Wake up, breathing, happy to see
The walls surround you, deafening
You're in the ocean, water deep
The ground is there beneath your feet

It's at the door, ding-**** bell
You're whispering to rid your Hell
Of mindless thoughts and there you fell
Into the pit - a burning smell

When the sun is up, the heat is nigh
Your words are breaths to make it by
An aquarium of octopi
You breathe again and feel alright

The window has a crack but it's okay
You patch it up with masking tape
And avoid it like that song you hate
To masquerade this life you've made

Sunglasses to hide the eyes behind
In hopes that one day vines would bind
The swimming laps, the daily grind
To avoid the time it'd take to find

The answer to your Hell is near
Just put that smile ear-to-ear
And remember the reason that you're here
Alive and breathing - let it come clear

There once thrived a hive near the creek
Bees came in and out every week
But one day a bat
In the hands of some *******
Caused the hive to substantially leak

Like a lion's roar
Like a bird that soars
Like an antique store

You are so much more

Like cityscape skylines
Like a lake with ice so fine
Like a bench to outrun time

You somehow plague my mind

But I don't care for the cure

Retrograde beauty
Sparkling, smiling down at Earth
As dusk falls and fireflies illuminate our own planet
She shines even more brightly
Despite the pressure
And despite the sulfur
Her terrestrial surface gleams
Having no moons
She's a solo entity
But our sister
She circles the same violent ball of heat
As heliocentric
As we

A staccato accordion
Chimes merrily as the spotlight turns
In the star-ridden distance
I can hear The Entertainer
It's out of tune - but a jack-in-the-box jingle
Doesn't carry well in the wind
The Ferris wheel has stopped
But the passengers are unaware
Their gypsy laughs and joyous shrieks
Loop carelessly around the air
Whimsical men in gargantuan top hats
Guessing weights and handing out sugar
Decorated elephants and dilapidated circus tents
Circle a trapeze artist as he wows onlookers
It's warm out here
But there's a chill
Something ominous
A sound that's shrill
It could just be a ride that needs to be fixed

Parades and bikes
Lily pads on ice
Frozen lotus blooming
Hand me newscasts for free
"What's in store for today?" I ask
Allergic to the ink
"A horrible tragedy -
        you won't believe!"
It's a spectacle of disgust
A shock factor of distrust
For everyone to see
Who's the biggest celebrity
I read the front
And taste the back
Page 33, ink smears in black
"You need to care about this," it says
To me unwittingly

A peddler strolls by and opens his jacket so
Fringed and de-hemmed by years of practice
Each pocket a carrier for emotions held captive
Yet the rise in his voice shows a seller proactive
His face reflected the age of sweet old
To pick and choose, each product seems bold
A timepiece to shimmer with lost-alloy gold
Or perhaps a locket with photographs sold
"To hope is to dream; do not fear or capitulate"
He states so methodically yet his words calmly resonate
"All my items are free, but to you, they are fate,"
To finally feel that they one day will sate

For birds abound
In shallow mounds
A marsh to sate their thirst

A vulture pen
A raven then
Out of the fire burst

Rocket ships
And planes are quick
But birds have made it first

Halogen lights are lining the walkway
Bright, bright, bright
Each one
Blinding, but I keep staring
Leading to this place
It's bland
Bland, bland, bland
But I keep coming
Beige filing cabinets
Contain the documents I need
I need them
A paper envelope
Two times a month
I can be relieved
There are others though
Disengaged, but we share a goal
To make it
Until we are gone
Gone, gone, gone

You feel expired
Like the milk in the fridge
It's got a lump or two
And the lettuce is fused
To the drawer
The garbage disposal makes a sound
Like it's grinding steel wire
It might be from that art project you did
When you tried to make a figurine
And got too tired
So you set it in the sink
To forget about it
But that's okay
Ramen noodles take a while to go bad
But those Cup 'O' Noodles
Get a bit crusty
After a few months
The dripping from the faucet
Doesn't really matter
Because the only reason for the bathroom
Is to empty your bladder
And sit
With your head in your hands
Before you head back to the bedroom
And wonder
What am I even doing?
Why does thinking hurt?
It's a lot of work
When your favorite color
Is grey

Gravitational lensing
Brings forth so beautifully the thoughts,
the haphazard chaos
That is the Universe's entropy

While colors are distorted
Light is contorted
It somehow provides a deeper look
Into the unknown

****, space is cool

How to become a poet?
Write
Your words will spill
Some like water droplets from a faltering faucet
Some like torrential downpour
Leading your mind to flash flood warnings
Your words are wrapped in foil
Waiting to be heated up
And eaten up
Poets are hungry

It's cold in here
Like a superstore with those giant freezers
How do they even keep those cold
With no doors
I guess lots of cold air circulation
Or little freezer elves
Happily blowing their icy breath
At the frozen bagels and crinkle-cut fries
But the latter is far less likely
I wonder though
What does the machine look like
The one that makes fries crinkle-cut
I think that's why they made that one show
The one that shows how everything is made
People get curious
And need a distraction
Let's see how
Leather boots
And Moon Pies
Are made today
Hand me a beer

The wonders of the world
Fringing train track paths

Cities of concrete gold
Buses with lingering laughs

Conductors wave to asphalt old
Birds flutter in stone-cold baths

Colors become slightly more bold
As windows sweep the street light past

The Great Red Spot
Gracing Jupiter's surface
Beautiful and intriguing from the outside
And a whirlwind within

