I have no understanding
Of just what you are demanding
But I know that you're remanding
Me to hell.
I'm a stranger to the scene
But I'm stuck here in between
And I feel there should have been
A warning bell.

Confrontation is a vandal
(Or more like a Roman candle).
It's so hard to get a handle
On your aim
And what was the ignition
Of this battle of attrition?
To you, is this a mission
Or a game?

You're a ranter and a stamper
When you're not a happy camper.
Who am I to put a damper
On your joy?
When you use your words to threaten
Or to set a trap to step in,
They're a tool and a weapon
And a toy.
                                rc

The partly frozen lake
Still quite spry alive
****** and late mallards
Temporarily reside

Shared open water spare
Disorder oft ensues
Waterfowl in panic as
The ****** glide amused

Bare-***** branches bent
By early Autumn winds
Nature's karma paying
For sultry summer sins

Sun days in November
So modestly are doled
Joy is where the shadows form
And winter is forestalled
                               rc

In the freshness of youth what you want is respect
You can get what you need if you're just circumspect
To be paid a fair wage when you work ****** hard
To be seen independent with credit un-marred

But conditions will change as you grow and you fail
When it's all you can do to just stay out of jail
And you know self respect must be gained on your own
Otherwise if you don't your own soul be unknown

As you age, in your personal skills you take pride
When the accolades come and the egos collide
You will try to be modest and try to be kind
When assaults on your character leave you maligned

It is now your ambition to take steps without cane
And to mask your expression to not show any pain
Your condition does tempt to put pride on a shelf
But, my God, can't they let you go *** by yourself
                                                    rc

The aged archtop hangs upon the wall
A work of art she still has beauty rare
In shame to this assignment did befall

When dressed in flat-wound strings she's light as air
And man, that girl could really sing the blues
Her heavy bottom tones would strip you bare

Those scars and scratches show she's paid her dues
Much like the one deployed into her keep
With cramp and pain the fingers now refuse

The passion, now regret, to soul will creep
A substitute must find a way to mend
So timbre, note and rhythm still can reap

Although it's hard for some to comprehend
Sometimes your inner music must be penned
                                                  rc

The rain, so jealous of the sun, did hide
And let her soak up all the accolades.
Although she could not stay the swelling pride
She missed his flashy thunder serenades.

In time the earth began to dry and crack
And fractal patterns formed where once were pools.
The planet feared calamity would wrack.
The just extols now turn to ridicules.

The rain, at long last, saw the Sun's despair,
Accepting this was largely his own making.
He set about the damage to repair;
His place within the scheme of things retaking.

The sun and rain together cause a spark.
They show it in a multicoloured arc.
                                          rc

The landscape narrows to a sharpened point
In grasp of fall's lost memory of spring
Flowing reeds and grass of every kind
Muddy shore where lilies once did  lie
Underwater snags I know so well
Aspen leaves afloat on reckless current

The sky alight it strikes a vicious current
Like mother nature's exclamation point
Startled, though the spirit knows **** well
The heart restarts as if upon a spring
Vivid hues confront the silent lie
Nature is not always good and kind

The night evokes dreams of a different kind
Triggering your demons past and current
You might not know just were the secrets lie
Don't waste your time in search; you'll miss the point
Take your water from the flowing spring
You'll never know which one's the poisoned well

In case you think that life is going well
Think why there are no other of your kind
You may never find eternal spring
Where gentle breezes blow in spiral current
A spider draws its net from point to point
In centre of another's death bed lie

We contemplate the stars 'low which we lie
So vast the distance yet still seen so well
Against pure darkness shines the smallest point
The universe becomes so coldly kind
Our souls an interruption in the current
So from our beating hearts will joy now spring

Ideas launch like from a coiled spring
They only serve to perpetrate the lie
You squander time and effort to be current
Now I see you've drunk from tainted well
The choice is not to be true or be kind
We could try to fix this thing but what's the point

when rage the current from the meagre spring
we reach the very point where promise lie
whenever all is well, we're paid in kind
                                                       rc

The wind in brooding moda
Gives a sing song salutation
As spoken through the rusted fencing wires
Meadow grass awash in waves and currents
Dragonflies are seagulls on the swells
Tree tops move in cresting undulations
Limb and trunk impressed in shaky ground
I watch the moving water
Like it's telling all my stories
The river only ever flowing past
The river only ever flows away
                                        rc

