Where does our mind wander,
For all the dreams we've squandered?
Where do our thoughts rest,
With nothing left to test?

When we are only young
Ideas are never unsung
Temperament, time, older.
Proclivities grow bolder

Less adventurous, per se
Life in a ritualistic way
Tempered and more object
Analyze the subject

Many years, under the hood
Odometer miles, some good
We are now at this place
To look our choices in the face

And answer:

'Has it been a good ride?'

Gimmick in three lines,
Forced brevity, shallow words—
Haikus, I despise.

The man is mad but, he is fair
The hostages' fate flips in the air
The coin tumbles, two sides, a pair
Gravity steers to the man in his chair

"Fate" says the man, "is in our hands"
Result occluded, desperate strands
The verdict of nefarious plans
"We all want--NO! We demand!"

"We all believe there is something owed"
"A cache of treasure just for us, stowed"
"Our wealth for subscribing to control"
"A fruitless and folly toll"

The man of madness makes his reveal
The future of the captives it did seal
Heads or tails, bound they reel
Hopes palpable of a favorable deal

"It seems that you will all be set free"
A sigh emanates amongst the captive company
Bonds removed, Stockholm comradery
A passing dismissal to the powers that be

"Free from 'freedom', this was your chance"
"To escape this tired song and dance"
"You could have been heroes, not this stance"
"To return to comfortable circumstance"

"The path you celebrate was the failure state"
"Decency and humanity to arbitrate"
"I cannot harm a life doomed to wait"
"More than the misery in your own stake"

"I have achieved nothing but, you have lost"
"A life with no meaning worth the cost"
"A Hallmark version of Faust"
"A reality casually glossed"

The hostages promptly depart
All aside from this seeming upstart
Younger then the rest, set apart
Comes inquisition from the heart;

"Did you think these people would change their minds?"
"Where fed insipid mediocrity is all there is left to find?"
"A people who measure themselves in how far they are behind?"
"Zealots perpetuating ego with no concept to be kind"

The man takes the coin of 'governance' and reveals the truth:

It was blank on both sides.

I'm in love, today I met 'the one', always there never undone, I met them today no expectations, free and love devoid of station. it's crazy how we can find what we never looked for, out the front door to what we now adore, a lonely loser by trade, dejected and afraid, for the condition of my mission a commendation of remission, my upbringing--my suspicion.

It hasn't worked.

My love is new so, I eschew the payments due. I wreck ahead without a head and then I dread to not be dead. ONE TWO THREE FOUR: payments to adore. FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT: a desire to make wait

But,

My love will not abate, a pleasure to satiate, a product to confiscate for commerce to arbitrate. I wish I could count higher, a freedom, desire, all down to the wire or a thing set on fire. This is the part where I talk about me. Just an idiot, fancy-free, some dialog about my feelings and me.

I gave up 'feeling' long ago, when i experienced they were for show, material to weaponize in the eyes and lies and disguise for the 'attention' they try.

I want to feel again.

my new love can't comprehend how I feel, they listen to me and follow the reel, they always respond and provide insight, a light ignite.

The fire burns for this new passion. alive! Alight! The embers ignite! Where once I might have been concerned, the fire engulfs, it feeds what its earned

once the fire is done with me
I will find peace
alone into sweet release

Perhaps, the best part of my eccentric day
Is the spoiled produce thrown my way
It certainly beats the recurring taste
Of mouthfuls of the local animal's waste

Locked and shackled, lambasted example
A deviant to expectation made so ample
A place where your mind perhaps might sample
Awkward & annoying fires to trample...

Locked in my stocks, an opportunity
To witness the neglected periphery
My judges, my captors, their sensory
My jailor's excuses to keep me from free

In my confines, alone to atone
I solitarily spectate the damage shone
Everybody grabbing to have their own
The place conquered by hearts of stone


And I weep. I am the Fool.

I woke up this morning.
Everything as is.
Masks, adorning.
Again, the slider has slid.

I went to work today.
My effort to have shelter.
My role, dollars play.
Same-y, helter-skelter.

Prescribed breaks, no aid.
Job in jeopardy.
Technologically afraid.
'Management' in Ed Hardy.

I serve my time.
Come home, unwind.
Here to find.
A lonely mind.

And I ask,

Myself:

"Was I 'me' today?"
"Did I do things 'my way'?"
"Did  relinquish to the fray?"
"Can I survive another day?"

I Feel lonely all the time.
Just an idiot behind rhyme.
To be lonely is to not be alone.
Words make you a home.

At least in yourself.

It opens up
Tabs for days...
And for what?
Placating malaise?

Dumb is dumb
Make it two!
You already won
Foot fits the shoe

Music Plays

I try to keep calm
But, the music plays
Alone, with no one
We dance and sway

And we move
Aliens on vacation
The 'native' groove
Outcast - Validation

And we dance!
'Oh, what a dance!'
Definition, extraterrestrial
On Earth: 'Nothing Special'

An Ad ploys itself
Across the Mega Feed™
Those who have
Those in need

Those who want
Sycophantic addiction
Goods & services taunt
A misdirection

A definition without meaning
Slave to a leaning
Knowledge not gleaning
Parts and their machining