in our time
And the yellow rose
never smelled better

But like the weeds in the road
Armadillos , horned toads
The truth was spelled out in the letter

You know some days are just fine
Others will find that your lying
But most of the time
you're barbed wiring

Well the rains came on down
Washed away most of the town
I found you boarding the bus to Dallas

You said you gave it a go
It's time to go with the flow
Then I watched the bus
dissappear with sadness

Well the high plain's never tame
Life's not long there for the lame
And one can drown in the dust
of your sorrow

You can ride on and mend
But you will never be able
to bend
The land or the will that's known as Texas

So goodbye my dear friend
You can write but I'll never send
I'll be waiting for you
at the nexus

She walks like heat before the summer's storm

With waves of motion
that envy the oceans

She speaks in flocks of rising birds in unison

Leaving little to wonder
in the commotion of perfection

Her absorption of all internal leaves you exhausted but forgiven

For her meekness has inherited my world

And I who was once last will be a first in her heart

Listen . . . the thunder rolls announcing the coming of summer rain

And she walks like heat before the summer's storm

When the days have folded
When the book's spine breaks
When you no longer need me
Then the truth penetrates

Will away the foundation
Will out any discourse
Will you forsake me
Leaving me remorse


Every monument crumbles
Every one to sand
Every choice we've made
Turned out of hand

Life turns to what's lost
Life cannot be held
Life leaves us shortly
And it's just as well

Look not down the road hoping that I will come

I am placing down the final words and then I will be done

I will board the ship and it's sails will be unflung ,

as I follow my destiny into the last rays of the sun

With much more than reluctance I turn now to go

Chuckling to myself , I did put on a good show

As all good things will come to an end,

win , lose or draw I will miss most of all

all of my dear friends

I loved to ride my Schwinn bicycle
I guess I was only nine
I ride it down to the pond
where I spent a lot of my time

I also loved a girl back then
She had a dog named Polar Bear .
Of course it was white
Until it was run over
by a school bus whose driver didn't care

I loved living in Florida
The salt air from
the ocean there
When I left the Sunshine State
I left a huge chunk
of me back there

Now I am a hand in my pocket
Always reaching for something not there
Home is where you hang
your hat
But I found no pegs to hang it
Inside of your lair .

If only we could put poems
in a bucket
Then throw onto a raging
fire
Would the flames die out
Or leap even higher .

But it seems words cost us nothing
More plentiful than the grass on the ground
Our lives have become instrumentals
Where there are no words to be found

It's almost two am
in the morning
I hear the silence
of the forgotten
and forlorn
I see the endless
empty feelings
of being here
forgotten and
all alone

The evening
was so full
of promise
The laughter was
so natural
and carefree
I felt like I
had finally found
the place that
I was meant to be

But the people
soon paired into
their couples
The loud noise
had become
subdued
And by midnight
the room was
mostly empty
Empty as the feeling
it had left inside of me

So I left
and nobody noticed
No goodbyes
or see you again
real soon
I walked into the darkness
of the warm evening air
Realizing that I was
one of those
who had no one who cared

So put me on the highway
I've got no where
I have to be
More empty miles
of lonesome
on the road
called eternity

And I will now fake it
And I will somehow
learn to take it
Take it all back home
with me

So put me on the highway
I've got no where
I have to be
More empty miles
of lonesome
on the road
called eternity

I ran with the fleet footed
only to be left ever so far far behind

I sat with the quick witted
only to find out we are not of the same kind

I prayed with the most religious so devout that only for God had they any time


I am a tent maker
I fiddle as I so please
I am at ease with my maker
He says bless you
every time that I sneeze


I am never at ease with one or many many more
I guess it was that surprise punch to the gut so I am always looking out there for more

I make friends only slowly
But I'm quick to let go
I live where there is found soot on the surface of snow

I have a family but only by blood . My son lives in Boston
My sister died in Orlando

I exist in my nowhere in the middle of my state
Just waiting on circumstance
so someday I can escape


"I am what I am and that's all that I am"
That's what Popeye would be sure to often say
Of course that is considered now to be so passe


If all of the I's in "if" were unbound I think more people would be willing
to stand for their ground

But when the "f" is surrounded by words I think it has people thinking they have fallen down

So I will end now
I really must go
I will get back to you
As sure as the sun
melts the soot on the snow

Don't you want to touch me
Don't you want to feel my pain
Don't you want to swim down
the chanels of my veins
Can't you taste the poison
flowing slowly through the brain
Medication made in Hell
makes one feel like they're insane
Feel the sorrow baked into the marrow of the bone
Feel the lungs gasping for air
just to let out a simple groan
Feel the grip of depression
that comes from drugged induced
The voices nagging endlessly
Telling you there simply is no use
All because of asthma chronic though it be
You haven't given in to one
Hoping someday to be free

