By Joseph Childress

Shells
On the sea shore
Share sounds from the ocean
She tells deep stories
Of unknown territories

From what lies beneath
Where no man has reached
To the land of the beach
In my hand, you teach
The shortcomings of speech

I learn lessons
On how to listen
Admiring the mussels
Of mollusks
Their tongue
I cant I see
Yet they scream "I'm free"

By Joseph Childress

Backyard parties
Are more free
Then open houses
No limit power
Sky ceilings
And ground floorings
Flourished
On earth's home
Earth tone colors
And bright flowers
Compliment one another
Feng shui settings
Decorated by nature
Greet guests
And shade neighbors
This lawn is alive
So my backyard is favored

By Joseph Childress

I have a few free words
To say
Before I'm closed off
In Pelican's Bay
Unnatural Life
An imprisonment threat
To society
With a promise
Kept
Behind steel cages
The metal ribs dishearten soul
Confined solitary
On compounds
That house double dorms
Of noise and solitude
Silently roaring
In a single cell

Ghost writer
Or rider?
That is the question!
Either way
I'll lose my rights
The rite of passage
Was blocked off
The will
To move foward is missing
With nothing
To spare
I'm tired of making marks
In the lane I chose
This road
I wrote has dead ends
I know
I'm just afraid
Scared and terrified
They say phrases
Sacred and terrific
However,
I lost poetic license
And the drive to keep moving
On road to success

Naked you
Unclothed
Derobed
Disdressed
Addressed with my heart on
My sleeve

Who needs these
Rags anyway
In a way
Your vision is X-ray
You see what lies beneath

Regardless
Of white tees
You sensed
My heartbeats
Like artichokes
Underground
Knowing my heart’ll choke
If you’re not around

The seed
Grows
Into the giving tree
That relives
Incarnation
Like bouquet’s of carnations
That die
On dining room tables
Relived
Reloved
In living room sessions
Deflowered in front
Of fireplaces

The heat of the moments’
Enough to slow time
So the most
Can be made of
With nothing to be mad of
Because
Nothings on
Accept us

Our body
Of lies
Is useless when our bodies lie
Together
Love letters
Aren’t needed
Because we let us
Become
Intermixed
With our mixed feelings
Yet
Our intent
Is known
When together
We’ll let our
Differences go
And show
Nothing
But ourselves

Happiness & Misery

I tend to compliment
My confidence
With complaints
On how common place
My plain
Life is
The great times
In complexity
Simply
End
Too quickly
Being me
Became a meme
A trend
A fad
That lasts temporarily
As I change
The wardrobe
Of my beliefs
To best suit the situation
For times of war
Or times of peace
Offering myself
A sacrificial ME
Should suffice
For their superficial
Needs
Supplying their demand
Of wants
The difference they cannot see
I
No better than them
No better
Than what they seek
Not realizing
I
In this life
Is all I need
To proceed
To “ever after”
Happily

The other
Side of my brain
Supplies
The pain
And suffering
Inside of me
Ushering
The alternative
Reality
To my native
Faculty of thoughts
Felicity fails
And the facility
Of fury
Derails
My train of thought
This casualty
Casually causes
The worst case scenario

The battle within
Never ends
Each state of mind
Debates with
Indubitable facts
And stats
To seal my fate
The future lies
In mystery
Happiness
Or misery?
The answers hard to see
I still don’t cant find the key
To unlock the doors
To happiness in misery…

OccupyWallStreet : The First Front

The laborious efforts of Liberty
Will not go
Unnoticed
Untelevised revolution
Witnessed
By mute voices
Til the crowd joins in
The media’s immediate
Covering of the story
Takes on a new meaning
Internet live streaming
American Dreaming
Of the Awakening
The world’s been waiting for
Bullhorns blow
As the
The Bull’s horns
Are approached
With a silent crashing
The whole world
Will remember
The 17th of September
Backed against the wall
The public confronted the Wall
Streets filled with peace
Protesters who speak
For the rights of the peopl
The %99