Before the dawn's display
Before the rooster calls
And horses neigh
Hot coffee on my breath
Wearing an old hat
that's old as death
I set out in silence
Into the dark
Full of grit/pure providence

Wearing a backpack
Full of life

I cross the faceless row
Feel empty blackness as it weeps
Dark moon has the sun in tow
As the cold icy air
catches on my lungs
Freezing my nasal hair

The frost makes step unsure
I cross the boardwalk
The distance is my lure
I came prepared
I came to my senses
I feel freedom in the cold freezing air

Wearing a backpack
Full of life

L - lingering , lost , luscious ,                        
            liberation , lavish , lasting

O - overt , open , often , official , orifice ,
      outstanding , outlandish

V - very , vertical , voluptuous , venoned      
      vivacious ,

E - every , effort , effervescence , epheral
     epitome , epitimy , everlasting

The clouds race golden
As be chariots
The sun is born
Like the deviants

As gusts of wind
****** the thoughts
Underdressed
The chest it coughs

While Major Clank
On wheels and stub
Bellows out and
Rubs the nub

Then by runes
the best made plans
Test the dikes
And angst of dams

The age of truth
The youth desired
Across the space
without the wires

The universe comes
In a box
Neatly packed
Shelved , detoxed

And all because
Annointed by rain
The blue sky morning
Clouds it's pain

Old age turns the page . . .
the leaf thrives from underneath
Days are made out
of hollow light . . .
night now remnants
of silence in grief

The air I breathe
once was your life
Yet our blood never mingled
Upon every page turns
the green leaf in air
The binding spine . . .
the trunk's despair

There upon the page
in black and white
his words speak to me

From the shadows
too distant to reach
I feel her embrace
on the page before me

I try to read
through the tears
in my eyes

My chest heavy
as I try to breathe

In poetic pain
I grieve

The vitalis males in pink and yellow
hover over yesterday
in their penny loafers
Only ****** in action
certainly not in thought
Some would go to war to die
others became insurance salesmen or land developers
who would grow up and go
to casinos in Mississippi or New Jersey
Their perma pressed smiles
talked of football championships
that they loved almost as much
as deer hunting and certainly more
than their beauty Queen runner up wives
who took sleeping pills all to often
just before "goodnight"
Success was written on their foreheads
and in their wallets in plastic
Real manly words became gym talk
exposed like lashes on the backs of those who built this nation and raised our children
Talk is as cheap as Chinese steel that will be made in America again !
Ain't that gteat !

Down by the river
Fog dances and swirls
To mists in thought

Down by the river
Swims the desires
we keep hidden deep

Down within the river
Flows the hardwired
reality that speaks

Dance fleet shadows
of souls heavenly
they seek

Down by the river
ache and heartbreak
forms swirling clouds

Down by the river
rising from the tears
we weep loud

Let us dance
our lives radiant , free . . .
Down by the river

I wanted to shout
to jump about
To sing and dance
like a lady from France
I wanted to cry
My chest swelled with pride
I felt me saying goodbye
to the poets I knew that died

I felt the pain
of the pleas to refrain
The ache of love
The fickle dove
The reason to write
was all encapsulated
Bloodletting , begetting
I so was so related

Where once the rows of corn grew
Now grow rows of fast food joints
Minimum wage factories
were underprivileged kids line up in
rows with no other ability

I used to go to the river
to row my worries away
Now I get up on plane
and set down
before I can change my mind .

The county went bankrupt
They stole billions of the people's money
Now they line up at the
unemployment line
row after row

Section C , row 24
Right behind the concrete column
Waited for this concert
But hey
It's just the way it goes

Day after day
row upon row

I am the moment before the sun
I am the light you see on a dark moon
I am the eye of a typhoon

I taught the birds to fly
I taught the child to ask why
Who am I

I put the steps into caterpillars
Showed the leaves how to fall
Tore down every wall

I ran with the Buffalo
Dove with the whales
Know who I am then do tell

I am the dirt beneath your feet
The sky so tall
I am the fly upon your wall

I am the ache in your head
The pain in your heart
I know when to end  , when to start

