In the darkest umbra of a shadow
Where time and wraith like dimensions collide
Is the place you can find all man’s sorrows
And woman’s secrets they’ll never confide

In the obscurity of one’s dark gloom
In your contrasting reverse projection of self
You can envision your impending doom
Like a porcelain doll falling from the shelf

Trace the outline of your twisted dark shade
Chalking the ground where your body will be laid
Lying down, your shadow and you become one
While you lie dead under the blazing sun

Climb aboard the Paper Airplane Express
Let’s fly to far away destinations
Where we land is random, it can’t be guessed
We have no preconceived expectations

Wings hand crafted by tiny artisans
Powered by adolescent dreams that ignite
Bright eyed smiles, marking the serene occasion
Of each and every planes inaugural flight

Hop aboard the Paper Airplane Express
No two planes are alike, each is unique
And not every flight is a success
But we can re-launch after a simple tweak

As our pilots aren’t allowed to play with matches
To date none of our planes have caught on fire
Though we have seen quite a few crashes
And apparently that little pyro bobby just made me a liar

I write poems in hope that they will live on forever
Because someday I will die

I try to tell my daughter I love her every day, I call my dad once a week and try to stay in contact with my friends
Because someday I will die

I go to work and collect that check making sure a part of it goes to life insurance
Because someday I will die

I wonder the streets at night, climb mountains during the day and try to take it all in
Because someday I will die

I try to get to know you all better
Because someday I will die

I want to understand your point of view
Because someday I will die

I read poetry
Because someday I will die

I drink Crown, smoke a tobacco pipe and eat the occasional steak
Because someday I will die

I meditate and contemplate the meaning of life
Because someday I will die

I love and hope and care and pray
Because someday I will die

I rant, shake my fist and express my discontent
Because someday I will die

I clean my house, take out the trash, do the dishes and wear clean underwear
Because someday I will die

You are reading this poem
Because some day I will die

We fight to stay alive
Because we do not want today to be the day we die

Poets are writers of infinite truths
Shamanistic travelers exposing fear
Paper and pen prophets rousing the obtuse
Quasi-harbingers of new frontiers

Politicians and their paid speechwriters
Lifetime career prostitutes of lies
Cyrano de Bergerac shysters
Writing pledges they will deny

Poetic outlaws of verse redefining
Societal boundaries of acceptance
Brigands of rhyme rocking the boat
Poems with intended disturbance

Every society needs outlaws
Rebuff the system
Fight back
Or
Withdraw

We're all un-informed about something
We can't know everything
But when your ignorance impacts others
Un-knowledged and un-aware
It is not the same as un-mindfully aware
Inflicting your imbecilic  infections
Upon others I cannot abide in
We need more un-derstanding
To be un-bigoted
We need to stand together
In this un-certain world
To do anything less would be un-reasonable
Un-do your ignorance
Un-***** your head from your ***

Oh Lord, grant me the gift of retribution
Let my determination stay the course
Before the day of their absolution

Oh Lord, help me before my final inhalation
For my enemies I feel no remorse
Oh Lord, grant me the gift of retribution

Oh Lord, I ask not for salvation
My adversaries I shall unhorse
Before the day of their absolution

Oh Lord, for my foes the final execution
Eye for an eye, take their life by force
Oh Lord, grant me the gift of retribution

Oh Lord, protect me from retaliation
Sacrifice and prayers my only recourse
Before the day of their absolution

Lost humanity, I have no reservation
For the reprisal I shall endorse
Oh Lord, grant me the gift of retribution
Before the day of their absolution

I can't seem to get my head on right
But for a moment my mind, a beacon of light

I could see, think and expound truths clearly
Thoughts turned to words once passed through me

But I have become a dim light bulb
No matter how much amps or volts I gulp

Even if I hammer this desk with my head
Does no good, the hamster and wheel are dead

However, I will not allow myself to be undone
I must again alight my mind like a sun

