You can’t be truly open or honest with someone who truly cares for you
Bias drips from their tongues
Your well being replaces unguarded exchange
So on with the mask
So cursory after all these years
If only we could dine with strangers with open ears
On a night like tonight
Where everything rests at the tips of our fingers
Waiting for a chance to be released
Oh, sweet, sweet release
When shall you come?
My heart and mind weigh heavy with this burden
A burden so foolishly and needlessly shouldered
Break bread with me stranger from another land
Hear my story
Lend me yours
So I may bathe in its truth
How delightful the taste of this truth as it drips from one’s lips
To be enjoyed as a wedding cake on the happiest of days
Freedom
Like a tear
Welled up in a drop
Finally escaping the eye it could never see through
Splashing to the ground with a thunderous cry of deliverance
A tear of joy most certain

She’s beginning to fade
On her end of the line
Drifting sleepily away
As I lay her down
Another night closed
with spread out breaths
An occasional ...
“Hey ...
You still there
Okay ... I’ll let you go -
Goodnight sweet dreams
Dream of me”
To her reply
“No”
actually more of an
“unnah” ...
a little mumble
and stirring
then back to her breath
happy and content
to close her eyes
knowing I am still there
even if only in voice
I have no choice
I’m hooked
On the line
Until I finally
Hear
A quiet
Goodnight

When in doubt,
I turn to me,
the rest -
history

Old Neil crossed the ocean for it
Van Gogh died longing for it
Wars have been started because of it
Poe died poor and broken without it
Morrison had it but couldn’t grasp it
Shakespeare died with its taste in his mouth
His quill dripping with its potent potion
Its evasiveness lingers in my father’s eyes
I am pale and hollow without it
I’ve danced with it ...
Stared into convincing eyes
Yet I stand with empty hands
An empty heart
Many have traveled far and wide
And just as many will grow old
Searching
For a
"Heart of gold"

Driving away ... leaving miles of broken pavement behind
Thoughts and rearview mirror collide as my mind ventures
You are constant ... waves of gray rolling ahead of me
Your eyes were the beginning and will be the end for me
Memories melt together as time tears on through eternity
Two years become two centuries in this empire of emotion
The pilots of fall fly their orange and browns to the ground
As my heart in turn falls from every tree
This love suffers the seasons along with everything earth
My heart finds summer as my body sweats for you
Your body dances in my mind as we danced
Face to face, eyes locked ... bodies soaking into each other
Autumn brings your smell and a solemn reminder of change
Longer looks ... the sanctuary of embrace
Everything is open ... honesty kisses our foreheads
Life is raining down upon us as we dance between the leaves
The stars seem to polish their shine when the snow lies quietly beneath
Everything stiffens ... silence reigns supreme over the night
Rivers fight desperately to continue on course
As love fights the ominous freeze that threatens the life of the flame
Just as a depressing wind falls upon my soul
The birds of spring send a hopeful note to my ears
Even as the world seemed to pass below
My eyes adjust to the life overcoming the frigid grip of winter
With one exchange ... our eyes beckon the suns arrival
One embrace gives life to loves gasping flame
When all seemed lost ... my ship tattered by the tide
The light of love reflected off your sails in the horizon

Girls are sold
Fantasy real estate
With no debate
Or rebate
No second date
Just unreturned calls
Quiet halls
With one pair of feet
Fleeting sweet
Then alone again
Not even friends
Just over
Just like that
Never had time to hang his hat
Should have trusted the cat
But listen ladies
These guys without class
Are nothing more than a class
On what not to accept
Not worth the tears you wept
Learn this lesson well
Never settle
For anything less
Than exactly what you deserve
And you are the only one
Who gets to write that appraisal
If he really wants you
His courting will be more than occasional
Make him sweat a little
Cause if you are worth it
He will
The right guy will wait
For a love he feels is real

Not to neglect the one above
But the one just south has me
No reference to the man upstairs
Or his foe below
It’s evident the bottom
Was made in heaven
But tempts like the devil
Even though your lips are a pair
I find myself lingering down there
That bottom lip has its own heartbeat
A mind of its own if you will
And I will ... kiss it again
And again
Nibble a bit ... **** and peck
Lick my lips in retrospect
Lying in bed at night
Thinking of twenty different ways
That lip takes shape
And shows emotion
Almost upstaging your face
That gorgeous face
Sometimes lost in the background
For this soft and often pouty lip
Begs for attention
Almost screams for it
And I listen ... do I ever
I can’t help but fall victim
To that oh, so clever
Part of your face
That would make an angel
Leap from grace
And never look back
Not once ... I’d swear on this
For I know the power
Behind that kiss