Welcome
find within
a carnival of sin
a festival of pain
and a dusty fifth of gin
Watch your step
there is a cleft
of hard knock rocks
and shocks to your left
Hold on
we should wait
and contemplate
the muses fate
cover the children's eyes
as the shadows rise
to thank the night
It's getting late
and the gracious darkness
spares our eyes
from further sight

light shadow cosmic wanderer
tooth pick broken rainbow mirror
barefoot bard with teaks of Chan
given taken held up here
Maddening glazed and galvanized dreams
make for worthless surreal windows
classic hot rod metal screams
like broken swallows when the wind blows
Young and brave treacherous poisoned blood
leaning up against tenements on ***** sidewalks
chop and snort it on the porcelain
leave the toddler to his blocks
The mirror is hell bent on reflection
the gravy train has left the station
mindless maps without direction
in any given situation
and then the neurotic poet fights
against all odds the blue dressed gang
back pack stashed in plastic nights
the poet goes out with a bang
forget ignore each word he said
blue beard gumdrop reward awaits
on the barren graffiti rocks he's dead
in one of the south central states

while you were in India
did you see the tragic children
playing in feces and ashes
who would give the rest of their lives
to be held and loved for one hour?
Did that vision add to your sorrow?
Did it enlarge that hole in your life?
Did it drip painfully on your heart like hot wax?
When the painful wax grows cold and hardens
Run my sweet sister
Run like you've never run before
come out from under the rain
overtake the wind
Let the pounding of your heart crack
and break that paraffin prison
illusory intimidation is all it is
let it fall and melt again
and become love
for love becomes you

Once the North wind made love with the sea
and a tiny little wave soon came to be
Father Wind would guide him as he grew
His Mother was the sea he traveled through
and as they brought him closer to the shore
each day he would grow a little more
and safe within the arms of Mother Sea
He imagined just how big he'd grow to be
The handsome foam that formed upon his crest
was among his mothers gifts that he loved best
and the harder that his Father Wind would blow
the larger and the stronger he would grow
One day a fearsome sound came to his ear
an awful sound that filled his heart with fear
he feared something he couldn't understand
when he saw the other waves crash on the sand
He wept as he drew closer to the shore
for it seemed to him he soon would be no more
He cried and cried, "Alas! Oh woe is me."
with mortal fear of what was soon to be
When his Father and his Mother heard him cry
they told their weeping wave,, "You will not die."
"There is a gift you must deliver to the sand
then simply return to our love where you began
You'll sleep a while with Mother Sea, and then
Father Wind will guide you once again

Nature or Deity
what petty cruelty
or splendid mystery
that he and she would so distant be
in mind and manner and vanity
This is why they writhe and bite
or love as cold as winters night
We claw and kiss and spit in spite
We rage and pace and fuss and fight
or cut with words or flee in fright
in all of this we find delight
and die together blissfully

Did you happen to look at the world with my eyes
so you could inform me wherein beauty lies
Does the sound that you hear fall on my ear
Do you know the message that my word implies
Do you speak with my mouth
Do you feel with my skin
Did I lend you my essence without and within
Does my logic tell you what's false or what's real
that's why you can't say that you know how I feel

She saved us all from a life of mediocrity.
silly smart beautiful barefoot dancer in the flower bed
Nurturing to everyone leaving the least for herself
She was my best friend, but we were hell at parties
I remember her in a paper dress that was a picture of a cat
some hippie outfit, with a smile half way out of our house on wheels
Yoga dancing every day doing something for the sun
meeting each and every face of God
more often with the passing years
she would drink a disillusioned toast to lost chances and opportunities
as the medicine cabinet grew in color and content
Taking the brunt of our losses for herself
with inner mingled heaven sent victories and joys
One day she arose yellow as the sun and swelling
she took it lightly as a drop of rain
with one liners we'll never forget
"So much for retiring in Mexico." she would quip with a nervous laugh
It was the pancreas
some say the very worst place
but there's a point where pain is pain- inseparable from itself
I tried to make it home in time to say "goodbye"
I missed her by four hundred miles,
I'll put that in my box of guilt and hide it somewhere out of sight for now. She didn't go easy,
I didn't bother asking God why he would let her go that way,
thrashing holding on to life,
maybe hoping against that four hundred mile gap
that I put on a mantle behind a broken vase
She was my best friend but we were hell at parties.