I'll make a gasoline and Vaseline mixture
Something along the line of ****** I'll procure

Add the concoction to the end of a Q-tip
Let it soak for more than a sip

Light it on fire by striking a match
And to set ablaze my brain thatch

Ram the flame deep into my ear
Nothing to lose, nothing to fear

I must do this before I become a vegetable
Point in case
I can't think of anything that rhymes with vegetable
Nothing that isn't completely nonsensical

I studied Buddhism
At a temple downtown
I was still young, naive
And trying to explore the world
And thought maybe here, in the temple
There would be only enlightenment
My assigned teacher was born and raised
In Japan
He flat out told me that if things
Had gone differently in the war
That many American generals
Would have been hung for war crimes
I realized this was his passive aggressive way
Of letting me know that I was not welcome
I left the temple never to return

As I made my way across downtown
A ragged young girl stopped me
She asked me if I had any change
To give her. I told her I had none
She screamed at me with such hostility
“Punch me in the face!” She bellowed
“For five bucks you can punch me in the face!”
Looking back it was brilliantly done
It had all the ferocity of an attack
But her words were carefully chosen
To redirect the idea of violence on herself
Making her the victim
It was meant to invoke an emotional
Response from me
Maybe I was meant to beg her for forgiveness
And hand her all the cash I had

In the end, they found the *******
in me
I had no emotional response to either
Of these attacks
They meant nothing to me
I was already numb

Part 1
The snooze button empowers me to the veto the day
However some Congressional sub-committees on time and financing appear to be overriding my action

Part 2
I have played with clouds
I have seen moons drop past the horizons of distant worlds
I have talked to Solomon, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Siddhartha, the Dalai Lama, all of his incarnations, Gandhi, Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and soldiers returning home from countless wars
And I have been disappointed thousands of times because you have awoke me before I was fully enlightened

Part 3
You should have warned me before I said something stupid
Why don't you ever signal me before I over draw my checking account
You could of let out some kind of peep telling me that the dog was about to crap on the floor
You are good for nothing

Part 4
It needs to be over between us
I am in love with pillow

People believe evil is the great adversary of man
That evil is the actions conducted after sin's temptation
Or horrifying deeds done in the name of something unholy

What is evil?
Evil is a marshmallow that falls from your stick into the fire's ashes
Evil is finding a hole in your favorite sock
Evil is getting a paper cut on your tongue from licking an envelope
Evil is getting splashed by a passing car in winter
Wet, cold and soaked to the bone

Evil is having your dolly broken from childhood antics
Evil is getting beans in your burrito when you ordered without
Evil is watching time speed up as you get older
Evil is watching the clock slow down when you want to leave at 4:00
Time is a *****

Evil is a child's balloon popping
Evil is ice cream and they are all out of sprinkles
Evil is turning on the light switch and the bulb doesn't work
Evil is a red light
Satan lives at intersections

Evil is getting homework that cuts into  your playtime
Evil is watching your dad make himself a PB&J; sandwich, eat it in front of you and doesn't offer to make you one
Evil is being told you have to go to bed early
Evil is when you run out of ideas

*(I wrote this poem with the help of my daughter Casey)

I am sure my mail lady loves me
She does stop by my house frequently
She brings me letters, bills and adverts
And with great force my mail she inserts

Though jammed, crammed, mashed and squashed is the mail
Like an abstract origami fail
Of which she fits into my mail box
Deftly and quick like she’s on the clock

And without so much as a toodaloo
She leaves as if she is just passing through
But I know she just wants my attention
Her act is just a cry for affection

I’ll let her know her message is received
I’ll leave behind something she can retrieve
A purple handmade folded paper crane
Which I’ll then crush and vigorously maim

We are folding paper airplanes
Wanting to soar away from it
Stopping the fanning of the flames
Flying out of this neck high ****

We’re pirates of newspaper boats
Climbing aboard, away from it all
Above the **** we try and float
Reaching land or go over the falls