The seas are full
of all kinds
of beast

From the the
very biggest
down to the least

When asked to go
for a swim
at night

I look disdained
and full
of fright

For yes I no

Jack and Jill
ran up
the hill

And stoped
to frolick
in the bushes

Ever since Jack
spilled his beans
Jill has been getting larger

Yes I no

Everyone on the corner
was looking
to the sky

Jesus just then
came walking by
and stopped to ask them why

We're looking for
a sign from God
then they turned back to the sky

Yes I no

Ever the moments
of nothing
Lingering
as gray clouds
before a warm dawn
I feel at home
in loneliness
I see no need
for it
to be gone
Mulling over the
history
of the days
that I could never forget
Some make me happy while
others fill me with regret
It's between just me
and my maker
Who seems to always
be around
He allows the thoughts
to be resurrected
Before I put them
back underground

I am the father
to the son
who will become
the grandfather
of my soul

What I have
proclaimed today
leaves a statement
for the future
someday to be told

and when the wind
is released
it stirs ancient dusts
uncovering
a continuum to bind

Like the sins
that are covered then
we reach forward
back in time

to the father
found in me
will be the son
found later
down the line

Fire !

so it goes with anger

a ballerina

the forest

or my Catilina when she is jealous

for the moth

it is the gate to eternity

but for the wise moth

the secret to life

is to come back

with singed wings

Sands of time are the tiny rocks from the mountains I tread upon on my way down to the sea

So the Sony clock belched
out the seconds
It had been empty as another full day
The whipoorwill yelled
for Ubernation
while standing on his bones
of petrification
It seems dinosaurs never
really went away

Alleluia

How many times have I crossed the Mississippi ?
Only God will know now for sure
The same can be said of the continental devide
The land of summer snow
It's full of purple mountain majesty
It yaws at my imagination
Someday I will to go back for more

Hallelujah

Some people say you either love of hate me
There is found no middle ground
That has me often wondering
about judgement day
As I will be surely standing down
Will Jesus look at me and say I know you , won't you kindly stick around

Halleluyah !

I was the one
that came undone
At the very first signs of strife

I twisted
upon my cross
Praying for another chance at life

I tried and failed
then I wailed
please make me into another exemption

But the shadows cast
by the time
now have turned into perdition

So cast the sins
and the stems
Watch as they go up in smoke

I fan the flames
of burning ice
life is such a joke

I have no reason
just a feeling
In my being

The wipers are beating
fast as they can go
The rain is faster
blurring my vison
just like my division

Lightning flashes
illuminating my thoughts
on my failures and
reasons for driving in the rain

Water swirling down the gutters
Viciously hellbent on destiny
A juxtaposition compared to my life

A desert in a thunderstorm

I rose before the dawn
As Jesus did of long ago
But I rolled away no rock
Begging all my sins to go

The chirpping of the birds
Tends to let me know
That soon the sun will come
And the night will surely go

But in the stillness
Of my father's ways
I am counting down the blessings
Bestowed upon me today

And as the coming light
Lightens up my darkest days
I find that eternal peace
Has entered into my ways

I found a lingering thought
you left behind . . .
      dried blood , sinews and
a bottle of unkempt time .

Though they tried to stamp you out . . . Atomic has an edge when it comes to hot fallout .

They may have pound and beat the desk . . . but they take their place with all the rest .

Still you live beyond the glass and stone . . . everytime someone sings one of your songs .

The rose wood rose up in flames . The steel wires popped from the strain .

And all in silence watched refrained . . . as another star dimned and left us pained .

Winter's breath upon the flowers
Falling temps by the hour
Breathe in the icy air
Expelling such despair

Oh mighty winter
You do declare
That there is no power
to compare

But it is time for you
to be on your way
Don't you have a winter to attend
Half a world away

Let's cut to the chase
She was up in my face
Like the alcoholic eyes
And her bottle of mace

She lunged at my lips
But I was too quick
She fell on the floor
Smearing lip stix

Then she begged on her knees
"Why can't I fill all your needs ?"
She looked so pathetic
She was certainly not steez

Then when I had turned away
She grabbed the knife off the tray
And came at me
Before I could say ,"Hey !"

But she did stumble
And took an awfully bad tumble
And the knife point pierced
The heart full frontal

So the police were called
They arrived without stall
They asked "How did she die ?"
"Strangulation ! No lie !"

