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Jack Piatt Dec 2011
Only in memory
Does your smile
Beat back darker times
For my grandmother the poet.

(c)
Jack Piatt Dec 2011
The swift approach of dusk
found home in my hair
Jack Piatt Dec 2011
Mine is barbed with honey covered tips
imploring bees to visit frequently
A laugh you can see
Made completely of cotton candy
Eyes that shine green in the morning
like the meeting place for social frogs
on a moss covered pond
It is tall, taller than most
handsome, but not dark
no, it is full of light
bursting into comets
burning off to uncharted planets
It dances in the rain out of spite
not for the rain, but for haters of rain
The Universe signs rain checks
over to it in cash
It wears moxie on its sleeve
needing no reprieve
from anything
             Standing naked at the North Pole
begging for more snow
and when it sleeps
                         it dreams in black and white
so it smiles bigger when it wakes up
There are no obstacles
  just road construction with one lane open
  and it speeds in that lane
  It doesn't measure in inches or feet
  it measures in happiness
  always picking sweet over un-sweet
  when drinking tea
  It is a wonder
  it chooses to live inside me
with everything human
hanging from me like a windless kite
but man, when it takes the wheel
there's no describing the energy I feel
It's a diving catch in the big game “crazy”
I'm a paper airplane with an engine
that never wants to land
Jack Piatt Dec 2011
Exploratory dives into yestertime,
rare finds, ancient wines soaking revery
Yestertime - (yes, I made it up)
Jack Piatt Nov 2011
How’s your heart my dear?
Can we even start from here
I’m not sure if you’re even real
But willing to deal …
I am
If you throw in your hand
We can make this stand
As one
We can beat this drum
As we walk away from
Every bad day
Piled and burning like stacks of hay
Behind us
Jack Piatt Nov 2011
We are surrounded by silliness.
Don't make it obvious, but look over your left shoulder.
Slowly.
There, not feet from your face sits silliness.
Something silly breeding and FedExing its brood
to the best and brightest corners of the earth,
ensuring equal part shadow for every ray of shine.
If you find yourself disbelieving, please turn on your Television set
and flip (at your own risk) through the charmless channels
hovering enigmatically inside Mr. Pixel the “Babysitter.”
“Reality” shows, as if we weren't neck deep in enough reality
for a thousand years worth of open bars,
lamenting on how seriously, serious this soiree of sorts seems to be,
neighbored by celebrity rehab shows,
housewives from all over the country
desperately seeking attention
and augmentation
or attention to their various augmentations,
  divorce courts with quirky judges,
pawn shops in the ghetto with true grit, or is it true **** …
hard to say but they have attitude!
The endless scripts pour into HollyWeird from somewhere far, far away
from anything vaguely resembling reality …
a little place called – the Jersey Shore.
(Wait did he say scripts?) But ...

Ah, hell, it needs no description or justification,
in the land of the Super Silly,
it is the trophy wife of King Silly Bo Billy himself.
And no more time to waste on silliness wrapped neatly in a magic tube.
No, no, silliness is loose, running amok through the streets,
jumping with it's eyes closed on your neighbor Ricky's industrial size trampoline.
(Ricky only lost one of his nine children  last year to “roof to trampoline” diving)
tragic, yet the other eight get a little more tuna casserole on Wednesdays.
Silliness is fearless. It charges helmet-less into oncoming traffic
singing Christmas jingles in Latin,  
mid-February with no regard to Lincoln
or the people he is said to have helped liberate.
It defies logic, gravity, good intention or worst (best) of all – common sense.
You will find it in every church no matter the dogma.
Every court room, police station, financial institution, school, university,
tall building with more glass than steel …
yes, silliness grows there like mold in a dingy basement
overpopulated with sprickets.

Silliness is a disease.

Not to be confused with silly smiles and clowns at the circus.
This is not the silliness of your youth, but the silliness of adults
who have sold their love of the moment
and lust for life for the deadly elixir of conformity.
Conditioned by an unrelenting tidal wave of negative energy
and condemnation, they sign their death certificates long before they die.
Dreams and happiness are replaced with life insurance policies,
401k's and 403b's. In this lies the silliness.
As the masses line up one by one at the top of the cliff
and follow in suit as the jumping begins.
Into the abyss they leap, medical and dental plan in one hand
and neatly mowed lawn in the other.
As the happy children play to their parents dismay,
the merry-go-round spins blissfully around
as daddy slowly drowns.
Jack Piatt Nov 2011
Guitar strings
bend in my ears
eyes closed
connecting
feeling someone
else’s passion
drip to the floor
like sweat
from a brow
that has worked
for something …
in that I find peace
… peace
that passion
is alive and well
thriving
at least
in somebody’s
heart
and I thank them
for that peace
… that piece
of them
I’m absorbed in
even for ten
seconds of time
It’s enough
to ease my mind
for a lifetime
and back
again
only a friend
gives that
kind of gift
so I need
to find a way
to give back
so take this
as an I O U
passion brewing
from me
to you
whoever you are
bending those
strings
with passion
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