Alack!
Taken aback!
It’s a fact, Jack.

Think you’re on track
Then: smack!
It’s a backtrack.

So you go back, Mac
Give yourself some slack
Have a flapjack stack

Carry what you lack
Remove it from the black
And take it back, Zach!

Uncomfortably
Thinking about
What may be

Uptight or onsite
Downside or
In between

See it
Be it
Is it?

When I was thirteen,
I would ride my bike
to the library and
beeline to Sci-Fi

I’d fish out fat books;
a trilogy at least and
have a blast in space
released of all gravity

I’d float in a different place
considering time, consciousness
and race—and human humility.
Rocket-man landed expanded

Lorraine Hansberry
Was a woman out of time

Borges paddled around
Some circular Ruins

The kin of atta are waiting
For you and me

Think it, dream it, be it
The left hand of darkness

A lathe of heaven
Forging something better

Rat-a-tat-tat
Human blood splat
Worshipers now whispers

Christchurch
Pittsburgh
Minneapolis

Students, educators
Learning hate kills
What have we learned?

Parkland, Florida
Sandy Hook, Connecticut
Columbine, Colorado

And many many more
The NRA is complicit
Guns, (GUNS!) **** people

"Bye, ******“
Said the 60+
Year-old guy

Might have been
Different if not
So diffident

But the same old guy
Here safe at home
With his sweetheart

Says, “My, my; while
It should have been different,
Glad what is is”

Grief is a thief that
Hoodwinks normalcy

Just walking along
Then suddenly: BOOM!

Tears flow
Steps slow

Follow the tear’s trail
Down your left cheek

A universe of memories
Flashed in a moment

Sadness, anger, love
Angst, regret, forgiveness

Every step forward was
Already forged in the past