I found a message in a bottle,
cracked parchment on the shore,
a brittle note crumbling to dust.
It was written in foreign words
but I recognized the sentiment
and I thought about you, love.

I thought about the oceans between us,
the continents and worlds
the time, the space, the ether,
the chains of luck and fate.

And I wonder if you're a specter,
a phantom made inside my mind,
an elusive effigy of desire
summoned on a lonely winter's eve.

I see the echo of your movement, love,
so I wrote this down to say
I just received your message
and I hope you haven't flown away.

Exalted child of Gilgamesh,
what has devoured you today?
Were you so thrown off your center
that you gnash your teeth and pray?
Be careful who you call out to,
be cautious of what becomes,
for the gods are jealous parents
and the titans eat their sons.
But, it's good to seek assistance
when the transition begins
from an isolated wilderness
to the company of friends.

I can hear the muses calling
'Though my hands are tied with work
And ghandarvas sing through cracks
Beyond the off-white office walls.
I know I should be free with them.
But instead:
Sign here,
Date there,
Keep the tally,
O reckoner of warehouse sheets!
The condition of modern slavery
Of entire paydays spent at once
While knowing that a human life
Is more precious than the profit line.

Ghosts of past performances
Flicker through the screen
As thirty second tidbits
Of synthesized self-esteem
On display in the electric cascade
Of an endlessly rolling wheel.
Take a look, take a peak
At souls sold for attention.
Give a second, give a minute,
Place your time upon this altar.
But what do you expect to reap
Sacrificing your life to this machine
Where nothing's holy, nothing's sacred,
And nothing's what it seems?

Turn away your weary feet there's trouble lying here
where everything you perceive is not what it appears.

Fantasy and make believe are rampart in these parts.
Discontent's an honored guest here once the party starts.

If you stay, you aught to know you can't keep what you find.
So take advice from Orpheus: you best not look behind.

Insecure anxiety will twist your head around
as you clutch the pretty things and trinkets you have found.

You may want to talk some more but I just don't have the time
and all the folk you come across have too much on their mind.

Let the sun shine
on the fields of this life
where everything's fine
and we're taking our time.

When the sun has gone
to an unknown beyond
should we stifle a yawn
and pray for the dawn?

If you get caught
where the dealing is hot
you get what you got
and that's the price of a thought.

It often gets cold
so I've been told
when you're alone
with no body to hold.

It's up to you
so what will you do?
'Though you can't always choose
when the skies are blue.

What could you say
to the wind and the rain?
Don't be afraid,
it will all blow away.

To fall as though an autumn leaf
released to let the burden pass
and ride along the sky’s relief,
a hissing breeze through amber grass;

to fall as though a wounded moth
when the gravity of earth may beckon,
with wings dispersed like fraying cloth
fluttering in circles down from heaven;

to fall as though in love and tender,
a softened heart without defense
laying prostrate in surrender
to honest affection without pretense;

then to land as though ashore,
a wave now broken and flowing
into a waiting embrace, adored,
a worthy ending to this roving,

and finally find my head laying on a chest,
where there’s support, there is love, there is rest.