Each person sees their own rainbow.
It is just for you,

Reflecting in its arc of colours
Your own uniqueness.

No-one else occupies your place on the planet,
Only you see the world through your eyes,

Your bow of light, refracted through rain,
Arches over the scene set before you.

Behold its beauty before it fades.

You don't even know you failed your spiritual test?
Treated me like one of your side projects –  left unfinished
You were surprised to find my self worth undiminished
You only devalued yourself and now your charade is finished
So take off on some other vision quest

You'll never even see how much you were blessed
Given so much more than you deserve
You could've had it all if you'd found the nerve
To keep the true course instead of swerve
Break promises and pretend you've done your best

Tore open my eyes and showed me you're no better than the rest
Just another coward claiming to be strong
And you proved to me that my heart was wrong
For my fire in your cold world cannot belong
You're not the hero I deserve and I won't settle for less!

when you have the feeling
the world is going on without you
no matter what you think or say
     or write
it’s better that you take
backward a step  or two   or three
look at yourself and what you’re doing
and simply cool it

you may agree with it or not
the world keeps turning
life is going on

unless you seriously want a change
and start a revolution

So the other day I put on my big, black hat and hobbled down town
(Yep, hobbled as I fell stupidly playing in the yard pretending as though I was a kid and tore a ligament)
I donned my black chucks and I was hot **** again for a while
I threw on that big fur coat my grams left me And a few of her gaudy jewels
Anyhow, I went down to "L" street and sat on that bench again
The one in that make shift "park" where they lined up a bunch of big rocks and called it good
I sat and looked at that giant lady painted on the side of that falling down brick building for more than a bit
"L" street, The bad part of town where you can get anything
Not named L street because it's L shaped, but because of a pill that apparently makes you Tripp
I guess you can or could get them there, the L pills I mean
So I sat there thinking and being mad
Staring at that giant, painted, brown woman
She advertises tobacco from 80 years ago and she's almost gone
Flaking and peeling,
Pieces of her lost to the wind, and to time itself
She smiles
And she's beautiful
And I hate her
But since I was 15, She draws me to her
That Tobacco Lady, with her smile, and red dress and feathered hair
She always smiles
When it rains, she smiles
When it snows, she smiles
Hell, when half the ******* town burned
That ***** smiled
I cry, she smiles....

That Tobacco Lady

I could count the grains of sand on the shore,
Through a straw, I could drink the sea dry,
But never could I stop loving you,
If commanded, I could not comply

I could move a mountain that blocked your view,
I could rearrange stars in the sky,
But never could I stop loving you,
It would be foolish for me to try

I could change the song of the birds at dawn,
I could dance on the flames of the sun,
But never could I stop loving you,
Certain deeds simply cannot be done

I could walk on water to come to you,
I could do anything that you ask,
But never could I stop loving you,
That would be an impossible task!

Someday I’m going to learn to speak up!
I swear I’m going to proudly reach up
And take back what is truly mine
And that day will be fine.

Someday I’m going to tell all the people
What I think that the bad people
Should not  be allowed to do
Like commit crimes on you.

I’m going to let people know exactly how I feel
And not silently pretend things aren’t real
That are hurting, denying, robbing
My fellow human beings.

Today I am going to change things
And appreciate what life brings.
Listen when the birds sing.
And what poets are writing.

Someday I am going  to raise my voice and sing out
Whenever there’s something to sing about
Even when there just seems to be
Something important to me.

I saw a woman on the bus today
She was scowling for all she was worth.
I found it impossible not to think
She had looked that way since birth.
She was openly starting and frowning at
A young woman less than half her age
Whose manner of appearance and actions
Seemed to set the woman into a rage.

The young lady was with her friends
But she was the happiest of the lot
Yet somehow her expressions of joy in life
Seemed to make the older woman hot.
I could tells he wanted to say something,
A coarse and disapproving kind of remark.
But she appeared to prefer to keep quiet
Even though here thoughts were obviously dark.

I sat next to the older woman and asked her,
“Do you know that girl standing right there?”
She frowned and told me, “Certainly not
I’m sure that type has nothing much to share.
Surely nothing godly or proper or polite.!”
I asked her why she felt that was the truth.
“There can be nothing good to come to her.
She’s obviously a major waste of her youth.

Look how she dresses and flaunts her ***
And don’t disregard how she makes up her face.
She doesn’t care if everyone knows that she
Is an embarrassment to her folks, a disgrace.
It’s disgusting how she wiggles her ****
In front of all of these ***** men to see.
She’s a ******* in the making, it seems.
At least that’s what she looks like to me."

I had so many things I wanted to say to her
To defend a young woman I did not know
But I made an instant decision that I
Would say nothing and let the moment go.
After all, the older woman had no regard
That times and changed and passed her by.
Nothing anybody had told her in life
Had made a difference, so how could I?

When I go out at night
trying to sweep up the stars
my woman grows weary
of the cold weather in me
she thinks I am with someone
else, but it is midnight
and I am alone with the moon
that woman in a red dress
standing on the beach
but you see, it is an empty
plate with no supper, or
maybe a piece of stationery
without a lover's phone number.

Dear Mr. Harlon Rivers,

When I was young,
I wrote like a young man,
With fervor and righteousness,
But heartfelt was not eloquent,
only self-satisfying.

Now that I am an old, old man,
My mind does the best it can,
Simple lyrics born in the poverty
Of a mind in an angular decline.

But never did I command the
Troops of this language that
You have under your command,
At this, your peaking, your apogee.

Your master key unlocks all
And set our souls soaring,
But yet we cannot reach you,
For you orbit at the point farthest
above our modest reach!

Your Admirer and Devotee,

_______

Please sign your name below if you agree.
You know how.