In autumn’s tranquil, moonlit night
I walked through embers of firelight
And in the air above my head
flew spirits of the newly dead

Floating in October’s chill
I think I see my uncle Phil
He’s there beside my auntie Fay
who holds a flame to light the way

Round and round they travel so
into the stratosphere they go
And disappear for evermore
Gone to Heaven's tranquil shore

But what is this? I'm floating too
Upon the wind, between the dew
I see my aunt and uncle there
awaiting me with loathsome stare

But wait! Why are they waving so?
It seems I'm sinking down below
Below the ground and into Hell
****, what is that awful smell?

Around me souls are crying out
from orange flames I hear them shout
"Oh God forgive us for our sins
We promise not to sin again"

But no one answers prayers from Hell
How long they'll burn, I cannot tell
They may be saved by half past four
or burn in Hell forevermore

As I descend, below the crust
the air is filled with sulfur dust
I gasp for every drop of air
that my lungs may somehow snare

But air is nowhere to be found
as my soul floats further down
And lands upon the burning floor
to suffer there forevermore

But friend you'll want to listen clear
If you don't want to wind up here
Avoid the food at Taco Bell...

*Or you may dream you're stuck in Hell

Jacking it up to knock it down
the sound of collapse perhaps
the saddest heard by humanity’s
jaded ears
Heroes made and defeated
by apathetic fools, the unwitting
tools of the corporate masses,
who bow before well-to-do *****
in the name of capitalism's sanctified
gluttony
The will of the enlightened
frightened into dark corners
of degradation awaiting
the salvation of one who will
deliver them from the chains
of society’s unadorned ignorance
Bewildered sheep grasping at the
tattered remnants of this wasted
democracy.

Come on little darlin'
while I'm holdin' it together
and I'm standing in the hallway
and I'll wait on you forever
and I'm making up this silly rhyme
and I think it's kinda clever
but reality is something...
well, I'll have to reconsider
so before I get to thinking
and before the night is through
well I wish that you would hurry up
there's so much more to do
you see the world is waiting
and it's just outside the door
and tonight we'll make it different
like it was that time before
and gosh you sure look pretty
like a daisy in the sun
and the car is warm and ready
and our journey's just begun
we'll be a thousand miles from here
before the day is done
and tomorrow we'll start over
and we'll never be undone

But the truth?

We both know

It's waiting for us now

There ain't no way
of saving us...

Tonight

She gave me tea and cookies
and a blanket to keep warm
A smile of reassurance
and shelter from the storm
She pointed at a crucifix
and took me by the hand
She said, 'this is my savior'
But I did not understand.

'What is it he saves you from
and what is it you fear?'
'He wards off evil serpents
that would otherwise be here'
'You mean to say without him
you'd be overrun with snakes?'
She looked at me quite oddly
and said 'Oh, for heaven's sake

'I don't think you realize
the power of the cross
it pummels every evil
showing Satan who is boss'
And all at once it happened
as if suddenly on cue
Two enormous serpents
slithered to the door and through

She moved as quick as lightning
taking crucifix in hand
And smashed each slimy serpent
as it slithered in the sand
I sat in abject horror
as she pounded out their brains
and smashed them for good measure
three or four times once again

And when she was quite certain
that these snakes were truly dead
she hung the holy crucifix
back up over the bed
Then turning in the fire light
a smile upon her face
She said 'One cannot argue with
the power of His grace'

With love there is life
With hatred desolation
We must choose wisely

I hardly knew my mother
and I barely knew my dad
But god I knew John Lennon
he was everything I had
I mimicked everything he did
my life was all the rave
Until the day that Chapman
sent my hero to his grave

That day still burns in memories
that time cannot erode
A generation's legend
shot and bleeding in the road
For me it was the final straw
that broke my timid chains
I vowed I would preach tolerance
and never hate again

I confess it isn't easy
to accept some points of view
and I find myself quite often asking
'What would Johnny do?'
But then I take a minute
and perhaps a couple more
Just until I'm certain
I won't knock you to the floor

(I'm still working on the tolerance part)

Creativity freed
from the structural
prison the decision
to pen the consciousness
within won out over the thin
argument of conformity’s
Apollonian demands,
and like sands falling
through the glass
the words are flowing
past my eyes and my
fingers don’t linger
long upon these keys
that for so long stared
with derision and laughed
at my poetical decisions
A block that mocked
and castrated the spirit
of creative bliss
This is freedom
in poetical existence
and the distance I cover?
Only time will discover
if any of it was worth
a **** at all...