If you cast away your dreams
To the tides of the Ocean
To the Earth of Creation
To the birth of Mankind

There will never be sleep
In the valleys of redemption
On the pages of the book
The story of your life

You will walk alone in darkness
Stumble upon your thoughts
That you created in silver
From the Sun's Moonlight

Your path will be forsaken
By the clouds of the times
Your sparrow will wing it
And it will wing it alone

So open up to the truth
Let the vines climb out
Reach up and touch
The soul found inside

First you must step into
The void of the future
May it bend the hardwires
And light up your youth

I was not the original son
A first page
A number one
I was always the period
At the end
The quotation marks
That were left undone

I was the pause
That separates
That feeling you get
That you came too late
The one who stood
outside the door
When inside were passed
Out the fates

So I've come
To walk around
Those now living in the ground
Where in the dark there is no light
None to much to talk about
Just my breath the only sound

I have come here
To settle down
Upon this space
My hallowed ground
My favorite stone
upon which I sit
Beside the ties they left unbound

With the Dead
I hold my court
There are no groans
They don't exhort
The chase is done
The horns have sounded
Hark the chords of a la mort

Until dawn
A captive audience
I hold down
My midnight's deviance
Until first light
Threatens with
Complete radiance

No its not a play - upon a play
No words will I have assayed
To be beyond the mental test
Forth then would I be the rube
A clip then found upon Utube


Putin binaries upon the Hilliaries
Castrating the will of the majorities
Big Mac's and chicken in bed
The Fox dictates his next move
While he's contemplating his
next groove

Well America better wake up soon
They're bowing down to a baboon
But I get the feeling it's now to late
Better learn to bend over now
He's coming for the sacred cow

I'm
mixing alcohol
with . . .
my silver tears of fear

While . . .
I am
looking back on the agony
of my life
Whose demise
is drawing near

I dream of being Phoenix
with
red plumage and desire
to be
consumed
by the tears
I will have set
on fire

So . . .
let me pour another drink
and
rake the coals of strife

So I'll be
setting my tears on fire
while
waiting on new life

Once upon a time
Not so very long ago
I was wishing upon a star
Watching Mary's lamb
With down as white as blow

I laughed at Country Boy Eddie
For hours it must have been
We'd been up all the night
Indulging in our sin

They said we were full of crime
I said we were doing time
They were about to leave
Until I made another line

We laughed at Country Boy Eddie
For hours on an end
Daylight came creeping in
It was time to make amends

If you every saw the flick
"Once upon A Time In The West"
It was a western made
Perhaps it was the best

Brutal man can be
unlimited it seems to see
For Country Boy Eddie was laughing now
And he was laughing back at me

All the laughing stopped
There in the morning mists
It was a time to collect the debts
And sadly were they ever ******


There would be no tomorrow
No more credit would they let extend
An eye for just an ounce
See how far the bones will bend

A life for no more than a pound
A bullet between the eyes
From the boys that
Wear perpetual frowns ,
"It's time to say goodbye!"

There was no more laughing
Except on the TV screen
Country Boy Eddie was hee-hawing to himself
The morning now serene

I remember all the best
Deep in my midnight's rest
Now I remember the kiss
that brings tears to my eyes
I remember riding bicycles
Under October skies
Now there is no chance
No turning back
Or looking back to glance
Because you will not be there

So the memories have been
Written off the page
The recovery has all been staged
Turn your head and say
To the ghosts of another day
I wish you well
Just as when we were all so naieve
In our wildest dreams
we never thought to learn to grieve
Now all I can say . . .
I wish you well

Poets are made of bone , flesh and skin .
They swim in their folly
thinking in the end they will win .
They are having the best waste of time they've ever had
Locked inside their rooms
that have no walls
Saying nothing , nothing
Nothing at all


Prime time never arrives
Their latest masterpiece
Is so , so , so contrived
Best hope is they will die
long before they fall
After all . . .
It's nothing , nothing
Nothing at all

It was the best waste of time
they ever had

I run , I ran , off away
I am the seashore
made of waters
the sand at bay
I am the sky
the air you breathe
the winds of time
that you perceive
I am the rock
that breaks your feet
when life gets hard
you do so weep
I am the mountain
up you crawl
at the top
there's no place at all
I am the beating
of your heart
I can make it stop
or even start
I am the reason
you choose to perform
I gather dust up
before the storm
Don't ask me
what I do
ask that question
meant for you
I am , I am , I am
undone

Book of Poetry
ARIEL . . .  poems by
        SYLVA PLATH
published 1965 , two years after her death .


Tears are the toils
       I've taken
The splinter in your eye
       The rock
That your foot
        Stumbles upon

I was the albatross
         Around
The neck of your dreams
         Of oblivion

Was I the
         Ravager
Of the pure
         The innocent
The apple
         Of Desire


. . . was I

In the dark room without curtains on the windows
The bold have withered
like a fish out of water

I hid the moonbeams
cut their threads
without distinction
I hid your collection
of sharp things that made you subjective

(as the stars are so cold
representing a life that
was lost . The lost were the bold that paid at such a cost)

You made a promise
just so you could break it
You told a lie with red ribbons around pink carnations

So on the morning of deliverance you made an exception
Like the train down at the station you look good
in cold

Of lace and lice and straw for bed
You . . . a haunting spirit inside my head
If April is your cruelest month
Then December is surely mine
If only I were just a ghost
Unattached to a spiritual host
Where the air flows through me and though I be . . .

Unclear , unclean and disconnected . . .

I will pass through your life
as if in the subjective