knowledge awaits is the ticket
they sell you as you pass through
the pearly gates of higher learning
with textbook in hand you pray
that the dream you have isn't as much of
a work of fiction as the history they teach
with your college bound girl
her vanity lay in her turtle frame glasses
she hides behind the foggy lenses of her
casual drugs and meaningful ****** episodes
she grasps the back of your letterman jacket
hoping that you are as surefooted as your propaganda speaks
as you follow the blinding path
of confusions principal and you think to yourself repeatedly
that the truth in the simplest explanation is the actually the most complex
because you make it that with
realizations and rationalizations
through the day to day whittling away
of what you really are
through lying to yourself that
if you stick it out with this false life
one more day it will all be better
that the relationship you are trapped in
will work with you
instead of making every day
an uphill battle to be heard
and loved without tears
sometimes look into her eyes and
see the endless road of escaping her past
and i think that i just want to stop running away
settle down
and be
just simply be
a father, a husband, a lover
happy

a piece of wood
with a whisper of a stream
a place as familiar to me as my woman's smile
a place known to me as the years
we used to go there and drink beer
we used to spend hours
by that dumb little stream
talking bout how we was gonna get away
from our dumb little town
conquer the world
and never ever look back
never look back

forty years later
im flipping the pages of my day
laughing with new friends
and there is that place
that piece of wood
with a nothing whisper of a stream
lookin up the hill
wykagyl golf course
by the 8th
and it all came back
all my long lost friends not seen in forever
were right here with me

but it isnt my home
its a place far away
trick of the eye
trick of an old mans fading memory's
but thats ok
it was nice to visit
that piece of woods
with its nothing whisper of a stream

she lightfoots it out the backdoor
and heads for the nearest highway
says there wasn't enough romance in my last words
so shes gonna jump ship
and go find another place to sink into despair
she loves to be in love
and needs to wear it all the time
like a remnant of her yesteryear round her wrist
so all the other girls can hover and be jealous
i stand there looking at her saying all this
and i admire her and her big hat
gotta admit don't know where i'm headed either
but i'm trying to make sense of the
things written on the roundhouse wall
cause there isn't any truth greater
than the truth of innocence
its got nothing to prove
and it holds no grudges
and the truth is that i love her
so i grab her hand
and together we ran away from
the desperation of the ignorant
and the cruelty of the small hearted
the stars may fall
but if you catch em in your delicate hands
i can paste em in the scrapbook
and we can have them forever
to remember these days
paste em on the walls so
we can smile at them while making love
and that's enough for me
why aint it enough for you
she smiles and makes a house out of lace doilies
its gonna be our home sweet dream
but the gambler and the rose faced mother-in-law
fall all over themselves to stop us from leaving
cause they need someone to blame
too proud to admit they lost their humanity long ago
they will fade into shells of shadows
and get lost in a strong western breeze
a voice says to me that there's no time to loose
and i break open the day
and stare in stark wonder at all the lives
i could have lived had i not come this way
or followed this road on the way to see her
new clothes and her new dog
with its sparkling new leash
captured him to keep her company
its a tragic story to be sure and it shows in his face
its written in big easy to read letters on the side
of our now empty home
she left with her dog and a snake salesman
leaving me here side of the strange road with a naked dready honey
and a pocket full of apologies
but they aren't worth the paper they were never written on
the air they breath in my pocket is slowly leaving them
no choice but to escape back to the mouth that spoke them
and the uncomfortable lips that spawned them
the dready honey takes me by the hand
kisses away the shadows on my heart
and builds a house out of tye-dye scraps and lace doilies
now i sit in the warm breeze with sand 'tween my toes
and relish the daylight

the sound of approaching horsemen
thunders in the dry spaces of my mind
they are so loud i cannot stand it
deep waters run swift
and the thoughts that run there are bittersweet
humble me kneeling before that open gaze
before that terrible birthright
a mask of soft steel
eyes encroaching on my steadfast heart
with a terrible pounding of horses
that leaves no space for thought
leaves no breath to the dreams of my soul
lay gasping on a cold winters shore
knowing the sea and its treacherous waves
i walk the rain waters mile just to hear your voice again
i swim the deep places of the heart just to kiss your lips again
this is the place where i hold your soft hand in mine
sing to you in a whisper
songs of finding a hearts treasure
songs of getting lost in warmth and beautiful eyes
help me find you again
in the deep rushing thundering approach
of these wild and free horses

