Why is it that the older you get
The less you seem to care
About all that the world collects
That only helps ensnare

Where don't you know a few short years ago
You filled your pockets with greed
With needless stuff you want and some you don't
Packing them tight selfishly

But age sometimes does us a favor
Of what seemed important then
No longer satisfies in its entice
And you find if you don't have it you'll still live

No longer concerned about the next corner turn
It's more about the here and now
And the happiness you get from that simple fact
Is now what it's all about

There's no need to plan the future
With living life one day at a time
And the older it is that you get
The less you're impressed with the find

It becomes more about friends and family around
And less about the junk in life
That we lined our pockets with just to have
Thinking that's what we needed to survive

There's a freedom don't you know in the letting go
Of all the worldly junk you don't need
You've collected here that's muddled the years
That once filled your pockets with greed

leaves on trees
wait for a breeze
so they can blow
where'er they please

yet patiently
not always seen
when angry red
replaces envy green

some don't dare
being yellow scared
take the leap
to go somewhere

on the ground
all find out
the short trip down
turns deadly brown

where the time spent
on falls lament
the leafs life
came and went

Treat your poem like a song
Played on the radio
Give to it the hooks to get
It read every hour or so

Keep it in a time frame
Under 3 minutes short and sweet
You'll have bouncing heads as it's read
Swaying to the beat

With your lines short in rhyme
You're bound to wow the crowds
Having them all reading it
Everywhere out loud

It'll be #1 with a bullet
This your Top 40 Pop Poem
You'll have everyone in wonder
As they all happily read along

I found a love, lost and forlorn
Dropped on the side of the road
What to do with it, I was torn
So I took it home

Drew a bath, cleaned it up
Welcomed it with open arm's
I want the love to know itself
And that I mean no harm

With love I knew there were no rules
So no rules did I place
In loves company everything's free
And comes with a smidgen of grace

Since love's been here I've been able to share
Love would have it no other way
If you're out and about take a look around
You yourself might find a love today

There comes a time in a life
Where you find you've reached a place
Where the willow bends in the wind
The birds sing out in protest

Where the hope that is to come
You've seen it before all come undone
As you harken back to the truth
There's nothing new under the sun

It brings the day into the light
The struggle of the just get by
So many weathered so many worn
The fabric tattered where life is torn

When time comes to take time out
For granted is the round about
The sun will keep on shining down
With nothing new still to be found

Where in the wind the willow bends
As the birds sing in protest
Life will wallow in this mess
Until death gives us rest

left handed lefty
lifted his right hand one day
quickly asked a question
then just as fast put it away

it was at that moment
lefty was left with a thought
what if the only thing left
is not right at all

leaning left he often said
what he thought was right
but when it comes to answers
right at times can be hard to find

left handed lefty
put his hand back in his pocket
thinking right then the only thing left
was to pretend he never thought it

I was in too much of a hurry
In my younger days
To pay that much attention
To what life had to say

I'd shrug it off then move along
To what next caught my eye
And in my ignorant bliss I continued this
Throughout most my life

Not knowing the consequences
Beyond a shadow of a doubt
I'm sure I was told but never listened
As the wheels kept spinning round

Anyone that is anyone
Knows that age does not play games
It is focused on its purpose
And that's to quickly end the race

You can take it all for granted
Like the tortoise to the hare
Lay out all your schematics
Showing the years you've gotten nowhere

And you just past your prime
Find it's too late to turn back now
So you keep on in the wasting time
As the wheels keep spinning round

What are you holding onto
That you feel brings joy in life
That gives you satisfaction
That won't fall apart in time

That hasn't started out brand new
Soon enough to be old
Where you'll seek that something different
To replace what you now hold

Why not draw your attention
To the creator of it all
Of the joy you think you're holding
To what's deep within your heart

The one that never will decay
Like this world that's bathed in sin
The Alpha and Omega
The beginning with no end

Because everything including man
Either falls apart or rusts
Back to the ground from which it came
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

So I ask you what you're clinging to
That you feel brings joy in life
That gives you satisfaction
That won't fall apart in time

She says that I'm an artist
Who paints treasures with words
A rhymer of the whisper
That some have never heard