Who am I

I dream of a giant green grasshopper
clinging to tall weeds in Selma
Where huge fields of red clover
grew in the hot summer heat

I dream of Texas
where I made my first memories
And lived in a vastness for someone
of three seemed like eternity

I dream of the oceans of Florida
where waves made love to the sand
As I gazed across the horizon
life is forever in this land

I climbed the mountains of Washington
to the top of the snow covered peaks
I thrilled to the sight of the sunset
And felt the hand of God touch me

I dream of the tall grass prairies
I walked through in Kansas
Like a sea of grass rolling
in the winds of the Plains

My temporal eternity
lives on in my dreams
As I get older there is less life
And the more I do dream

For my last dreams
I dream of the future
May it be be as beautiful
as the eternity I leave

The one handed thief ran out of the bank and jumped into the getaway car only to realize it was a four on the floor with stick shift .

The one handed thief held his gun on everyone as he looked at the bag of money on the floor .

The one handed thief looked at the bank
and said I know the layout like the back of my hand .

With an evening breeze
lifting your hair to rise
Leaving your smile on lips
I lose my disguise

Follow the twilight
twinkling fireflies
using shadows to hide
Peeping pixies go sigh

I love your undulation ,
thoughts are accerbating
The notions turn into touch
Your crush so embracing

You wore cherry flavored
lipstick head to toe
To this feat my tongue
was to be in the know

We embraced
in moon mountain time
Saving starshine sparkles like
Diamondhead of the mind

Dogs come wagging , sniffing cuffs
Then one howls , enough is enough !

Crows kaw kaw , 21 point buck I saw
The sky is warm wandering

Black man picks blues on porch
Sings about love's searing torch

Cow patty pastures , fire ant hills
Pastoral soothing wills

Red clay dust , powdered road
Goldenrods and one lost toad

Southern pines standing straight
Pulp's fiction tempting fate

My ! My ! smiling sigh
Where the wild wood flowers do grow

He walked the streets a begger
they buried him like a king
he played a six string guitar
he wore no golden ring

She had the voice of angels
survived a valley called death
then fearing no evil
she passed every test

They wrote the songs with sunsets
they walked the line together
they stood in a ring of fire
in love they burned forever

She said yes but it sounded like a no to me . . . Feathers make the toes giddy . . . Goodbyes make you weep . . . we bottled up sunshine in empty plastic bags . . . Friday was the first day of the beginning of the week . . . Doc said your tonsils have to go . . . they were supposed to go out with your adnoids last week . . . the storm was catastrophic . . . we cut up trees for twenty weeks . . . I had her engine running . . . purring like a kitten . . . as I stroke her fur she said that she was hot and sorely smitten . . . then she pulled me on top of her . . . "You can kiss me now", she said . . . the wind was howling just outside the shed . . . the lightning flashed across our faces . . . the thunder shook the bed . . . the Saturday Evening Post . . . the pictures I so attentively read . . . when she said she was finished with me , then I finished up with her . . . the storm had passed leaving life now in the dust . . . still her yes it lingers . . . saintlike in the vaults of memory . . . you should have said "no" to yourself and returned the book to the presence of the shelf .

He would appear and disappear
without a sound
Would stare at the stars
all night long
Sleep on the cold desert floor
Eat peyote buds
and sing war songs
He was rich
in all the nothing he had
Identified as a thunderbird
The animal spirits
were sacred in his world
Asked about gold
and he would scorn
Holding up water
the most precious
in all forms
I called him Navaho
        NO !
Call me Dineh !
So I did

Who bends the wind
folds it up
puts it in the envelope
then will send

Who gathers the sun
like a flock
bottles it then
says it's done

Who ropes my emotional
ties it and then binds it
in black and red ribbons
it's not fictional

Who teases the vessel
filling the void
where even the left
has a right to wrestle

Come vapor ***** . . . dream
permanate . . . decorate
you titillate in love's
sweet scheme

When ? Then I am left alone
the walls still stand
The night wails as comes the dawn
The heart longs for home

Hello ,
Take my hand . . .
we will step out
onto the stars and run
across the Milky Way