a september bride her hollow sounds
fearfully echo on the leaf strewn trail
with intonations of a blushing bride to be
she makes a graceful vision
obscured only by her hamfisted collection
of undesirable father figures
who stand round the groom and brow beat
him with dire dreams
but his eyes are for her alone and
the tigers of her sensual rainforest
"lions, tigers and bears...oh my!" she whispers
into his eager ear with a sardonic grin

her hollow sounds both haunting and beautiful
they will stay with me as a soulsong
long after history has devoured her
namesake and words
a quick poet of the three line shoot from the hip haiku
pink glossy eyes all damp with remembered tears
she is the quintessential september bride
the long summer nights swayed her
the longer cold winter may undo her
but it is a girlhood dream that
she knits with papier-mâché knights and
bubblegum queens
she waits for me there
to officiate the proceedings
with a bottle of red wine and single red rose
wrapped in the tender notions of
loves sweetest kiss

it all ways seemed to me
that its a simple affair
knowing which way to head your feet
which way to dip your hat
to cast off that west wind
seems like a logical kinda thing
to know what kind of man is standing behind ya
when you come up to bat
and are counting on a fair shake

but wouldn't ya know it
that just as you cross the fine line
between all your yester-years mistakes
and all the things you came to regret
in hindsight
you discover that the fine line
is more like a razor blade cut
dividing you from all the things
you could change if you could
and the man behind ya has got his eye
on your wallet and position
on your two car one kid garage

so you step back and take stock
but even as you count
life is pulling the slippery
sands of possession slip
through your fingers
so your tally just don't make sense
and you cant keep track of who's knives
you have stuck in your back

it all ways seemed to me
to be a simple affair
of picking the right way to proceed
but there are all ways
three hundred things to know to every choice
and none of em ever leaves me
holding the girls **** hand
hey serenity where the hell are you
i wanna kiss ya
no i don't
i want to laugh with ya

seemed like such a logical thing to do
but now i begin to see
that no choice you make
be the right one all the time

i miss ya

her pale face in the warm night
like medieval dark princess lips so bright
lure the sailor with her desperate charms
****** the heart with her eyes

the scents of the seven seas wash over me
all the traveling done to see a higher place to be
when it was right here infront of me
her thin pale lips pressed against mine
she whispers a plea
not to follow the wild things into the night
not to stand unfriended under the church of the skies
naked to the cold rain
to stay here in her warm arms
quickening under the spell of her devices

the chipped tiles cold
bucket of brine
sits by the door
has no shadow has no rhyme
it is salty for a dog of the sea
lick his haunches with thin lip grin
the tallyman count but the water rapping on the hull distracts
let us in the waves call to you
let us wash your spirit and teach you to float in the deep
the water is cool on your fevered brow

and since the words fled your pen
there is so little to do
but listen to the waves rapping on the hull
on the beaten weather burned white paint of the wood hull
its peeling and rot shows
the waves call out to you
let us in
we will teach you to ride the deep ocean rivers
teach you to see
the tallyman count one two three
the tallyman know good one from bad
toss you back to the sea
you no good
you go back to the god that made you

her salted hand like fire in
the open eyes of the awakened
she caresses their dreamlike visions
and with a silent empathy wishes she could undo
the havoc she continues to parcel out
wrapped in christmas bows and cheerful thoughts
i am drawn from the open farm field
to a canopy of leaves at the edge of sight
where a childlike voice drones on
enticing all to behold beauties wonders within

the radio sound of the childlike voice
reading from a dark work in an obscure language
its voice comes from the withered lips of ancient man
sitting in a stone room framed by grasping flower laden trees
the air is thick with the scent of their fruits
which lay gathering dirts all around his
his unclad feet

an incestuous beast crawls through this
rubble of rotting fruit
eating slowly of their wet decay
the beast calls out softly in its native tongue
its words are caged with verbal locks
distortions of the lips create echoes of the silence
within its mind
after pausing to listen for reply that never comes
it once more pushes forward to the stone chair
the dark man reclines in