A proclaimer of ideas
That start off in the heart
Moving quickly beyond all this
Bits and pieces a la carte

A man for all seasons
Playing out in song
Giving her a reason
That she can sing along

Apparently I've kept her
All this time enthralled
Like Winter, Spring, and Summer
Flows into the Fall

She says that I'm an artist
Not sure how far that will go
Perhaps when I'm dead and gone
Then the past we'll know

I keep my heart
in a box
Lined in lead
triple locked

Can't be too careful
you know these days
With Kryptonite
and what girls say

My heart's been hurt
so many times
I had the lead
velvet lined

To give it somewhere
soft to lay
Until it feels
it feels okay

My heart you see
can indeed
Be the most
peculiar thing

Softened in
its tender parts
Hardened from
all the hurt

Hence the box
triple locked
Lined in lead
for this poor heart

The older I get the less that I fret
With my ******* wadded up in a tizzy
As anyone could see I used to be
A mini-me of Dizzy Gillespie

I'd huff and I'd puff when I'd had enough
Like some Big Bad Wolf  in a fable
Then let it all fly as the steam in me would rise
Right on time, here comes Old Faithful

No one hanging around at the bubbling sound
As it came close to the rim
No need to wait for the show, see you later gotta go
Afraid by flying debris they'd be hit

Thankfully those years are long gone as I've learned to calm down
Although I still have my moments
My family looks at me quite suspiciously
When I turn on the news at 6

Texting is the modern day wonder
Never having to place the call
You can laugh you can joke, anger evoke
While showing no emotion at all

Although I confess sometimes you must guess
What the other person is trying to say
Maybe where they are heading on the phone they're sitting
And their left cheek is typing crazy away

You can scream you can cuss throw your hands up in discust
Then calmly type out your answers
As fast as your fingers can fly you can quickly replay
Like a 70's leisure suit disco dancer

Or you can sit there and wait, take umpteen number of days
Before you get back with that
But the best part is the lesson of no personal interaction
After all why get that involved

Yes texting is the modern day wonder
From mine to your finger tips
I hope all this you can see without the help of emoji's
And the fact that I forgot to spell check

Everywhere I go
My rear is there for me
To give comfort when I sit
Should I decide to bend the knee

I take my wife's advice
And keep my cheeks pinched tight
So everywhere I go
My brains don't spill out on the floor

There is this rhyme
I've had for some time
Bouncing around in my head

And just when I
Think it's ready for flight
It buries itself instead

Running this course
Of back and forth
Often thought but never seen

Like the words to a song
Forgot long ago
Only humming the melody

I think over time
It's added words to its rhyme
Expanding what it has to say

But what good does it do
When it never let's loose
Enough to see the light of day

Only giving a taste
Of what it has to say
Never taking that final step

As my guess is this rhyme
Will stay for some time
Bouncing around in my head

We've got fascists on the left
Nazis on the right
Supremacists in the middle
All dressed up in white

As commies come in colors
That are hard at times to see
They're still a colorful array
Of daily catastrophe

Socialists here to tell us
As a matter of fact you can
Take candy from a baby
And put it in someone else's hand

With elitists at the top
To tell us how to breathe
And the poor without a paddle
At the bottom of the stream

And while I'm at it, what life doesn't matter
In the grand scheme of things
Be it red, black, yellow, white
Or fluorescent Martian green

All I really want
Is to be left alone
In my lower middle class
Without your fine tooth comb

Hate who and what you like
Just please leave me be
And I'll leave you alone
To your insanity

This girl from my past that I once knew

Reminds me a lot of you
She was younger that's for sure
With a sweet smile just like yours

This girl from my past that I once knew

Loved her just as much as I do you
She could always make me laugh
You and her both have that knack

This girl from my past that I once knew

Made me want to jump through all the hoops
If I was younger like she was
I'd say today how high how far

This girl from the past that I once knew

Still has a hold of my heart to tell the truth
The older these days that I get
The more I tend to look back

This girl from the past that I once knew

I was blessed to have her say I do
And she has every day since then
My life, my love, my wife, my friend

This girl from the past that I once knew
And I thank the good Lord daily I still do

Miss Liberty says
Before she takes the fall
She's a bit confused
At today's goings on

She remembers when
Our strength was our difference
Now that difference has us
Fighting it out like kids

Before she goes down for the count
She'd like to find out
What all the fuss
And hub bub is all about

With the fog rolling in
It's hard to see clear
Or where to begin
Between some people's ears  

Miss Liberty says
There's not much time left
So grab a hand basket
And get set for the trip

If you're not sure what I mean
Feel free to look it up
I'm trying my very best
These days not to cuss...

