As I walk thru life
I live and learn
Through laughter and tears
I have created this being called me
Action, inaction and reaction
Dictate my course
Blowing with the wind
Lending an ear
Spewing hot air
Seeing what is not there
What is beyond
Feeling a moan from another
Caressing away the pain
Bringing someone to the edge
Taking them over
Leaving them behind
Better than when they were found
Anger and bitterness
To recede with the tides
The passing of time
What is recalled
Names etched in stone
Others in the heart
The chosen few inked in flesh
The forgotten
Scattered with the leaves of autumn
Words without purpose
Of forgotten regard
A full glass
and an empty bottle
Worn out soles
Kindred spirits
But always the promise
That tomorrow
we can start anew

Miles from nowhere
Fighting with a sheet
Tossing and turning
Missing you so much
As you pull away from me
Telling me
That we had a deal
And I have nothing
More to offer
Than apologies
That will never be spoken
For you aren’t here to hear them

©Mark Butkus

In box ghosts
In god we trust
Picture from forgotten toasts
Friendships cyclical, boom or bust

One, two, three, four
Boldface type between the junk
Plaintive missives to ignore
Memories stored within a trunk

Friends arrayed 'neath a tree
Once upon a summer's eve
Kept in touch with none of thee
With a pen we took our leave

Scattered comments, wish you were
Scattered ashes, dust to dust
Given a choice of you or her
Follow always wanderlust

Blinking cursor, monochrome screen
One truck passes on the street
Slowly passing fields of green
A moment's thought, then press delete.

Somehow brought up
    on the rules of the game

Somehow brought up
    to the plate


Somehow brought up
    to look straight in the eye

Somehow brought up
    to lead off the base

Somehow brought up
    to field ground *****

Somehow brought up
    to think on the fly

Somehow brought up
    alone

As Sunset Amy dips into the sea
She rises in my heart
A tentative summer's smile
An autumn's first kiss farewell
We awkwardly said, "Hello"

Proclaimed proudly
from atop the Alondra Hotel
Barra de Navidad stops to watch
As Sunset Amy dips into the sea
She rises in my heart

When your name is stolen from a book
it's easy to lift lines
I don't know if she knows it
or even if it matters

Looking up toward the stars
she asks for recognition
Closer than the distant heavens
she lives within my heart

I've told her from the first we met
when held within my arms
I'm never going to let you down
One promise I have kept

Was looking for some change
To do the laundry on 8th Street
When I came across Charlotte’s shells

She had always wanted to
Come to the ocean with me
But as she never could come
I did what I thought
Was the next best thing

I picked up a shell
One for every trip
One for every beach
That Charlotte could not
Share with me

There are nine Charlotte shells
For the next time that we meet
If we never do
I’ll always have
Charlotte’s shells