Life is a never ending stream of placebo dreams.

I’ve always overtly admired
The poems I don’t understand;
The ones that others rave about
And praise with honors and awards.

The ones that seem to me to be
Random strings of fancy words
That don’t create cohesive thought
And leave me searching for a meaning.

I wondered if it all was real
Or some arcane bamboozle
And I was the yokel suckered in
By the Emperor’s new tuxedo.

Deciding I would test it out
I scribbled nonsense on a page
And posted it for all to see-
It was such fun I did it twice

To see if I’d be recognized
And called out for my shammery
And taken to the woodpile,
But  just the opposite occurred.

The plaudits soon came pouring in -
My ‘talent’ newly recognized.
My bamboozle fooled them all
I laughed, but then I had to cry.
ljm

Whimsical as it may seem
I still find myself
Getting lost in a daydream.
I look up, and look around.
Beauty surrounds.
Life gets hard sometimes,
That will always be true.
But I have found
Joy in the mundane.
I've learned how to breathe
Through the pain and anxieties.
To live mindfully.
What does it mean to
Daydream now?
To find peace in
Doing nothing—
Except watching the
Clouds.
©KSS 8/2020

Rather than a whole cake,
a small slice & black coffee would be nice.
There is top tier enjoyment --
from the limitation, balance, & appreciation.
Sure,
You might not have it all,
but you can savor every bite.
You might sip the drink’s bitterness,
so you can cherish the sweetness of cake
as if the first time each time.
To be grateful & contented— it’s just lovely.

I am flawed in many ways—
of how I perceive, how I deliberate.
It feels to be further down from the surface of everything.
But notice that these breakdowns
are earthquakes;
it is as if beneath the faults—
where I found myself helpless, incapable—
are the same cracks
in which the light started to penetrate.
I breathe