the childlike radio voice
beckons you to come to this canopy of leaves
to lay with its scorpion's and dine on its verbal meats
i warn all who draw near
but am not always heeded
so i listen once again
to the subtle voice
once again watch the beast crawl
a slave to my pasts
buried and thriving in
the dark soil

rain at sea
thunder soaks the hot air
with a suddenly clarity of light
and as the sound rolls off into vast distance
the waters of the sea change color
breeze becomes foretaste of wind
its strong heralding of approaching storm
makes a swift heart beat
makes the soul race in its desires
bend hand to line and sail
bend eye to breaking waters
never felt so alive
at sea
at sea

I bury my face in nighttime softness
no harsh reflection of self to see
nurture my soul at the well of hidden and deep
through which I swim naked and unafraid
able to be in my own skin
only in the moments before sleep overtakes...

Ride until daybreak
soon the images of night dream fade
the smile of an old friend
the kiss of a forgotten stranger
the familiar home that exists no more...

Each day I rush through tasks and errands
busy work to keep from pondering
awaiting dusk to find me
so that once again I can slip
my fingers into the well of deep in my heart
into the well of my hidden loves long lost
ride into the daybreak
live the old dream

effortlessly we cut a rug in the beautiful moonlight
it was one of those perfect nights you never forget
among the starlight scattered and spinning on the dance floor
the sweet remains of our lovely night dancing
we wandered the soft side of night
in eachother's arms
it was like having a yearling heart all over again
it was like being in love for the first time all over again
with my head nestled on her bare shoulder
like discovering what it was
like being with a woman the first time
a long beautiful moment that lasted forever in my yearling heart
that wrote a lifetimes love affair just in
those precious moments in her arms
such is the intoxicating beauty that is my lover
such is the occult magic of womanhood
that i thirst so much for
that i adore so deeply
that is the root of all love poems
the beauty of a woman's heart
we wandered the soft side of night
in eachother's arms
dancing embraced  in eachother's love
forever more

child
and there in his hand
balloon of bright colors
not even rain will damp that smile
come on shine like a child's mind
all that darkness you feel is just state of mind
if anyone can smile in the rain you can
he is as free as happiness could be
in the living breathing dream of his balloon
no lonely dreamers in a child's eyes
all just strange wonderful stories in the
wondrous playhouse we call a world
come on shine like a child's mind
our toys will all too soon fade away
let us rejoice in our laughter
rejoice in eachothers dream
child at heart is who i am
lets go find you a balloon
so you can shine like a child's mind

we lay in the sand
on the beach we call our home
with out rock crab dinner
fresh coconuts and berry's
our home has all we desire
including each other
entwined in her tender embrace
i find both the warmth of her gentle heart
and the heat of her sensual passions
we explore each other with tentative caress
but the fires our our bodies soon ignite us
and we become the deep kiss of ******* and release
the hot and swift grasping and sighing
sweating and panting flesh

far into the night
we tickle and play
laugh and whisper

she rises to dance in her bedroom
for me

because her body loves to move
ballroom or hip-hop
her every motion is fire to me
and i pull her to the sand
and take her again and again

we slip into sleep
as i awaken from this sweet dream
not far from the beach
we laid on in my vision of your beauty

lover

traffic in dreams
the deeper the love
the longer it will be to pay it off
deeper the diamond to carve from your heart
the darker the desire
the more cold cash
the harsher the wind in the lonely night

take sandpaper to your luxurious soul
but you keep its stain from your pretty eyes
pretty face barter for fish n chips
pretty words barter your bed and breakfast
dress it all in fashion from magazines
the strange combination of gloss and paper thin disguise
the strange combination of truth and lies

the greasy haired stranger
peers with all his might into the mirror
trying to find the man hidden within
he traffics in dreams
will sell you a plot of land
and the rainbow that comes with
ten by ten souls wide
ten by ten deep
sell em to you for a taste of the pretty
sell em to you for a touch of the tender
so rancidly reflected in his greasy smile