We will swim
in the pools of
glistening light and
share to our heart's delight

We will catch comets . . .
putting them in our pockets
making wishes
along the way

We will visit the darkest moons
and give them light
from far across the galaxies

But the most heavenly light of all
will reside in your smile

Will you walk this way
Will you leave open the door
Will you be more than just the reasons
that you implore

When you look inside
When will you separate the appriations
When will you part and devide
all the suppositions

"I am this today
  I am that tomorrow
  I am anything as long
  as it doesn't cause me sorrow"

"I am as fickle as the sun
  I am sunshine , sometimes storm
  I am the moon's false reflection
  that falls upon the praise that you adorn"

So who is it that walks through the door
So whose mask will you wear today
So who will fall for your insidious lies
that you so disrespectfully diplay

What a way !

Sometimes I like to sit in the dark all
alone . In the silence of my room .
Listening to the thunder in my head
and
the flashing of my thoughts against
the walls of my past . Soaking in the
resolutions of the pouring down disdain .

You catch the eyes of innocense
as you clip the time
in insolence with a smile

Nothing makes you happier
than to see the distress
when you so beguile

Soft and swift you tantalize
the precious lips of love

You nibbled on the ears
while whispering "Only if you please"

You daze and confuse like
the early spring's
cold winter fog

You lie in wait
for your chances
like a five string guitar

Oh ! No one is safe
as you strike another chord

No ! Not even the words
that go aching for the page

Not even the message texted
across the lost one in the maze


The camel made it through
the needle of the eye
He said "Nothing to it"
just before he died


There is a lesson to be learned
in the hollow of our minds

That there will be a tomorow
I can guarantee that in time

But only if you don't
step on the trip wire attached
to the watermelon's vine

So be careful
in everything you do
Or you might wind up wearing
camel hair coats and shoes

Once upon a time I wrote poetry
To fill the emptiness that did reside

Once I learn to say how I felt
Long after the tears had mostly dried

Once I marveled at what I could write down
I even marveled at the rthym of the sound

But now the words falter , stumble at the gate
They no longer please me , I take it as my fate

Their purpose has somehow been denied
And to continue on a fruitless path would be living in a lie

So I take stock and close the book and put away my pen
For I will not be found in grace on page written in poem again

Once I was lost but now I'm found

You were my Queen of Hearts
A top card to draw
My Queen of Diamonds
In the ruff
The best I ever saw
Turned out
You were just a lump of coal
And just as cold
The Ace of Spades
With a very blackened soul
You made a Joker out of me

old poets
never die
nor do they
fade away
they live
on and on
every time
you turn
the page

We fell into bed on an instance
No need for introductions
We left all of those behind
In the bar of inconveniences

As we fumbled in the words
"My place or yours ."
She reached into a pocket
Lined in purple satin promises
And handed me her keys

I open up your letter
and I read your every word
I found them quite unsettling
for it was just yesterday
That they put you in your grave

Should I keep these empty pages ?
After all now you have gone
*** MARKED FOR A MAKEOVER
"I can change and bring you
a brand new beautiful song ."

But your chorus has been depleted
There are no more a capellas
The voice of the turtle will remain mute
As you prefered living inside your bony shell


Then I said to you , "Now do I really give a hoot ?"


So I threw your letter into the can
That's where the trash belongs
I know I will never forget you
With that thought I will be moving on

Let me walk upon the mountains
Swim the raging streams
Let me run once again
With the tumble weeds of dreams

Let me embrace the heavens
Such a starry feast
Let me embrace my creator
I'm overpowered and I weep

Let me stand inside the sunset
Embrace it in all it's warmth
Let me hug my sister moon
As I listen to wolfen cries that haunt

Let me ride the crest of waves
From the ocean blue
Just let me be on my way
My comet returning now overdue

If you will kindly forget about me
I will do the same for you

The music popped
The music skipped
The needle rode the Mad Mouse
Around all week

Play again
The melody keeps
A win win
Because no one weeps

Bereft due breath
Love thy enemy
Life tastes best
In brevity

Catch me when I fall
Let me fall in spring
Winterize my visions
Turn off my dreams