Sometimes I don't like what you don't like
And then sometimes I do
Does that not still give me the right
To like and do what I want to

As long as I'm not harming others
Or bringing it on myself
Don't I have the right to say and do
What I want to without your help

And in turn it's true the same goes for you
Can we not treat each other in kind
I guess in all this what I'm trying to say is
You live your life and I'll live mine
And that my friend is our basic right

I may not be the sharpest lead in the pencil
Or the brightest jewel in the display case
I also may not be one learned in higher degree
But I do have common sense in its place

My brains blade may only slice warm butter
And the Gummy bears in my thoughts a bit soft
I may only have, street smarts to lean back
But I know the difference between right and wrong

I'm certainly not the deepest layered lasagna
Or hold the brightest bulb in my head
But I know without a doubt that you struggle without
The first hand knowledge in common sense

I am at her beck and call
There for her every need
The shoulder she cries on
When lovers give her grief

I'm the holder of the jar
To the secrets that she keeps
She's a woman in love
But she's not in love with me

I'm the one in whom she trusts
The comfort that she seeks
I'm there when she rings me up
To bend my ear but not my knee

Conversation deep but not enough
For her my heart to see
She's a woman in love
But she's not in love with me

Wish I could let her know
The other secret her jar keeps
That's the love I've yet to show
As the friend she has in me

I'll keep holding out the hope
That one day she will see
She's a woman in love
That is in love with me

Just North of South Carolina
Is where this country boy was born
All I really cared in those growing years
Was the running through woods kind of fun

Those days I fondly remember
There's no way you can bad mouth the South
With water up to our knees chasing crawfish in creeks
And anything else nature would allow

Even squirrel hunting as younguns
So my Granny could make us a pie
No secret better kept than eating straight off the land
Whether it was squirrels or apples to find
Granny always made delicious pies

Always in church every Sunday
Paying the Lord his due respects
For all that we have and all that he gives
Plus for the forgiveness of sins

Then after church when there weren't no chores
We'd kiss and tell our parents goodbye
They'd not see us again till we heard the bell ring
Come about supper time

There's something that's to be said about being a kid
Growing up down in the South
Where there's no better time below the Mason Dixon line
But that you'd have to find out for yourself

Do you remember me
The way I remember you
In fondness and in folly

Do you step out at night
And stare at the moon
Dreaming in rhyme the days of old

Do you catch yourself
In mid-stare
If you see a star that's falling

Do you wish back
To the day that
We were the story being told

Do you think of me
If there's a chilling breeze
And the warmth that I provided

Do you feel that warmth
Inside your heart
And does it help to battle off the cold

Do you remember me
The way I remember you
As I do you daily

Do you miss the read
Unwritten chapter and verse
As life for us moves on

We're on a slippery *****
As we raise high all the hoops
Someone grab ahold of the rope
But not the one with the ragged end noose

If we keep on in this spiral
Of downward trajectory
There will soon be nothing left
When it comes to you and me

Galloping along on our high horse
Aren't we all the same to blame
As a matter of sense in this matter of course
Don't we all blame the same

We set our standards high
Expecting the others to jump
Knowing that if we ourselves even tried
We wouldn't have too much luck

With our do as I say
But don't do as I do
Leading the way
In our new attitude

Or we too afraid
To sing life in harmony
As our voices raise
To this daily song way off key

I keep wondering when
We'll say enough is enough
And see that hate doesn't stop hate
Hate only sucombs to love

This is the place
I find my rest every time
I rest my case
As loves shadow steps into the light

I gladly pay the fee
As your love fills my every need
This being the guarantee
At home in your hands

You being the break
I take from my mistakes
Of the past I've made
Before I find it too late

