dragons march
up the valley
spitting fire

dragon’s roar
rolls down valley
echoing

dragon drops
fall as rain
it’s fall again

That door has closed
Everything known, practiced, reveled
A short time ago

Ones trusted, loved
Now just another
Long past innuendo

The new unknown
A chasm sprightly trundled
As a newborn idiot would

Has its bright baubles
But leaves one troubled
What mattered whence when

Which involvement mattered
What remembered remains
I don’t think I’ll see again

Hey-seus Christo
Eschewed all notoriety
He lived a life of
Quiet peace and piety

Without belief in deity
I follow his philosophy
Being good without god
Is trusting your morality

Travel truth’s compass
Know whom you trespass
Acknowledge the line
You just passed

Accountability is this:
Be true to thee and them
Avoid the dark abyss
Follow your bliss

Baby came to me last night
Approaching with tentative stealth
A slink around reconnoiter

First a tail **** flirt
A jump up and down
Waters tested

She paws away
But not too far
Then creeps close again

Invisible pounce
Golden eyes tête-à-tête
She’s not sure yet

Then the chin dive
Under beard comfort shown
With sandpaper tongue

I wear my hickey proudly
Baby’s reclaimed me despite
Abandonment issues

Make the Moses message minimal
Two tablets become one
10 commandments crucibled
Only one remains:

Don’t be greedy

I want to be a Supershero, a
Wikipedia entry with a
Book of poems trending

I want to be that melody, the
Friend you hum right to the end
And think "what a mensch!”

I want to be the
Brother, son, lover
Friend to another

I want to tell a story
Writ large where you will
Gasp, clasp hands, laugh

You might even cry
Or at least
Have a tear in your eye

I try to see the world for what it is
Not what it seems to be
Or what someone says it should

A baptism of realism,
Faithful leaping from me to
Voyages though our our

I go into the future
To remember who I was

I gravitate to the past
To know who I will be

I recline in the now
Being who I am:

Omni-present
Only me

My dad drove a Cadillac
Smooth Catholic operator
Cruising the inside track

My dad kept many boats afloat
Powering through the turbulence
All the while sowing wild oats

My dad was a 60s *******
He knew his cocktail parties
Proud, charismatic fly boy

My dad lived larger than most
Denying himself nothing
The ten of us can boast

My dad loved our mom
And us; in his own way
And carried on with aplomb

Mind games
Literally;
Now.

How?
Mentally
Find aims.

Hide shames
Figuratively;
Somehow.

This is a time rhyme
A jurassic fantastic, an
Ichthyosaur score

I’m having a bones Jones
As a coprolite acolyte
If the **** fits, be it

It’s all just a flicker-flash
Our all-important mad-dash
To be immortalized fossilized

A man with four names and
A heart as big as the sky
And surety of purpose
And graceful intent

Moves mountains
Changes lives and
Works and works and works
Not afraid to reinvent

We are proud to call him friend
Proud of his accomplishments
We’ll see you back again as
Our house, you know, es su casa

I interfere?
I'm in your way?
My presence offends?
If you want to be alone,
Leave.
Don't blame me
For being me.
I live here, too.

‘Twixt here and there,
slippage

What’s right and true
gets bent

This way or that
depends

On what you now
decide.

I’m oscillating differently
The frequency has changed
The thrum feels different

We hum along as fish schools or
A flock of birds murmurating
Shimmering, scintillating

The live wire vibrates
Temperatures rise
Time to leave the flock

fifty percent you
half and half me
not talking coffee, mate

conflict restrictions
blame game inflaming
regiment the argument

facts, ma'am just
remember trust
as you ******

Every night
Keep it tight
Get it right

Surf alliteration
Say what?
Synthesize

Take the turn
Don’t fear churn
Dare to learn

Behold!
The magnificent
Centipede!
100 legs cruising
At full speed
Ten thousand toes
But now suppose
He trips on tiny little
Poppy seed
The tripping ripples
An all toed tumble
With no intercede
Behold the now curled
Chicken feed

We came from north
Some went east
We knew ones south

Then we went west
Life beckoned
We reckoned

We meet again
Friends to the end
And all the rest

Not under boss of anyone
Soon that will be me

Freedom from everyone
But my spousely vows

Freedom is just another word
For third world adventures

LIBERTY:
freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.
—dictionary.com

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses
Yearning to breathe free,”

(But not your children;
They’re coming with me)
Not free.

"The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me,”

Then what?
Toss back to sea? Fate
Worse than Walmart?

What have we become?
…?!?
Who do we want to be?

What makes me a little more radical
Besides not on sabbatical?

Kids in cages
Too low wages

Border closures but
Corporate tax havens

Government shut-down
Over a border wall? *****!