One more time
Let it play again

The snow shivered in the heat
Tears fell from crystalline eyes
so white . . .
. . . the mountain gathered them up
and let them roll down his back to
the river . . .
. . . the river said ,"I'm overpool but I will make room for one more . . . or thousands  . . .
The crystalline tears mingled with the red mud and became blood brothers . . . and they flowed to the mighty sea . . .
. . .  "Welcome to my domain my little one's . I knew your forefathers and mothers from long ago . Here you will do my bidding as long as you stay . Here my windy friends will make froth out of you . And my big brother Sun will bake you and my sister Moon will entice you with dreams that can never be . All are here to test you , burn you , pull you apart , toss you around until you are ready to follow in your parents footprints . . .
. . . so the Sun scorched and the wind blew hurricanes in the east and typhoons in the west and the moon by night gave false hope in the way of impossible dreams and the ancient Sea watched all without saying a word . . . .
. . . then came the day the Sea was satisfied and said ,"Leap up my little ones , your day has come , ride the clouds to your new home . Some to the north , some go to the south , the rest go east and west . Take your precious gift to the land who is dying for your taste ." And one by one the tears lept into the clouds and ladened it's burdens and the winds cartied them away to the Plains and Forest and Valleys and to the Mountain Top . There the tears fell and froze and collected on the north face of the
mountain and the mountan was was glad .
"Welcome home my lost little one's . I'm so happy I could cry ." . . .  and he did .

Mary owns a bakery
So plump and dough boy round
She likes to check out movies
For there's no one else around
She drives an old Toyota
That's seen it's better days
The horn has been broken
The radio never plays
Mary has many pets
Two dogs and lots of alley cats
And one used up circus clown
Pees off the porch out back
She likes to take her pets for rides
Sometimes they go downtown
To the city parks where her dogs
Dump upon the ground
Joe was Mary's older brother
He died in Me Lei , Vietnam
She has a younger brother
But it's been some time
Since he has been around
Once Mary got an offer
To run the library on the green
She procasternated until it was to late ,
the job was filled by Mr Clean
Mary had a boyfriend
But that was long ago
Now she eats buttered popcorn
While the movies roll on and on
With a cat purring on her lap
Two dogs sleeping by her feet
It's Sunday morning rising
And the clown gives me the creeps

She said ,"If you don't love me any more I'd understand ."

WHAT ?

WHAT !

I wouldn't understand  if I didn't love you !
Love you forever !

Humph ! Here I wake up thinking about your ******* , while they may be small I'm sure they are large in enthusiasm . And I would like to kiss them to find out .

Ummmmmmmm ! . . . yes they do taste good . And they vibrate with life , teasing my lips with a tingling sensation that causes me to lick my lips , wanting more .

And now you say I don't love you ?
Nor would it surprise you if I didn't ?

You must be the ballerina who tiptoes through life to the applause and adulation of a cheering mass only to doubt it's sincerity .

Oh me ! My manners have flown the nest !
Good morning ! How are you !

There's gold dust in the palms of your life
It glitters as the winds wish it away
You cannot measure the merit of a man
In bone , blood , and flesh
But by his mark made on the stones
Through the eyes of eternity

I was told a brain on poem was a terrible thing to waste . To which I retorted ,"Which one is wasted?"

Lost soles .
       . . . never free . . .
Follow me . . . see . . . have no fear .
           But you have handed me  . . .
one left shoe and a-not- her .

Come old lady who lives in the shoe . . .
Where are your children ? ? ?
. . . a little unsteady ?

Lost soles to memory , like Kentucky lightning on a warm Alabama night .
All hail the underdog .
All hail  . . .

The first left one fits nicely
But the right foot has disagreement . . .
feeling he has been left out .

No one understands her
                                           she is young

She is cloud and free
                                    greets all with a smile
saying ,"Kisses my friend"

She lays naked in thought
                                             with hands so cold
that cut like knives

Fangs in vein
                       as she ***** the breath
out of your world
                               with oleander kisses

Hey ,
he's the old man
with a pair of mental scissors
Snipping away at the
picture perfect reality
he perceives as the truth
Hey ,
she's the old lady
hard of hearing
who clings to the unreality
that all is as it should be
Hey ,
they are the reasons given
for all the good intentions
that do more harm than good
Hey , hey ,
. . . . hey ,
It is you reading these words
in all your disguises
that are trimming the truth
to make it fit
inside the lies
Hey ,
It is me lastly ,
snip , snip , snip . . .
snip .