It's transient aphasia
When the bullets only graze ya
And nobody can save ya
From the fog

And you think that it's a tumour
In a twist of Satan's humour
And you feel that you will lose your
Dialogue

Then the gathering frustration
At the failed interpretation
As nobody in the nation
Feels your pain

I know my head's imperfect
I will need some time to work it
It's just a slight short circuit
In my brain
                                rc

A sculptor is like the ocean
Erosion causing form
And in the depths an inner peace
While outward rage the storm

A poet is like the spider
Their fans they do amass
And both of them make lovely things
They pull out of their ***
                                   rc

Isn't it passive aggression
Suggesting that class is in session
When your scattered remains
Lay all battered in chains
And it's triggering massive depression

Faking somnambulism
Staging some vandalism
It's your high anxiety
And not my sobriety
Creating this cataclysm

Your effort to fix the nation
Is really a sick salvation
By oppressing the poor
I am guessing that you're
Just causing asphyxiation

The long debated objectives
And your ill-fated directives
Are pausing the norm
And they're causing a storm
In these complicated perspectives
                                         rc

The kettle calls (a cattle call? Not really)
There's just us two and I just won't commit
The rain outside indicts with tears so freely
I still blindly want you to acquit

A bird is singing (stinging) acapella
Seeking leafy shelter from the gales
We're stuck inside without a cheap umbrella
With dialogue like scraping fingernails

The window pane (recurrent pain) is covered
In it's early morning alcoholic fog
Words were spat and in the air they hovered
This scene won't make the tourist travelogue

                                                               rc

We come ajoined along knife's inside edge
We're taken to temptation
Compelled to dance we're striding sliding
To the serpent's assignations

We swim amid the reeds of deep green seas
We're taken to the shoreline
Where whispered wonders wash our old dreams clean
So to new dreams false enshrine

As sour fruit betrays with flies and stench
We're taken to the knife edge
Battered, beaten broken belying our soul
Left to part along the ledge
                                                    rc

(not a metaphor)

Some think the caterpillar spins
A little sanctuary
And in two weeks a butterfly;
A tiny luminary,
Emerges all in perfect shape;
A little feat of magic
But let me tell you that's not it
The truth is much more tragic.

What happens in that little house
Is nothing short of frightening.
(Honestly, I looked it up
It's really quite enlightening)
The pupa just digests itself
Right down to primal soup
Then, still alive, it has to cause
It's stem cells to regroup.

Then it grows and grows again
Into a butterfly.
The nature is amazing;
The science can't deny
So when you see a butterfly
Do it's pollination bit,
You should remember that this bug's
Been through a lot of ****.
                                   rc

The street, good friend, is pocked and hard
In answer to your question.
My feet are black, my lungs are charred;
No boots to pour my flesh in.

Sometimes when I am bibulous
An easiness can feign.
Without that drunken impetus
The maggots roam my brain.

On dry days dust will bloom and choke.
The grit abrades my teeth.
The wet turns dirt to greasy yolk
And fouls my skin beneath.

With body sores that ooze and stink,
No comfort can be found.
My sanity is past the brink.
In pathos I am bound.

You see I'm hideously scarred
And make a sour impression.
The street, good friend, is pocked and hard
In answer to your question.
                                                rc

When I die and go to hell
A roofer I will be
My back will ache, my knees will swell
I'll serve the bourgeoisie

I'll clamber up the risky *****
Up to the very peak
And when I'm there I'll hope on hope
But never find the leak

Every time I climb the dome
I'll go out of my mind
My body like a metronome
I'd left something behind

If I ever think I'm finished
If I stand back and appraise
The pain won't be diminished
As the cramps will last for days
                                      rc

I think about existence
And I look for what holds true.
I feel assured that I exist
But I've questions about you.

The "Row your boat" philosophy
Does nothing for my quest.
If I have dreamed this all along,
Why do I still need rest?

Forget about the tangibles.
Let's give that stuff a pass
And think of love and beauty;
Those things that have no mass.

The mountain seems so beautiful
Against an azure sky.
You might see it as a pile of rocks
Within your pale mind's eye.

Did I invent that beauty just
To fit some need of mine
Or does beauty have an essence
No matter how you might opine?