You are the first thing I ask
When I ask of anything
That is to be seen
At home in your hands

Keep this in mind
Time after time if you can
With you in my life
I'm free of its demands

In our shared belief
Between you and me
Safe in your keep
At home in your hands

Mind if I ask if there's anything left
When it comes to common sense
With Band wagon outside you jump on for the ride
Not caring if it's East or West

Where you carry the tune of a marching buffoon
A Lemming at the edge of the cliff
No one's leading the charge, you just think that they are
...crowd control at its best

As you continue to do what they tell you to
More common but very little sense
Where I used to laugh now I find it sad
As no one seems to check the facts

You can boo hoo and cry, chase butterflies
In this fantasy world you live
Cover your ears along with your eyes
Could you cover your mouth instead

But alas you're in the loop of monkey see monkey do
Here's a little secret that can't be kept
What you thought you once knew no longer rings true
That has a lot to do with the lack of common sense

Instead of running round in circles
I'm running round in squares
Serves the same general principle
In the getting of nowhere

Except this way you don't know
What mystery lies ahead
Around each of the four corners
And can't see the mess you've left

I'm a White Conservative Christian
In case "that" you didn't know
And ask if you could or kindly would
Not type me in stereo

Cause I am not you and you are not me
And we are both not he or she
All of us free to be who we want to be
In today's society

And to say I'm the same or the one to blame
For others who carry that name
All seems to me if not crazy
Above it all over the wall insane

Would you want others to do the same thing to you
Before they even knew who you were
To say that you're like the other guy
Just because you share the same color

I think that we need to stop typing freely
So much in stereo
And then like me you might agree
We have more in common than we let on

So let's stop all the fighting and stereotyping
As we learn to love one another
Not as we wish that we were or think that we are
But sister to sister and brother to brother

It's just another day on the road
Just another empty promise
I've made on the go
I have gotten so used to it
You'd think by now I'd know
Just another empty promise
From this empty soul

It's just another day that I'll behave
Just as long as everything
This day goes my way
Don't do as I so often do
But do as I too often say
Just another day
Where mistakes are to be made

Just another day, more of the same
Whenever things do not go right
I find someone else to blame
Never paid enough mind
As life seldom goes my way
More of the very same
With little chance of change

Just another high and lofty goal
One that I've set for myself
That too often ends up in a hole
I've had a rash of new beginnings
But the end is all I know
And here I find myself alone again
Just another day on the road

This friend of mine
Prays for me
Shares my wants
Knows my needs
Lays them down
Before the Lord
This friend of mine and I
In one accord

This friend of mine
I do the same
I pray for them
In Jesus name
I lay their burdens
Before the Lord
This friend of mine and I
In one accord

i'm as lucid as a lunatic

playfully insane

over the moon like a loony tune

tiddly winking the day away

over the edge as if unhinged

flapping in the wind

being led by voices in my head

as they speak up once again

my elevator quickly passes

every other floor

but in my mind i still can find

the light of one more poem

Over the years
it's plain to see
I've lost most things
but my ugly

Most folks I know
would agree
Ugly has always
looked good on me

Ain't no sense
trying to figure out
How all this ugly
came to come about

Or how it is
the only thing
That has ever really
stuck with me

Lost most my mind
and all my shape
Not enough math Pi
and too much cake

The hardest thing
that is to fake
Is the face of ugly
I face every day

In the center of town
There's an old music box
Where people take turns
Turning the ****

Whatever song
You are feeling that day
That is the song
The music box plays

From songs of sorrow
That bring about tears
The music box has
Had it's share over years

Even the happy
With melodies of pure joy
There's not a song
The music box does not know

Children take turns
Playing their childish tunes
While the old and the frayed
Remember well that time too

The music box
Has been around for so long
Yet not a soul knows
How it picks the perfect song

Music has changed
So much over time
Yet still has a calming effect
Over the beasts in our lives

Perhaps that's the job
Of the music box
As the people in town
Take turns turning the ****

When life's not going right
Guess you could say it's going wrong
Do what it is I always do
Pick up the telephone
Dial my favorite number
They've never steered me wrong
Of course that number is
1-800-Not My Fault

