She is the shadow of her shadow;
A hard green tomato on an October vine;
Like last year's silver tree tinsel;
The inescapable smell of a house housing cats;
A smoker's car;
An arthritic leaf, twisting in early December;
The runny nose of someone's toddler;
An empty gurney in a hospice hallway;
Or the last dark spike impaling dawn.
Hanging on and hanging in.
Not knowing. Not going.
Still here.

Must I be blind before I see
Deaf and dumb with ears that bleed
Call on the young to intercede
On what lies in front of me

Die to all before they hear
Wipe away the infants tears
Hold up the lonely widows fears
Note to self the way is clear

Bring about all that is left
Take this moment to clear my head
Whisper loud what others said
Laying in my unmade bed

Clear my throat and breath in deep
As memory escapes from me
I grab a few before they leave
And let those go that won't let me be

To keep in time strike up the band
See those in need help if you can
From the dead of night to the bird in hand
Every speck of dust, every grain of sand

If you don't mind could you find
I wish I may I wish I might
Give it away without a fight
That which is of pure delight

We don't know our Best Before Date,
And that's a good thing.
But if you're in the Dairy Section,
Fire on all udders,
Don't kowtow to bullies.
Remember, the herd has your back.

If you find yourself in Produce,
Then produce;
Don't be content being
A pea in a pod.

There are the cereal killers,
Using wry wit,
And Rye Not.
Many are marbled and flat,
But not us,
We're Christmas Cake,
We Endure.

ME, I'm in the Meat section,
An offering of flesh and smoke
On the BBQ altar of rendering.

Yes, we have a definite shelf life,
Growing stale, curling at the sides,
Drying out,
Souring and curdling
Till our expiration date.

You can give only smiles too
Instead of any gift to anyone

Smiles make them richer in terms of happiness

At a glance, all you see is a dancer
Making her way across life's stage
With multiple questions to fill in blank answers
Never quite sure of what she should say

Dancing away all her troubles
That bubble up inside her brain
It's hard to keep count with the sound of doubt
Being the tune that continually plays

That's why she's a bit off in rythme
Explains the half-empty smile
Still, she'll keep on in her dancing
Until the day her feet completely leave the ground

Where she'll dance with the night to the stars delight
As they wait in line for their turn
To twist and to twirl with this Galaxy girl
With the answers to questions she’s finally learned

Ever find oneself in a situation
Where one's completely caught.
The evidence is overwhelming,
The witnesses so incredible;
One's on the gallows of one's own design.
One knows it,
No matter how sorry one feels for oneself.

Even the phrase, Never Give Up
Gives no meaning to hope.
One is spiritually destitute.
Morals, ethics et al all good.
Head mixed up, but operational.

… and... and...

One's alone with one's thoughts,
Perhaps for days, weeks.

… thinking... thinking...
... searching... searching...
... for
A solution requiring a solid, tight ally;
Brother, sister, close friend - closest -
And it worked, but for one thing:
The ally must die,
By one's own hand.

They appear,
They seem,
They presuppose
With their ink to emphasize
My dreams
With the task of following lines,
Connecting routes,
Filling in blanks.
I add sighs to words,
Words to screams
That come from someplace deep and quiet.
They seem,
They appear to assume
You will understand me.

We tagged him Candle Sticks,
Called him that
When he was six.
Snot oozed down
Around his lips.
It was one of those taunts
That seamlessly sticks.

When he ran in the race,
He finished dead last;
His pants fell down,
Exposing the ***,
Of a hometown clown.

Many times I'd see him
Standing in the movie line,
Taking his aisle seat.
Or stocking butter and cheese
In the dairy case at Foodland;
Or under the bridges,
On a bench, watching the freighters
Power on to foreign cities;
Smiling at the fishermen casting their lines.

I think I saw him cry,
In the library, reading the local paper
In a secluded carrel.

I heard he walked to the Bridge,
And jumped.
Candle Sticks.
It stuck.

I gaze upon my comrades, at the places where they lay
A young man lies beside me with blood upon his face
“I can’t see you friend” he says “because my wound has left me blind
But I beg you to write the words I say and send them to my wife”

“My darling I have left you but I leave you with these words
I love you now and for ever, hold our children close for me
It should never have ended in this way
In a fight for liberty

I am not alone as I depart this life
Many friends lie with me, here on every side
I know not what we fought for or why we had to die
I hope we did not die in vain but I know not the reason why

A young man writes these words for me but I cannot see his face
He will tell you darling in my death there was no disgrace
With my comrades I fought bravely but we never had a chance
We stood and faced the enemy without a backward glance

I can hardly speak the words, blood has filled my mouth
My new friend here will bury me facing to the south
I am scared my darling I did not want to go
I must leave you soon for a place I do not know”

I wrote the words for that young man with the his blood upon my hands
For I’m the one who killed him as he made his last stand
Did I hate him? No for he was my countryman
We fought because a civil war had split our once united land

Yes I killed him dearest sister in the cruel and ****** fight
I would rather it had been me because you are his wife
Brother fighting brother, father fighting son
Has our god deserted us, has the evil won

This fight between the north and south, between the blue and grey
Will god ever forgive me for what I did this day
I will bury him facing south as he asked for it to be
I hope that when it is my time they’ll do the same for me.

One last snowflake
And the roof collapsed.

One last raindrop
And the levee cracked.

One last grain
Before life is breathless.

One last kiss
To seal my blessings.