We’re making origami napkins
Something to clean up the mess
When the next shitastrophe happens
With more soiled diaper regrets

We are folding paper airplanes
Trying to ascend above it
Desperate attempts not in vain
Or drown in our own excrement

I have made a list
Of things to forget
I have not a wish
To repay these debts
Or be reminded
Of time that was spent
Together yet divided
No plan to repent
For immoral sins
To look over my
Regrets, nor take a spin
At the start and retry
To untie the wrongs
Inflicted by you
Feelings which you long
To have me undo
I just want a list
That will get me to
The end of the gist
A new point of view
That won’t include you
But here is the twist
Every time I inspect
My forget you sheet
I begin to reflect
On what I’d delete
Now an unfortunate
Reminding portrait
Of all the things I want to forget

Your mind's eye is turned inward
Looking at a distorted image of yourself
Droplets of imagination
Falling into your pool of thought
Static brain ripples
Traveling outward
Crashing against the sides
Of your mental boundaries
Those self created boundaries of
Hindrance
Exposing your ignorance
And I
Standing outside the walls of your mind
I see the real you
Through nothing more than a peep hole
Looking deeply into your exposed soul
All the while you stare judgmentally
At your minds eye image of yourself
I can see your light
The part of you that is diamond like in clarity
And until you awake
With full realization
Awareness
And understanding
I am alone

You are a dead end
You are horse with blinders on
A small dog with a muzzle
Pulling at the end of a chain

You are a cold shower
You are mittens at a petting zoo
A stale crust of bread
With a tepid glass of water

You are a bicycle with no wheels
You are a mountain only an inch high
A two dimensional square
Living in a box with no windows or doors

You are the reason to write
With violent intentions
You are the reason to do it all wrong

I want you to tell me what the rules are
Rigidly deeply furiously
Until you let go orgasmicly
And just relax

I see your rules and strict guidelines for the lies they are

Build no walls around me
Unbind my hands
Emancipate my mind
Release me from these edicts
Constrain imagination no more

She says to me

These boys have no game

She shows me their text messages

And ridicules them

Really tearing them down

She wants me to flirt with her

Egging me on

Desperate for the

Attention

She reeks of it

She is 6" heeled shoes

She is a tight mini skirt

She is taunting eyes

Telling me to play her game

She is hot water

And cold showers

She is a tigress

A man eater

All in a young petite frame

I am just a big old ape

Trying to survive day to day

And I don't have time

To flirt

My thoughts are a prison

My imagination a stockade

All that I am and all that is
Contained within me a bastille

My room is a correctional institution

My home is mandatory confinement

This community is a reformatory

These sidewalks, these streets and
the road side signs a penitentiary

The television, the radio, the news
and all the crap they want me to
buy is a jail

The lines and borders drawn on a map, policies,
politics, governments and religions
are a fenced pen

The forests, deserts, rivers, streams,
lakes, hills, swamps, marshes, mountains
and oceans are a cell

This planet, its moon, the stars and galaxies
are a vault

The universe contains me
It restrains me
There is no escape

Wishing things could have gone differently
Drudging up the past in your mind
An inflicted state of morbidity
Words spoken to yourself are maligned

Replaying the same mistakes over and over
Negative mantras of your life
How do you hold onto your composure
When you are full of so much strife

Your midnight nightmares of mental torment
Illusions played out in your head
Like psychic tortures causing your descent
Intellect hanging by only a thread

Trying not to make the same mistakes again
Your future in total disillusion
Wallowing in anguish you are condemned
To a bygone institution

In my room are windows to the soul
And a place for unwritten poems
In my room are lights at night
And the many poems I have had to rewrite
In my room are daytime shadows
And the smell of smoked tobacco

In my room there is a place to stand
There is a place to lie down
And space for everything in between

In my room are blue skies and cloudy days
With large stacks of books creating a maze
There is a place for my hidden dreams
Nothing in here, is as it seems
There is a raving poet with self-allusion
Most often then not suffering from grand delusion

Occasionally there is a drunk in my room
We drink together and talk about life

From the world I have withdrew
Tomorrow Ill be back feeling anew
For my room is my sanctuary
But if I die in here and never come out
Will someone please write my obituary?