In any situation
At any given time
#1 on my speed dial
Connects me directly to their line
I seem to call it often
Not giving it much thought
My fingers know just where to go
1-800-Not My Fault

Missed your anniversary?
Or the twins Bar Mitzvah?
To avoid all the yelling and crying
Do it out of love
Remember this time around
You won't be doing it for naught
So pick up the telephone
1-800-Not My Fault

Cooking in the kitchen
You set the house on fire
The one time you do laundry
You throw your wife's tight jeans in the dryer
Fired from your job a month ago
For a month you've been hiding that with lies
Just so it is you don't get caught...dial
1-800-Not My Fault

So my friend remember this
If your ever in a jam
Just excuse yourself a moment
Dial as fast as your fingers can
Age it does not matter
Neither being a woman, child, or man
No need to be distraught
Come on now...you know the number
1-800-Not My Fault

There are times when
It might seem that
I am lost and forlorn

With no explaining
Of words conveying
What has me acting so withdrawn

It's hard to fake it
What's in the making
As sometimes life just gets to me

But I keep coming
Back to your loving
As I would not think to change a thing

The way you know me
The way that holds me
Brings comfort deep down in my soul

Although at times
I still might find
The world I'm in losing control

I might withdraw
Before a fall
A safety mechanism protecting me

But for the record
There is no better
And I would not think to change a thing

And on those days
Life's thrown hard my way
Knocking me out of place

My heartbeat
Again tells me
Of the promise that I made

I can take my bouts of mood
If you can too
And if you do, please forgive me

Which is a reflection
Of our loves acceptance
And on that I would not think to change a thing

My mother thinks I'm a doctor
I just don't have the guts
To tell her I spent all my college doe
On beer, wine, women and such

So after I faked my graduation
Said I was moving to the South
To help the less fortunate among us
Another lie I let slip out

I'm now in the south of Florida
Where some may call me a ***
Living in a citrus grove along the coast
Not answering to anyone

It's really not such a bad life
This do nothing life I've made
I hear Moms proud of me at afternoon tea
Telling the girls of all the lives I save

I do my share of dumpster diving
That's where I got the idea
Behind a real doctors office one day
With some of their stationary I nabbed

I did a little doctoring
After all I do play one in Moms mind
Doesn't look too lame where I inserted my name
Then wrote my Mom about the kids and the wife

I've created such an elaborate charade
It's now gotten all out of hand
As I panhandle my way up and down
The Sunshine states surf and sand

Mom now says she wants to visit
Can't wait to meet the wife and kids
Don't know how I let it get this crazy
And how it all lead up to this

Now I'm scrambling to find a vacant house and a woman
With a couple of kids that look just like me
That can go along with a ruse for a week in mid-June
Since I told her that's when  I'd be free

I'm thinking I should of studied in college
Instead of being this mind numbing huckster
Telling lie after deepening lie
Just so my Mother would think I'm a doctor

This life is like
A slow suicide
Where you hang yourself daily
Till the day that you die

More often than not
You shoot yourself in the foot
As your **** and your brain
Take turns working your mouth

You'd write a note
Explaining way
But life is too short
And you don't have the time

This life is like
A slow suicide
Where the daily problems
Poison both heart and mind

You find yourself
So tired of it
But in life's confusion
You don't know how to quit

So you live it all
For sufferings sake
Till death comes along
And takes life away

Right out the gates they slap you
And here it is, you brand new
Don't worry there's much more to come

As you take in your new view
A cold gray world to greet you
Welcome to the club

Just a kid in all you do
Do everything that they tell you
Act up and you'll be drugged

Learning early to stay in line
Mind your manners and you'll do fine
Welcome to the club

Quickly are your teenage years
Not finding friends, your biggest fear
In wanting to be loved

You clutch and grab at any straw
Try your best to bend its will
Welcome to the club

As you reach for adolescence
There's no more need to be guessing
You'll figure out soon enough

You'll learn in time to accept them
All of these hard knock life lessons
Welcome to the club

Then you reach adult years
All your hopes, dreams, and fears
Get rolled up into one

Your youthful vigor will soon become
Worn out jeans inside the wash
Welcome to the club

