Back from the county town, my past lives
collide with my present course, I'm tinged
with nostalgia, memories of my upbringing;
Coming-of-age, young adulthood, in-between.

I can't shake the place I was born and reared,
A town so submetropolitan.

Back from the capitol region, upstate,
I ponder an alternate life that never was
under the flag of the United States; dream
of whoever I would have been.

I can't shake the cultures I was brought up in,
A healthy moon, a rose so paracelsian.

Back in The Fair City,
I am absolved ♃ere.


♑︎herefore this instance
of being in the world,

A little girl gave herself to the ocean.
Before she vanished in its blankets of tire, she said,
‘she just needs a hug.’
Innocence against devastation.
‘Don’t blame the ocean,’ I told the mother.
‘She had her children stripped away from her too.’
I would’ve told her not to lay her sorrow by the sea…
But I was talking to a boundless extent that had gained another soul.

sunset's scream of gold, light exults
you betray yourself in depressive insults
the city's hollow tone echoing through flesh,
where life's dreams are made to mesh

unstable rhythms like a windless storm
no paradox, just pain, wounds in display
I fell for the burden, the taste of failure's bite,
the tremble of your fright
no need for final meanings or touches that pretend
love without desire, desire without love's bitter end

I told you: night gets shattered
when  darkness fades away

You will meet
people
in life who
love to keep score.
"I've done this for you, so
you should do that for me."
They keep a mental ledger.
They're pathetic.
Nothing is ever done out of
the goodness of their heart.
Their mind clicks with
records and accounts.
They are slaves to the
almighty penny.
Nothing you do will
ever
count anyway.
You're always in
the red.

It's not enough
Just to love
Family and friends
We must go beyond
Loving those we don't know
One's, we don't get along
That is when love
Comes on strong

It's not enough
Just to love
When people are looking
To put on a front
Because after all
Looking good's what we want
Sometimes love
Is so misunderstood

It's not enough
Just to love
With our own idea
Of how it is done
Throwing conditions
We should overlook
It's not enough
When it comes to love