And what of love? Did it exist
Before it struck your heart?
Well now you know, without it,
Your world would fall apart.
                        rc

A dove is just a pigeon
in the politic religion
Cuz pacifism's not a lot of fun
You might not know your pastor is
A fire-fighting arsonist
You know behind his back he holds a gun

Don't fret about his competence
The facts are of no consequence
So long as your agenda is upheld
And celebrate diversities
In ***** universities
There is no need for cultures all to meld

The temperature's not rising
Don't know who you have advising
The winter still feels pretty cold to me
In any case the cause of it
Is farting cows and penguin ****
The rest is just a wild hyperbole

                                       rc

When this bag is done
I swear to God I will quit
This time I mean it

The senryu spins your head
Clouds swirl in the spoon
Cirrus horsetails in viscous regret
Precious negligence
Your self-loathing giving way to urgency
Calm yourself now
DO NOT dull the point
Irreparable damage already done
Tie and hit
Come on! Come on!
Blood is joy

When this bag is gone
Oh God!
I swear...
This time...

                                     rc

The roads in religion are swervy
The nutters are really quite nervy
They say god plays a part
In all life from the start
To me seems a little bit pervy
                               rc

Terra caught a virus
'Fore the advent of papyrus
It was fifty thousand years
(Or there around)
But now she's getting worse
And I know I'm sounding terse
But her regulating system's
Shutting down

These germs are truly villains
And they number in the billions
The damage that they've done
You can't impugn
She tacitly forbid them
As she tried so hard to rid them
And she even sent a dozen
To the moon

Now she has a fever
And nobody will believe her
To deal with this alone
Seems so unkind
But Terra is a scrapper
And despite her damaged wrapper
She will never to her destine
Be resigned
                             rc

The very term evokes esteem
And images of love and nature
What mere gathering of words
Can adequately form a portraiture

Fierce protection, love defined
Imparting lessons, devoting guidance
Policing conflict, bite your tongue
The inner screams emerg as silence

The push and pull on random tack
Can drive into a crazed distraction
But comes immeasurable strength
Creating reason from abstraction

Respect and reverence don't suffice
As no spoken language could
Describe the spirit we perceive
As is manifest in Motherhood

                                   rc

The brook-side meadow's quiet, shadows gone
Overwhelming green struck in private hues
The stream bank channels and tree roots confuse
The light is magic dancing after dawn
There in the tangle hides the leprechaun
There in the tangle his mischief is planned
Scratching his bearded chin, pipe in his hand
Prides in his trickery, crusty old con
Harassed and hunted by unthoughtful souls
Not any wonder he's social inept
He is pursued for the gold he controls
But they do not know it's not physically kept
Pursuit of the rainbow earth not apart
The leprechaun's gold is found in your heart
                                                      rc

It sits alone now
Derelect, long neglected
Empty except the transient shelter
Provided to fox and deer
And swallows cliff and barn
The roof collapsed, the shingles succumbed
To a thousand windstorms
The south side sinking
Drowning in the earth

Yet from it's bones you can see
How it would have appeared
Had a century not unfolded
Timber walls hewn by hand
Corners locked and dovetailed
The craftsman's pride disguised now
Behind the ravages of time

Reflect upon the family
Those pioneers so strong of heart
Who built and grew and loved
And carved a life beyond existence
What hardships felt and conquered
What anguish never overcome
Can we imagine now
From our comfortable perspective
The priorities within that fold
Of time and circumstance?
                                        rc

hateful rhetoric
opinions flow like lava
unmoderated
                        rc

They say that each new snowflake
Is unique in some respect
You have to use a microscope
To see that little fleck
To say this as a metaphor
May cause some introspect
I'd like to know if this is true
But who has time to check
                            rc

So here you are, another year gone
I won't ask you what the plan is
I remember you telling me years ago
"I don't even buy green bananas"

It seems like your strategy (such as it is)
Has ended up serving you well
You've been so many places, done so many things
And have so many stories to tell

If the idea here is avoid disappointment
The plan falls a little bit short
No life is perfect, things happen to us
(Don't mean to be such a spoilsport)

You raised kids through the sixties I needn't say more
There's no need I should be specific
We got past all that and we all settled down
But we still have a flair for dramatic

You've done really well, I'm so proud of you Mom
Your the best of what this clan is
You set the example, I think that I too
Won't even buy green bananas

                                    rc