You watch in wonder as years fly by
Hear distant thunder from your coming life
Close but not yet done

There's a few more angry bites
To be taken out your hide
Welcome to the club

Now old and gray is all you see
Pack your bags get set to leave
As aches and pains daily beat you up

Inches away from the grave
No more need to count the days
Welcome to the club

Oh, the days of youth
When the wind
Blew through my hair
Without a care

Now older here
I stare in the mirror
Where it's hard to find
Hair anywhere

Except by chance
At awkward glance
I see it grow
From out my ears and nose

You're hoping for something
That'll bring you around
Better than the nothing
You've already found

Not sure you know this
But I've news for you
Life is a meadow
You go running through

Of the world and its promises
You've had your fill
Don't believe a word that they say
And you never will

You may taste the sweet freedom
And still be deeply in debt
But life is a gamble
So you best place your bets

A cause for relief
Always comes into light
And you need to let
Your little one shine

Here's a little something
A secret that's kept
Life is a pool
We all do laps in

You brain storm when you can
To be let off the hook
With the line still attached
You'd toss it back if you could

You may not believe
But take a look at the facts
Life is a fast train
Rolling on rusty tracks

It's mind over matter
But what really matters to you
Is not what you've done
But what you're going through

The reason being
You're most times out to lunch
Life is a menu
We order off of

It's not a piece of cake
But where's your piece of the pie
The truth in the knowledge
Is hidden deep in the lie

*Though you try your best
There still is regret
Life is a fastball
Try and catch it if you can

Once I was the lying kind
Whatever lie came across my mind
I'd stick rock solid hard with it
To the point of going down with the ship

If there was a chance that I'd get caught
I'd double down on that thought
Fabricate till my lips turned blue
Swear up and down that it was true

I would build so tall a tale
Twice the size of the Eiffel Tower
Having most there wondering
If it was French that I was spewing

Keeping people all confused
On if the lie was really true
Giving me more of a chance
To add a few more lies to it

You might up and wonder why
I would tell so many lies
Was the truth not good enough
Was it the thrill inside the bluff

The older now I seem to get
My mind slides as much as slips
Making it harder to misconstrue
So now I only tell the truth

You do believe that too...don't you?

At the end of everyday I take
This world that I have made
Place it in my dresser drawer
Safely tucked away

It just wouldn't do
To have it running loose
Give it time to reflect
Quiet and subdued

This world that I have made
I keep under lock and key
Try my best to
Not let it get away from me

If I balk or if I blink
It could easily run wild and free
This world I've made, this world I keep
Could end up in the drink

Morning times we go for a drive
Then in the end, bring it back again
To save it for another day
This world that I have made

If you ever stop to wonder
If what I say is true
Feel free to take a gander
At what I'm going through
This color I can't escape
The deepest shade of blue

And you'll see just what I mean
This is me missing you

I still wonder often
Why life let you loose
What was going through its mind
I only wish I knew
As it stands right now
I haven't got a clue

Do you now see what I mean
This is me missing you

With the force of memory
Both the old and new
A steep climb to better times
Before all this fell through
Take it all for all it's worth
As I so often do

And you'll clearly see what I mean
This is me missing you

I'm not looking for a handout
So you need not turn away
I feel these days down for the count
In need of some spare change

Nothing that's to drastic
Just a little change in tide
From the in as well as out
When it comes to change in life

Spare change in my attitude
In the way I deal with friends
Even those that I don't know
I sometimes need to make amends

Also in my daily walk
Change up my exercise
Instead of curls with a fork
Get up off of my backside

I need spare change in the way
I tend to look at life
Spend it on my kids
As well as on my wife

If there's any that's left over
I'll save it for a rainy day
And the rest above all that
I'll give that change away

Cause I don't care who you are
We could all use some spare change
To make it through the trials of life
We spend time in everyday

i once was a frog
now i'm a prince
it all came about
from one little kiss

you never know
what kindness will do
i was a frog
now i'm something new

i once was a frog
unwanted by all
where nobody knows
how lonely the soul

everyone here
in circumstance
all need a chance
to become a prince

so kiss a frog
next chance you get
as you never know
how that will impact