This feeling of sadness
And ache in my chest
Like a stone too heavy to move
Is only an echo
Of the time spent with someone
Now folded into lessons
Neatly tucked among the memories
Of my heart

Sadness is an opportunity, you see
A new beginning
After all, nothing lasts forever
This too shall pass

a number like a bruise on the underside of memory  
a barcode tattooed on the back of a dream  
And the echo of a name you forgot to forget  

six legs of an insect crawling across the ceiling of thought  
five fingers clenched around a stolen cigarette  
five again, because repetition is punishment, is ritual, is comfort  
three seconds before the door slams shut  
two eyes watching from behind the mirror  
one is the self, fractured, refracted, renamed  

655321  
not a number, but a sentence  
not a sentence, but a silence  
not a silence, but a scream with the volume turned down  

the world turns in loops  
milk drips from a broken glass  
a Beethoven symphony plays in reverse  
and somewhere, someone is laughing  
but it’s not joy, it’s not mockery  
it’s the sound of gears grinding in the machinery of remorse  

I am not I  
I am 655321  
I am the sum of my subtraction  
the residue of my rebellion  
the ghost in the system  
the system in the ghost  

and still
the number pulses  
like a heartbeat  
like a countdown  
like a name I never chose  
but always answered to.

Giving the bully, your lunch money does not make him go away. If anything, he comes back hungrier.

I received a sad phone call it was a late hot august day , a good friend had to tell me , another friend just passed away.
I knew him for so many years although we were never really that tight ,  he was a man of small statue with a mind full of ideas of might.
Wild and a crazy , and always ready to go out and play , and now all we have are memories , for now in the ground he will lay.
Oh , I hate to see anyone die , especially someone you know , but just remember people when it’s your time you’re going to go , use your time wisely each and every day , your reservations will run out , this life is limited stay.
You never know when you will see someone for the very last time , for life is so short and precious , and we never know when it’s our time.
He was climbing the rocks to heaven at the garden of the gods ,  when he lost his footing, and there he laid on the ground.
Oh, I hate to see anyone die , especially someone you know , but just remember people when it’s your time you’re  going to go , use your time wisely each and every day , your reservations will run out , this life is limited stay.
Always be kind to people in each and every way , because it may be the last time you see them , before their final day.
Everyone you meet in life will leave memories on your mind , always make them good ones , for some memories will last a long time.
Oh, I hate to see anyone die , especially someone you know , but just remember people when it’s your time you’re going to go , use your time wisely each and every day , your reservations will run out ,  this life is limited stay.
There is a lesson to be learned in everything, that comes into our life , although some sweet and some sour , you can’t beat the gift of life.
As the clouds pass by in the mornings , and the sun shines high in the sky , his spirit will always be among us, and we will never have to say good - bye.
Oh, I hate to see anyone die , especially someone you know , but just remember people when it’s your time you’re going to go , use your time wisely each and every day , your reservations will run out , this life is limited stay.  Copyright Tom Maxwell 2002
.

Three words, three words
She whispers low,
A melody the stars
Shall know.
Three words that bloom
Like rose in spring,
Forever bound
By what they bring.

Three words, three words
She hoped to hear,
Beneath the moon’s
Soft silver sphere.
Three words to strike
A sudden flame.
Three words—
That never came.

want to go for a drink?
yes, I do, rather,
so please excuse me   ..

it is poisonous
they can help reduce mold spores          
the Sago Palm plant