you thought the weight was easy to bear
thought that the lie you tell yourself suffices
but dreams are brittle thin walls you hide behind
watch the cracks spread across the pretty picture
it is painted with
watch the colors fade like sweet summer sunshine
the sweet wine turned bitter like tears
he sells you a dream that must be forever replaced
with an ever darker version
he sells you a lie that you will come to see vividly
it won't taste so sweet for so long
it will taste like dust
it will taste like loss

you seek him out once again in the dark city passage
his greasy hair fallen long ago
skin gone gray
he found the man in the mirror
he found his answer in all the chaos
tastes like dust
tastes like bitterness
seek him out to find he is gone
only a shell remains
a brittle shell

no-one gets cheap seats
without paying the price

her empty heart keeps beating...
her empty gaze still sees
her voice a shell filled with the cold sand
sluggish monotone wet
of a violent empty sea....
she romances the dark masterpiece
of your voiceless screaming....
she sits with you in the gray room
her fists balled up in limp rage...
she is the daughter of her cherished heartbreak
the end result of her old lover dark and bittersweet...
a tasty gem all bright and beautiful
wrapped up in the bandages
of her battlefield romances...
her empty heart keeps beating...
her empty gaze still sees...
her warm hand still gives comfort
she is still the life behind your unmoveable force
she is a woman of these modern days
strong in ways not even she can see
beautiful beyond what any mirror can see
her heart will find its way
the love will return to eyes
her voice will grow strong once again
await her heart's spring
await her and she will see
you are the man
that was meant to be

and we put our hard earned dreams
in a wooden beach chair
and set sail
cross the blue blue sea
using seashells as hats
using palm fronds for tea cups
and get em all mixed up chasing paper doilies
sing you a song that stretches all night long
you spend the dawn clapping and calling for an encore
so we all join hands
and get another chorus goin
because that smile you gimmie honey

midnight and she stepped to the edge of the road
with a rubber duckie in one hand
and a lethal dose of reality in the other
she will use one to make you laugh
then she will administer the other one
cause that's what she thinks is funny
but that's the thing
reality checks always bounce
got rubber duckies on the brain forevermore

sneak down her road
with her hand in mine
and all the mister naturals in the world
couldn't be wiser than the cherry eating
little gnome in the movie usher outfit
sitting by the exit
charging admission back into the world
cause its exactly as advertised
its stranger than freakin fiction
and its heavy brother
sing you a song that stretches all night long
you spend the dawn clapping and calling for an encore
so we all join hands
and get another chorus going
because that smile you gimmie honey

they ain't got  too many passion moments left
let em get on with their
neon green VW bug and its
fifteen clowns waiting in the trunk
cause if all else fails and she needs distraction
you can set up a tent and sell tickets
to the sunrise of her surprise
at how easy it is
but deep down inside you know its heavy brother

so you pick up a guitar and start to play
whatever tune comes to mind
and while chopsticks is better on a keyboard
your heart is hungry and chinese sounds good
she lights a kerosine lamp and holding up to the sea
all the lost sailors hoping to find their homes
stop in for tea and a biscuit
it all sounds like romantic gibberish to me
all this play for pay
food for gain
sing you a song that stretches all night long
you spend the dawn clapping and calling for an encore
so we all join hands
and get another chorus goin
because that smile you gimmie honey

six am and darkness still prevails
her casual morning disheveled shuffle to the coffee
still beautiful to me
and so entranced i loose myself in thought
come up behind her in the mirror
and brush my lips along her neck
she smiles and teases with a laugh

we chat over our breakfast about
the day now breaking silently outside the open window
a slight autumn breeze tickles us
as our dog chases shadows in the yard
the whole world seems to be waiting for
the brilliant bright sunlight to stream over the edge
of the world

her dreadlocks woven with beads
scented with roses
i run my fingers lightly along one by her ear
then trace the delicate line of her earlobe
i am intoxicated by her everything
i am in love with her
body and mind
soul and heart

each day is a gift
each smile a world of love
i have waited a lifetime to be here
and each and every moment has made that wait worth it
this is living
this beautiful world between us
shared only by our two souls
entranced and entangled
beautiful dreamers lost in a beautiful dream