O, my dearest and most enticing caffeine
Without you, the world would be grey
For each time you reach for my heart
It both flutters and beckons the day
So generous and giving, thou doth art
The simmering sound of your can intoxicates me
Carbonation so sweet; you give me motivation all week
To continue this molecular love story

Galactic disposition
Relentless exposition
A guided meditation
To harbor one's condition
An earwax candle mission
Removing audible visions
Internal text to bring forth next
The silent-held emissions

Not a bird in sight, nor insect, nor squirrel
Loud silence lacks cars and the usual whirl
These winds are like whistles
Through the fingers of trees
Closed windows are pummeled
By torrential pings

These mushroom spores and petrichor
Are easy to inhale together

Where coal gets pressed
And zippers - undressed
A diamond of red night's gleaming
How souls get stressed
To act chipper at best
But inside - a cauldron that's steaming
A raven has landed and soon will be near
Through mentality's bland, white sun
When the moon opens wide
And swallows the shadows
That's when they'll have the most fun

Here we are again
Humming songs
That we don’t understand
Everything in the world
In the universe
In the palms of our hands
Technologically advanced
Hop-skip-happy-dance
An industrial trance
To have seen the land
The world
The universe
Before our haphazardly
Set up idiosyncrasies
When the earth had nothing
But herself to please
What was it like?

A sitar sings
Her notes carried on the wind
Like cactus seeds
I brew the roots
And drink the juice
Of desert dreams

Each cup is filled
And cold toes are warmed
By little spills
My hands are scorched
Dunes are grabbing my ankles
And pulling me forward

To the cross-legged drums
They sound like water droplets
Each beat flows
In a pool of stone
Caressing the ears of cicadas
as their legs pierce the heat
of the hailed sun

Do you hear that sound?
The wind
Whistling through closed blinds
Drifting into your ears
Burning your eyes
Stimulating your mind
Days behind dance
Driven by unrequited
Painful
And provocative romance
Hollowing your eardrums
And pitting your chest
It's quiet
But so loud
I wish I could understand

Blue lakes gave the glass a crystal world of looking
The ocean seems blue
It can be rough water
Dream water
Red water
Zero water too
Aimless
It's time to shine
In the dead of night
Flow into a delta and find its goal
Its rivers and tributaries meander, broken down, broken up, algae
It carries soil, silt, sand, streams, silent
Silent
It is created, evolved, reincarnated, now
Rolling with the tides and the moon
It's not leaving
It will not speak
It doesn’t go far
But the distance is too long to walk
It runs in Winter
Slows in Spring
Dangerous in Summer
I hear it sing
Drum up a current
It's glass
It can flow
It can pass
Under bridges where cars and trains are electric
It waters the land
Straining until pure
Removing all the lures
It is a flurry
It is fast
Fast
I see it, hear it, I feel it too
It's been green, brown, pink, orange
Red
It's been drained
Remained
Stained
Up close it's clear
But at a distance
It's blue
I see the air, the moon, the hands, the truth
Breathing in
The ocean's blue

A catamaran whooshes past
Epilogued by the propeller with which it steers
Marking each and every ripple
Without hesitation, without fear
I'll take the next wave

When you take a step outside
And you're hit with the force of inspiration
It makes you feel like you fell off a swing
And landed on your back
    but in a good way
Beautiful and exciting
A break in the clouds
Isn't just that - it's a turtle, or a boat, or a dragon, or a dress
You're filled with inspiration
Imagination
And you see
That elm tree growing in front of the building
Becomes alive
He speaks, he thrives
Each leaf giving the air a high-five
Happy to just be
The elm tree across the street

The visceral admiration of one
The ******, on their knees, bow
Bronze cast dragging, alas,
One cannot fathom eternity
Fate in selfishness, determined, hauteur
Relentless and coerced
To be the one who hands his soul
At the feet of broken totem poles

Dimly dreaming of bright lights
Crave glimmers of ascension
Freeze, question
Interrogate and turn this way
To boat around this fence
As for the distance, straight line
Asphalt is bent
Gated at night and locked all day
The password worked yesterday
Everyone loses senses slowly
But this is just too far

Paintbrushes and bulldozers
Canvas and land
Creativity and destruction
Each done with mans' hand

When a poet writes
His heart on paper
Or a songwriter sings
Her silent whims
They share the medium
Of space and senses
On which their thoughts
Become reality

Softly spoken, send me surges of
Electric energies to emit endless echoes
Silently stirring so to sing, it urges
Encapsulating that so elemental
Superseding the strife with serene sayings
Ending the edges of errant easels
Saving the straying to stay in stance
Embrace to emanate an eternal enigma

Lightly stained
Like a towel
That took so many trips
Ocean water seeps through
Elegantly
Permeating the fibers
Pooling in the center
As a large celestial body
Pulls
Bending space and time
To wash you again

The Great Andromeda Nebula
No longer as such
Now, she is a galaxy
Close enough to touch

As with life
And consciousness too
We form a singularity
In which attraction cannot move

Or can it? It's unknown
The wonders of this mold
It's Torricelli's Trumpet
Filled with finite gold

Take me on Cassini
Each pass-by in blue
I've seen Jupiter, and Saturn
And Epimetheus too!

I can't wait to keep on living
In this fantastic, beautiful, enigmatic,
expansive, wondrous universe
With you