Tie my shoes up tight
Taking my time
I'm in for a long night

Warm up on sidelines
Scoping it out
A fresh ball in my hip pocket
I be feeling stout

Drill it to **** it bout 3000 times
Never stepping outside the black painted lines
Of the lane
I was inside
Perfecting the stroke
The release
Is
Everything

But I'm in the waiting room
The lobby that is Court Two
Court 1 is where the men boom
And bang bodies and shoot
Lights
Out
Daggers

And if a man is there for long enough
And the ten go down a few
A few of the crew
Over on Court Two
Get called on to fill and finish the game up

My wind isn't great
My footwork is dodgy
My stroke is quite streaky
Go to the bank?
I'm wishy-washy

Can't box out for ****
My handles are average
But my defense is good
So I have some leverage

And on this particular evening
My shot felt real good
And I got a nod over
And played how I should

A pester on defense
I was covering two
To free up a big man in post
In the zoo

A transition pit stop on fast break
I pushed the ball up the court
The seven footer hits me in the corner
Shooting 100% from the floor

Then the men started to heat up
'250 bulldozer' in the lane
'Lights out on the arc'er outsider

I didn't touch the ball much
I'd basically given up
They played there often with chemistry
And I, just a pup

Got one pass at the end
That I wasn't expecting
I fumbled the friend
The rock had been misdirecting

But
All
Things
Said:
3/3 ~ 7 pts ~ 3 rbd ~ 1 blk ~ 2 stl ~ 2 ast ~ 2 to

And we take those

The background to the figure
The canvas to the background
The artist to the canvas
The muse to the artist
The figure to the muse
...

What if you discovered that the puppet master was just a tangle of other puppets...

Interconnectedness is paramount to who we are, to life itself
To get loose is not to get free -- to get free is to love the strings you keep

Mother Earth inhaling to life
Life exhaling to humanity
Humanity inhaling to me
Me exhaling to the mystery
The mystery -- the eternal breath

Just imagine if
There was no government
Goodness gracious
There'd be a lot to fear, wouldn't it?

Evil acting agents incognito and anonymous
Despondency'd be common all because of all the seedy peeps
Beady-eyed greedy-acting low power-hungry leniency
Inefficient industry, unreliable currency
Questionable access to guns
Leaving you feelin' unsafe in the city
Unjust evils everywhere
No one with the will to care
Probably cuz they can't get food and lack proper nutrition
Imagine what's left of school's a mess
No community build a fence
Overpay or hard to trade
Can't get rest
Unclean water, can't afford a home
You'll drink to both or smoke to dome
Jobs would be hard to come by but you could finally grow your own
Who not what you knew would matter
More than ever
No one would save us from nuclear fallout weather
No plumbing means the rivers'd fill with feces
People'd cut the trees in greed and leave invasive species
Death to all large native fauna
Replaced with vacant blacktop saunas
And half-cooked concepts that a goverment'd be better

The chains were forged for the poor

Blackness is nothing but a convenient excuse

Will you be saved by your skin tone when you are the new lowest on the totem?

Wake eat work play sleep

In a patterning in which an infinite number of variables could be considered
There is a why not for every why

The wars we don't acknowledge
Are the only ones that we prevent
Where there is a just cause for fight
Extend a smile, and play, crusader
For your enemy is your most vital friend

I skipped my first alarm this morning
I wasn't ready to open my eyes to a blank phone
Less ready to admit I cling to it
Can't fathom I cling to you

Now its time for work
And I only have time
To worry about my eggs

Was the seed in strife?
From pain did it then emerge?
It must lament death...

The cultivator
Was he then the seeds savior?!
Assurance of life

What conditioning!
For mere service to the God
Stripped when fruit was ripe

...Seed sows sorrow now
Bound to the cultivator
Eternal truth found

In strife it may be
But at least then it lived free
When some death seemed bound

And essential

You try to sell your soul
But you can't get no bread for it

Don't tell me
That the soul isn't trapped in a picture

I lifted up that dusty frame
To reveal those colors that reconstitute my form
I see what I'd call my smile there

And I know
That the soul
Is trapped
In a
Picture
...

The ink impregnated in time
Woe is me;  For there I am trapped
That moment is different to me now
That [name] should be dead
Yet there I am doomed to live
It was staring into the ink that winter
That I learned how to die
I practiced killing that picture

Joy
Does not come in to you
It comes out of you

Man sits with himself
Flower falls under his shade
Reminds him — look up

Blind men have few friends
See you with their heart…scary
Your mask won’t work here

Martyrs bear its proof:
They've already remembered
I's what they forget

As the world crashes
To the world I wish to see
Which me should I be

Great adversity
One perspective away from
Bountiful blessings

Picking apart nests
Does the cactus wren make friends
Some success you have

Little thistledown
As anxious as you and I
But never ill-judged

The great orator
With open ears I listen
For the wind speaks not

Why do you see death?
Winter is but the absence;
The mother of life

The steam yields as so
I slurp and gurgle my tea
Oh, jasmine blossom!

The cell phone rings once
But the ringing in my head…
...The sound of your voice

When the sun rises
It calls not for attention
But it sure does shine!

But which way is which?
A cardinal direction
Is an empty dream

The shade of the tree
Kills the acorn at its base —
What's an injustice?

See — the ant has learned
To pierce the silence fully
Still I try to speak

I went for a skate
Down to the grocery store
I forgot my shoes

Set your bundle down
Satori in an instant
Pick your bundle up

Persuasive noises —
But when you offered your ears
Then I was convinced

Everybody knows
But we all feign a defect
And that is our role

Volumes on silence…
You could fill a library;
Then what has been said?

Cast in my shadow
Walk toward the fleeting light that
Sparkles in my eye

Keystrokes in dim light
The moon is a winter’s cold
And I feel frozen

You frame the picture
But the picture is a frame
What have you captured?

Nothing requires
A fall leaf to pass through it
To become the sky

This morning I woke
And was excited to see
Squirrels under a tree

Thoughts disconnected
All you remember is one
Feeling you’re left with

Did it to myself
But I did it to you too
Glad you like "new you"

What do you do with
Thoughts that won’t leave about loves
That already have

Karma is a friend
Not a judge or a jury --
More like a suchness...

Standing in the rain
Trying to wash it away —
I’m made of water…

Don’t miss your cold love
Miss the warmth you let me feel
About myself —

Born a reflection
I see a light in your eyes
Primordial burn

What good’s being right?
I’m never farther from truth
Than in a judgement

Do you mourn the wind
As the particles pass by?
Their death brings spring-time…

When sheltered from rain
You’re fixed on the greys above;
Play in the puddles