feather light i drift in a dream
feel the sun's breath on my face
floating eternal upon warm summer breeze
forever between dusk and first light
the sweetest sense of reality reflected in minds eye
where i find the shopping cart in parking lot
the scattering of cracks in the pavement paints
a masterpiece of loves and loss
hearts born to passions of desires flame
and those who sit in wicked darkness and
nurse the dying light of beautiful loves lost
feather light i drift in this place
feel the moon's compassionate light on my face
for the moon sees all these dreams
and holds us to its warm heart
keeps us from being alone in the night
wake now all you dreamers
dawn approaches
and our dreams must stop
till dusk comes again and unites us in beautiful loves

there in your midnight afterlight
there in the stillness of your nearness
you softly took my hand and shook loose yesterdays dream
you found me in every way left me without a word to say
timeless in your rose printed dress endlessly you kissed me
gently take me back where you discovered me
there leave me without all these tears of loosing you
there in your midnight afterlight
in the stillness of your nearness
without all this beautiful sadness

Beyond the cracked lens
of your minds eye
the worlds bitter anger has gone
past without pause
i try to confine this mad fluttering of thoughts my head
and as the sun set i thought id be here forever
in this moment here in her waking dream
her scent lingers on the humid air
and her soft form is still marked there in the sheets

her young lust was a sweating beast in my bed
her need to rush blindly thru left me alone in the night
with the song ringing in my head

imposter...her flesh gripped me like the hand of accusation
but her soft wispers are comforting

this is not what i should have done
i have made a terrible mistake

rain pours slowly from the gaping wound in the  sky
forever trying to fill the voids between heaven and earth
between the dawn and dusk
well into the night i stand here with the redhead wrapped around me
like the funeral dressings of some long lost ritual

to look for beauty is a form of hope
perhaps a fools hope
but better that i be a fool and find
than regret not having looked

the moments between
they are the deeper ones
they contain oceans
they move mountains
and it was one such moment
looking into her eyes
the world paused
and everything else was lost from
heart and thought
but her eyes
her lips
i did not breath
i just immersed myself in her
the taste of her perfume on the spring night air
the song of her soft skin wrapped in cotton jeans
the raptures of her eyes as i lost myself in them
like drowning in sweet beauty
like breathing a whole world in one breath
like beauty's true face expressed in
the simplistic complexity's of her
i felt her presence like a wave
breaking over me
breaking parts of me
i just inhaled and held my breath
not wanting her moment to end
not wanting to loose that perfection of her
to the world's fast hand
to loose the chance once again
to reach out and....
but the moment was gone before it began
probably no more than trickery of the eye
but for that one brief...
for that moment between...
i held her and knew what it was like to
love her

they all walked
with willing hearts
with open eyes
or so they all believed
they wanted to know madness
so she showed them mirages she created ink and paper
the fruit of a tree where there was only barren darkness
the man who could fly without wings or a sky
a sea made of sand
a child with an old mans soul
a dream made of burning wood
the machinery of the mad mind blinded by darkness
its wheels turning powered by the words she spoke
its sharp edged meanings painted by her haunting eyes
did a lifetimes living in its loud escapism
quick the muddy waters flow
drink of its thick strong taste
know the clarity of madness
only found in the shadows of night
a corner beyond the edge of carpet
carved into the wooden floor in strange symbols
the meaning of your life
the name of the beast your heart rides
its dark skin that you cling to sweating and hot
leaves you staring into
the abyss
lost from your mind
whispering secrets
laughing quietly
grin at the beast
see it grin back

the road traveled is
often enough written in the eyes
just as the pattern of a leaf may tell the tree
but it will not lay bare to you
what dwells at its root
what you see in another persons eye
is only a reflection
and only you know what lay at the root of that

her fashionable neatness
suffers at the hand of hurried time
but she will not bend in her method
i cannot see into her thoughts
blinded by my own instincts to follow
to meet my woman's desire
just wanting my lover to be happy

we wrestle the sheets in the hot night
with the other woman joining us again
the three of us exploring eachother in hungry wet embrace
seeking the moments when the hot
rush of pleasure leaves you soaked with passions sweat
and waiting for the begin again of
the sweet play of caress and suckle

it is this third woman
whos dark eye i draw you to
for she is well known to me
we have shared a bed before
she is not a bad person
but i know what dwells
at the root of that
a bedroom of appeasing the cravings
of a woman's hidden angers