Befuddled
      (as if)
I was walking on the rain

The rain
     (so cold)
Was it fog or the
     (formation)
of another
     (lost)
and listless soul

Even snow
     (falling)
would be warmer than this

I speak of the
     (blackness)
far beyond the absence
of the light

Truly staggering the
    (immensity)
of the nothingness
that swallows whole
everything in sight

Jesus walk upon the water
I just walked upon the rain

Yet he stood upon the
    (firmament)
I just stood upon it's
     (soaking)
pain

The boards creak and moan
from time and poor carpentry
The nails gripped by aged wood
have become crust collected and
shrunken to form

The bare walls once displayed
the smiling faces
of past eons but now
there are only the faded remnants
of square foundations
of lives that once
hung on the wall

The stairs complain
like an old man
from unsubstantiated fears
The second floor
seems solid only responding
to the remarks of my shoes

The old bedroom
once the center of attraction
overlooks the buckled sidewalks
and **** infested yards
of a street that now has no cars
or people passing by

I stand in silence for the moment
and the moment stands silent for me
And for that moment
I lay in time's eternal graveyard
in hopes of reviving dead dreams

What makes a poet ?
That was my thought
I mulled it over and
Came up with these oughts :

Late nights with
coffee , tea or beer
Perhaps harder stuff
Whiskey , smoke or gin clear

And the struggles and pain
as the birth is exclaimed
Blood , sweat and tears
Falling as hard as ice on rain

Confessionals made
As black on white page
Love , death , fears
Even extreme rage

One who struggles
with the a's and the's
Should one even use
The apostrophe

One who's words
Gel by the witching hour
Words full of promise  
Warnings so dour

But perhaps greatest of all
Before even the start
One must have
a true poet's heart

The little girl
wearing a Navy blue dress
with a white collar
and black patton shoes
holds a red
helium balloon
as she walks down a path of clouds
through the vast wilderness
of space and time
representing life on overtime
a second home on a lake
a souring career
living with a man she is married to
but doesn't love anymore
and may never have
sings the song
"Twinkle Twinkle , Little Star"
and she is wondering
just how far

50 - 50
half and half
almost there
but never close
Frustration tastes
sweet
in bitter milk
Exasperation boils over
She skins that pelt

As reckless bound beauty
belies the exhaultation
of standing on the edge
of eternity
God ! There is freedom
in the temptation of the fates
One must kiss the lips of death
to live

Amethyst ,
Greek for not intoxicated
A gemstone of violet colored quartz
once believed provided protection
against becoming intoxicated

Black Butterfly , a book about transformation and rebirth after death
But I don't know where the stripper
drama comes in
The rest is life ,
compartmentalized
into daily drudge

Oh , but for the last dregs
of glory
at the bottom
of the bottle of life

The electric breath that once
activated every nerve cell
of your being
into ecstacy
has become a distant emoticon
that was once closer
than shadow thin
But now has become the one
living in a graveyard
with hopes
of raising dead dreams

Freeborn ?
Nay ! Born in *******
to the wiles of life
in ways we need to understand .

Only rebel
against the iniquities we bear
as scars across our mental backs .

Freedom is at best
a dream that's dreamed
in the solitude
of howling winds
"as the times they are a'changing"
but never really does

Window screens filter the outside from the within . And they allow what's inside to escape . Daydreams are filtered in our thoughts . Allowing passage between two worlds , physical and not . But window screen daydreams can be trapped by an invisible barrier , a pane of mental glass on the inside or out .

Awesome feeling ,
witnessing God's power ,
your own fear ,
knowing no one can save you .
You're really all alone ,
but one must
keep tracking on .

Nomad ,
a wanderer ,
never remaining static .

One at home
with their environment .

At peace with their creator .
Probably made
from shooting stars .