Embrace it
Except it with open outstretched arms
Imagine the beautiful silence no one will hear
The taste of ash on dead lips
The sweat smell of decaying flesh
The crumbling monuments of shortsightedness
Finally all will be equal and free
Finally all will be on the same side of the argument
Finally all will have peace and justice
Embrace it
Except it with open outstretched arms
All sins will be washed away in the blink of an eye
Fire purifies all
No more wars or violence
No more overcrowded jails
No more unpaid bills stacking up
No more fuxing lawyers or traffic lights
Black heart will finally have a fitting home
Wretched souls will finally be obliterated
Embrace it
Except it with open outstretched arms
Love the idea of it
Look forward to it
Rush toward it headlong
Push your way to the front to make sure you get a good seat
Help facilitate it
Quicken its pace
Point it in the right direction
And push the big fuxing red button

They say tomorrow’s the end of the world
Well isn’t that just absolutely great
I have a long list of things to get done
Tomorrow I had planned to lose some weight

You’re just now telling me the world will end
I still have bills to pay and a book to write
I was just about to invent something
That was much better than Edison’s light

They say tomorrow’s the end of the world
To watch the apocalypse get a good seat
Folk are running to the store to grab beer
And sunscreen for the coming blast of heat

You’re just now telling me the world will end
The timing of this doom couldn’t be worse
How am I going to get everything done
There’s not even enough time to rent the hearse

They say tomorrow’s the end of the world
Everyone’s telling me to accept this fate
So I’ll just stay home with my rubber girl
And I’ll have just enough time to inflate

Come fall with me
Let us stretch our arms
Above our heads
And just simply fall
Feel the sublime
Celestial air
Let the divine friction
Burn our hair to ash
Let the thunderous rushing
Sound roar in our ears
Filling us to the brink
Fall chest first
And let your heart guide you
Like Cupid's missile aimed
At a lover
Don't be frightened
You can hold my hand
If you so desire
This is not irrationality
Ground is just a false rumor

Awoken by the dawns unwanted light
Untangling from your clingy arms and legs
Being the first one up surely ain’t right
Now who’s going to make me coffee and eggs
I see that lazy tight young *** sticking out,
With *** and suggestiveness that you flout,
Nakedness uncovered by the bed sheets
Our cloths carelessly thrown across the floor
Remembering you calling last night for more
Until all our energy was deplete

My body is all scratched up and ache’n
I am too **** old for these nighttime forays
I don’t see you up making me bacon
So forget you; I’m off to the café
You can just lie there, sleeping alone
And I’ll get back once you have left the home
Feel free to grab a pop-**** when you leave
For you I have taped this poem to the door
I apologize if I sound a bit sore
But please wait before calling another eve

Together, over the edge
We fell into the chasm
Plunging hand in hand chest first
Followed by our past phantoms

Falling like sallow dead leaves
From our own broken branches
Cutting ****** through chaos
Knowing we were taken our chances

Sinking into the dark depths
Of affections pitched blackness
Plagued by our fiery passions
Much like the burning harvest

Endless was our plummeting
We could never hit bottom
But then you let go of my hand
The ground is now your problem

I have wings

You can’t talk
I can’t lie
Killing slowly
Our love did die

You can’t think
I can’t dream
Nothing was
As it seemed

You can’t hope
I can’t bleed
We should never
Of done the deed

You can’t see
I can’t hide
Relationship
Suicide

You can’t feel
I can’t run
Both our hands
On the gun

You can’t laugh
I can’t cry
Time to say
Our last goodbye

It is over
We are done
Just like watching
The dying sun