Today
I decided
not to rhyme

The words
in volleys
poorly formed

Predicates
outcast
covers smashed

Their accents
bouncing
meanings lost

Today
I decided
not to rhyme

Appeasing
some
beyond the fence

Connections
broken
  phrases served

Playing tennis
without
— a net

(The New Room: November, 2024)

Reaching into the
public consciousness
the words were given free

Blowing fresh holes
through blind consensus
nothing there to see

Reaching into
the common anthem
selling out for fate

Lost in the current
of tomorrow’s maelstrom
— passing heaven’s gate

(The New Room: November, 2024)

We couldn’t survive
each to the other
We couldn’t let go
to live
We couldn’t give
without retaking
We couldn’t express
what we felt
We couldn’t stay quiet
when being together
We couldn’t come back
from the past
We couldn’t forgive
what time had rescinded
We couldn’t remember
— to forget

(Woodstock: Summer, 1969)

He wandered to the rim
looking over and down
Lost in a memory
his fear as a shroud
As voices from faces
that he never saw
Called out from the darkness
— with time overdrawn

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Innocence a foreigner
if beautiful or dark
No one who can lead the way
— has purity of heart

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Killing shared values
our lives on death row
Kinship aborted
— the world soon to blow

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

The pendulum swings wider
both right and then left
Those things that divide us
fomenting unrest
The wasteland between
what was once common ground
A minefield of mutual exclusion
— profound

(The New Room November, 2024)