It's a cold, cold world.
Better be careful, little girl.
The earth will swallow you in whole.
Even in the comfort of your home.
Only the strong survive.
So where do people like me reside?
Starving for greatness in my purpose.
Cold night breaks me down to consider if it's worth it.
There's a demon inside to tell me otherwise.
Want to feel special. Want to feel alive.
Is there really a light?
Or have I been tricked by the illusion of life?
The fights in my mind of good and evil.
What to believe is not that simple.
Eyes sewn shut by the devil.
Suddenly my dreams are in trouble.
Is there really a light?
In the deep of night, out of sight.

I don't feel too safe with these walls down.
I think love is coming for me now.
Filled with thoughts but none are coming out.
Do you look at me like I'm your bait?
Will you tell the truth or make me wait?
Common sense is blurred in fear of pain.
I can read the message on your face.
Anyone out here could take my place.
Light is dimming in this long tunnel.
Running blind and covered in rubble.
Still pleasure in this pain as I fumble.
Where am I to go?
Will I have to go alone?
On a repeating flow.
Forgot everything I know.

I find myself
questioning what comes after,
the eyes roll back
and the lids stay closed.
I find myself
looking for the hereafter
tripping over bones.
Reflections staring back at
my soul,
as if there's something wrong.
I find myself
on the other side,
can't seem to coincide
with my other life.
I divide,
multiplying override.
Losing track of time,
my mind don't seem to mind.

This black and white place
is missing the grey space,
I pace with a ******* face.
Stuck in hereafter,
I wonder what comes after.

With Easter approaching it made me think of a little girl I used to babysit
Her father was one of the Russian hockey players here in Detroit
I'm not really sure of what they believed about God
but they didn't attend church at that time.

While her father was away, playing hockey in Germany
due to a lock out in the NHL
and her mother was out of town,
I found myself alone with her on Easter weekend.
I knew I wanted to attend services, so just before bed one night
I approached the subject of God with her.

She was young, probably 7 or 8 at the time,
so initially she was afraid.
I think she said something like if God came to her front door
she would get her Dad & he wouldn't let him in.
Her Dad was a fairly robust defensemen, so God would surely
no better than to mess with him lol.
I went on to explain as best as I could that God was her friend.
Of course we also discussed how we can't see him
and what Heaven is,
and who knows what really went through that pretty little head of hers,
but she did listen intently.

We went to church, I was able to even get her in a dress,
a true miracle in itself as she was quite the tomboy back then,
She didn't say a great deal, and no doubt at such a young age
she had little if any real understanding,
But now she is a young woman,
a believer in Christ, living an amazing life,
an encourager,
strong like her father,
and I can't help but hope a little
that those tiny seeds I planted so many years ago
may have helped shape her into the person she is today.

A few years back she shared with me on facebook
a little poem I had given her before they moved out of state.
The poem was worn & tattered
but to know that she had held onto it after some 15 years
is one of the greatest gifts she could have ever given me.
I may never have children of my own,
Not always an easy thing to accept,
But I do thank God for the time I was given
in helping to raise such a beautiful girl.

Look Back in Petulance

A Kitchen Microwave Drama
Featuring Angry Young Persons

Dramatis Personae:

Rainblossom – an existential performance artist

Skydream – a self-authenticating air-vegan

The stage is set as the world of our dreams, peopled with only the good who dream dreams and vision visions and, like, you know, and don’t eat our forest friends, and stuff.  The actors are dressed in hand-dyed Colombian ruanas to represent The True.

Rainblossom –

I demand that you validate our soul!

Skydream –

As a cosmic sunbeam of otherness

I must not.

Rainblossom –
                       O where are my comic books?

Skydream –

They have been cleansed, just as my soul has sung
Unto the Cosmic Dissonance of love

Rainblossom –

Oh, Oh, Oh

Skydream –

                     Look, Look, Look

In unison –

                                     A vision of…Truth

Rainblossom –

But our truth, not some other bogus truth

Skydream –

                                                              ­                 Woke, Woke


                                                 fin

*The writers, cast, and crew of The Green Street Meadows Collective of Artists and Workers with Fists and Dreams and Words United Against the Occupation (Your Major Credit Card Welcome) neither need nor desire your cheap, shallow, bourgeois, sexist, racist applause to validate our existential worth. Be in awe, and then slink away in your individualist privileged guilt.

Blah-Blah-ing in the Age of Blah-Blah-Blah

No, this is not The Age of: Hefner, Clinton,
Obama, Trump, Harvey, Putin, Kim, Xi
Trolls, polls, super bowls, or cinnamon rolls
Kurz, Kaepernick, Ginger, or Mary Ann

Nor yet again an Age of: Gold or lead
Bronze, pewter, silver, nickel, aluminum
Chrome, nichrome, copper, brass, titanium
Thallium, thorium, thulium, tin 1

This is the age of You, unless you insist
On claiming this the age of something else


1 Yes, I had to look all that up

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    II         ED      HELP  EL    LE  HELP
    II                     HELP       P        HELP
    II                     HELP                  HELP
    II                     HELP                  HELP
IIIIIIII                 HELP                  HELP


IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII  AM            A­M     SOSOSOSO    LO           ST
IIII               IIII  AM        MA         SO          SO     LO          ST
IIII               IIII  AM      AM           SO          SO     LO          ST
IIII               IIII  AMAMAM          SOSOSOSO     LOSTLOST
IIII               IIII  AM         MA        SO          SO            STL
IIII               IIII  AM             AM    SO          SO            STL
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII  AM      ­         MA  SO          SO            STL