i was watching the television footage
of the calls for peace and unity
thinking of how far we’ve come but how lost people can be
before the sun glints off the marble steps and returns to the sea

some guys shot up a bunch of French cartoonists for showing the absurdity
of a middle age religious idol who insisted on martyrdom
because their father told them they’d get something good come kingdom come
and by another sad twist of irony made their victims martyrs too

i wonder why i feel the need to respond to what i hear
and if i’m too much of a news ******
taking in a steady stream of corporate malarkey
burning life away tuned out into the glare

i’m tired of trying to solve all of the problems in the world
i’d only like to sit and write today
and sit and sip my coffee in the sunshine
with no languages and nothing left to say

i was reading about government debt in the paper
and inequality, tensions overseas and Muslim ghettos
i don’t know all that much about it all, so i don’t know
but i let the words swirl around in my head then let it go

a European man decided he wanted more rocks and fruit
a century, or two, or three ago in his cold palace
so he strapped some trees together and set off to trade his ballast
for an empire of golden bodies in the sun

and for me it is the same as i sit here with my ball and chain
in the sunshine of the Americas in the modern age
soaking up stories, wasting time then turn the page
hold in another breath then let it out into the air

i’m tired of trying to solve all of the problems in the world
i think i might start making some instead
why not go out and light a torch and seize the day
a century of life or more or less and then you’re dead

i was thinking about going to see the warriors
i’d bring a camera and a notebook and an open mind
be love and ease the tensions of the ties that break and bind
disappear and skip off beyond the boundary line

i’d probably get captured and beheaded
but it would be fun to hang out for awhile
we could listen to good music and smoke cigarettes and smile
then walk out into the wilderness and look up at the moon

the militant awoke to a loudspeaker crackling
a voice in Arabic calling all to prayer
he dropped his rifle to his side and laid his body debonaire
southeast toward a warmer rising sun

i’m tired of trying to solve all of the problems in the world
i’d rather see them in another way
and lift a sword or pen and just start swinging
at the other strutting actors on the stage

i’ve been reading about the lifestyles of the ancients
how they built their homes from the soil
preserved the harvest from spoil
then scattered back into a grand decay

i was watching television
to see the call for peace and unity
and the victories of liberty
in the city on the Seine

i wrote a poem to free my thoughts
for our freedom and for those who died
so i can write and hold my pride
as a candle in the dark

i’m tired of trying to solve all of the problems in the world
to surrender my life to the master
who painted the sun and the stars and the earth
who drew my light in this image then shattered

**originally posted on my blog at https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com/ on January 12, 2015

i’m so ******* weird
from the time i could talk
i could never get the language just right
since the first time i walked
been stumbling and awkwardly fumbling along

a slow learner is what they called me
in the back offices of the training institutions
the doctors and teachers didn’t know what to do
but my experience was as true as any without solutions
wish i could find the best words to remind me of you

keep your eye on the ball
or sing the tune to your own songs
you never get the balance right or wrong
life’s as short as it is twice as long
driving around in a teenage mind looking for something to prove

we would draw pictures in art class in high school
most of the kids would paint flowers or attempt portraits
i would draw intense war scenes prophesizing the end to come
with underground bunkers and a militarized fortress
to harbor the last remaining scraps of humanity and my sanity

i’m so weird
they called it an autism spectrum disorder
but i wonder if i’m actually possessed by a demon
a love demon dancing out on the border
between insanity and the truth and the divine

i’m so ******* weird
i especially am slow
stumbling and tumbling toward the light
always right, always wrong, i know
since the day that i was born i’ve always been a slow learner and a loon

**originally posted on my blog at https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com/ on January 8, 2015

be prepared to be surprised

for what is yet to come

the newsprint headline said today

and don’t get carried away



be aware of the blank multitudinous hum of light

shining through everything then breaking off the mountain lake

and scattering to the nine corners of the cosmos

before settling in a distant body of cellulose



be prepared to be surprised

for what is yet to have been

and turn back the clocks as fast as you can

to arrive at the forgotten promised land



turn your candle to the infinite, infinitesimal everything-nothing

kick back on the patio chair on the back porch of your mind

and gaze hazily into the all-night diner of your life and soul

feel the touch of your hair and think back and then let it go



be prepared to be surprised

for what is yet to come

the cute blonde news anchor implores me

as i *** to her which sets me free



be prepared to be surprised

for what’s done and then undone

and pretend the moon is your only friend

then see the sun come rise again



be prepared to be surprised

for what is yet to come

or just do whatever

i try not to think too much about the silver sun


**originally posted on my blog at https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com/ on January 5, 2015

they say we’re headed for a worldwide drought

a dystopia of dissolution and decline

forests turn to desert and the streams are running dry

brings a shiny tear to the Indian’s eye



they say we might not make it to the future

we’ll be chewed up and spit out by ourselves

the oceans crest the shore and the flood is upon

oh man please can you tell me now how long



they say we probably don’t have much longer

they say we should start living for today

but that’s the same road which we took to get here

and at this point there’s nothing that i fear



they say we’re headed for a worldwide drought

fields turning to dust and cities filthy and roasting

chemicals and bacteria overwhelming shrinking waterways

famine, illness, war and malaise



they say we’re headed for a worldwide drought

but from where i’m sitting everything is fine

the sprinkler spits crystals on the morning lawn

they glisten in the sun then move on



**originally posted on my poetry blog at https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com/ on August 31, 2014

i used to have a potent mind
so full of ideas and thoughts
but then i started smoking ***
from time to time to time

i used to think i had a bright future
i went to school and college and got a degree
but all along the way i had a good, old friend
this scoundrels name is Demon Marijuana

my good friend Demon Marijuana loves me
she comes over and gets me high and then i come
to see the light for just a while longer
before fading back into a fetal curl

i used to think i’d go somewhere and conquer
i went to go and sit some place instead
and stuffed my pipe with grass and inhaled deeply
the aromatic smoke of my old friend

i used to have a potent mind
so full of big dreams and illusions
but then i started smoking ***
from time to time to time

my good friend Demon Marijuana loves me
she comes over and we get high and then she goes
leaving me in the dark a little longer
then fading back into the beginning gray


**originally posted on my blog https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com/ on August 20, 2014

the little ant hill is pooping out more piles of sand

piling little grains of metals high into the sky

they shine immaculately in the sunshine

as the rows of workers stream through the citys’ veins



they carry their plump, white babies

nurtured through larval state to maturity

the work continues tirelessly, ceaselessly

over green hills and through forests



over land and around the suburbs

families sit in their homes around television sets

the hills of little grains pile higher and higher

their antennae turn upward and sense the setting sun



night falls and the work is paused

the night beasts move around the piles of grain

the structure collapses and the residents scatter

rain begins and the flood is upon



the little ant hill is pooping out more piles of sand

piling little grains of metals high into the sky

shining brilliantly in the sun

the colony remains



**originally posted on my blog https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com/ on May 24, 2014

the river flows endlessly

through everything and all

toward eternity

and raining from creation



from beginning to end

in a linear frame

and a cyclical whole

the nurturing rain



stretching outward

and infinitesimally in

the center is the whole

the whole is the center



everything, nothing and all

winding aimlessly adrift

about a blackward void

impressed on the mind



raining from creation

the nurturing rain

returns to the sea

the river flows freely



**originally posted on my blog https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com/ on May 17, 2014