Intolerance is rampant
Sharp turn to white right

Much of this is revolting
More than those not voting

What is not not true is not unnecessarily untrue—
Usually.
What’s actual?
It’s all possible
While not all probable.

Just ask Mr. Spock.

There is a false bottom
Where we hide our hearts.
We make it, conceal it
And think it’s done.

There is a false bottom
Sins sequestered
Stories not told—
Unseen unknown.

There is a false bottom
Unknown even to us
Beyond that bottom:
Abysmal abyss.

Take care of TCB; find out
What that means to me
Just a little bit

Day to day business
With care and
Respect

We dither we differ
We disagree
But with a just little bit…

Endless possibilities!

We are emotional beings
And physical beings and
Psychological beings

Trisecting

One of them
Two of them
Or all three of them

Scared me today

Sorry to the man at Ace
And the other man at the other Ace
Thank you to young Sear’s guy

You might have thought me high
As I gripped the counter, red faced;
I’ll keep the ninety-nine cent four-way keychain screwdriver

It may have saved me

Sun is out
On Sunday afternoon
Summer into fall

I’m inside
Insulated
Cool

Curtains drawn
Ceiling fans on
Never thought we’d need AC

I know when to post
And fortunately not to
What’s next is surprise

It plays to pay it forward
Good deeds sung

It takes little to complement
Dividends that multiply

Causal or catalyst?
Only results matter

This is the new now
Every moment
Every relationship

When is done and gone
What was that?
Forever unknown

Parallax perplexity
We see what we see
Keep both eyes open

I want to redo some of this
White-out some wrong doing

Left swing the other things
Highlight the bliss

Put it back in place
And if by grace, it stays

to Gloria Allred
to Regina King
to Michelle Obama
to Ellen
to Oprah
and Simone
and Eleanor
Betty and Gloria
Angela and bell and
to smart women everywhere

best thing we old white men
can and should do…

(this list is way incomplete)

I’m not so right sometimes
My left turns are often wrong
My pronouncements can be ludicrous
Followed by ?#%£€! fallacies

Being right is illusory
#mybubbleistheonly
I occasionally tell myself
"Shut the ?#%£€ up!”

But I still speak my mind
Come hell or high water
High water is certain
Let’s try to avoid hell

When I retire
I will follow my cats
I will go where they go
Their shadow
Inside, outside
Upstairs, downstairs
On the bed, on a rug,
Special: freshly folded
Warm laundry basket
While away the hours
Naps? Yes please.
When I retire.

Time travel is trouble
Slippery spillage of
Who, is, was, when…

Now, stopping time is just fine:
No need to go; chill, bro.
Take time to hear the wine.

A slipstreaming scheme
Time without and not about
Following bliss, this:

Sit. Dream. Mean.
Your ****-show will still be here tomorrow
Time to borrow.

Problem ****
Floats right there
Odious, obvious

Truth was it was
Hard to push out
Complexity compacted

Elephant in the room
Restrained stain
Stirred words

How do you map
The human heart?
Are lines between countries
Imaged? Real?

How do we meet
In the center?
The Tower of Babel
Looms large

But we look into eyes
See pursed lips
Lines around eyes
And we see:

Ourselves

We burble past
Rocky shoals
Gripping life-lines
Riding rapids

Then stillness offers
Floating freedom
Danger past, we
Row-row, row our boat

Passing the extreme
Merrily, verily, clumsily
Wondering what it means
It’s real; not just a dream

From “FFFWOOMF!”
To “pifffffffffpht”
Can you hear the

Cookies crumble as
Kingdoms fall; a
Causality clash

Story arc spark to
Comfortable free-fall
Happy endings to all

Every moment is stolen
Past is past—
Immutable

Future is malleable
Maybe
We don’t know

We know now.  
Whoops!
Past.

Day and night being equal
At autumnal equinox
Tipping the balance
Of our planet’s wobble

It’s dark when I get up
Soon then when home again
Mercury retrograde
As temperatures drop

The reason for
The holiday season
Is taking us through the dark
Anticipating spring

Ever watch a cat calculate?
Skulking at the top of the stairs?
Tail twitching; strategy switching…

Other cats already vectored –
Ms. Black oblivious at 2 o’clock
Red’s tight around the corner…

Slink or pounce?
Either.
Neither.

Cat’s cradle with
Gravity advantage
From the top of the stairs.

That’s one lucky,
Calculating
Kitty!

I am right
With the world

If it all ends tomorrow
No sorrow…

I am right with the world
Here, now.

A thought thought
Is then thunk

Good idea! But
Think and drink

Too much thought
Thunk drunk

Might really stink
Reconsider, sir