The crime families
had arrived
long before our time
dressed in suits and ties
jeans and lies.
Con games
transparent,
No one's even too embarrassed
or even
bothers to try and hide it.

It's all a racket
better believe it

Student loans
Insurance
Medications to save your life
Credit cards
House payments
Rental agreements
The military industrial complex
the war machine
The grocery store
The grocery store
The Supermarket
what do you mean you gotta eat
at least the poisoned air is free.

Elections
thrilled with bribery
The gas station
cell phone bills
electrical payments
moving violation tickets
Banks with smiling faces
Bound to get you on your knees
begging for more.

Guess what?
What ever you think you are craving,
You know that's a racket too
every time you turn around
they're going to take their vig
off of you.


When you get to heaven
you are going to find
one fact for sure
that's a racket too.

There is always reluctance
an airy breeze
in the hot room
stinging
whispering
"no no no".

It comes with change
it comes with
beginnings and endings
reluctance comes no matter what
in frozen dread
in anticipation read,
how far is it
from here to there
and to where
and to whom
do we go?

Reluctance in fear
seems to know
what you are most afraid of
but no matter so,
put on your dancing shoes
pull out
your roller skates
too.

Time's a storm
that's blowing through
though your sails
maybe tattered
it doesn't matter
it's moving you.

Reluctance
certainly has its say
in an impotent kind of way.
Choices made
not made
While we all grow a little bit older
grow a little bit wiser
each and every day,
Reluctance
is
going to grab you
make you see its way.

Depersonalization
Derealization
Dissociation
Delusional
Hallucina­tions
Confabulation
Perseveration
persevered.

Clanging
Rhyming
E­cholalia
echolalia.

Paranoia
Ideas of reference
Thought blocking
Internal stimuli
Thought broadcasting
heard
every way
every day.

Mental disorders
or
poets extraordinary

The Paiute anthropologist
locked up on the
inpatient unit
with visions of the ancestors
dancing in his eyes
said
"See these folks
you have locked up,
In ancient days
from the desert hills
they came our way
delivered truths
in their special way.

"Once they had their say
On desert winds
they blew back
up to their hills
away
straight away. "
"Can you please
give me the keys.
I've said what
I had to say. "

A
single flower
on a young peach tree
glowing neon pink
in the morning sun
a single promise
of
what we all can be.

I don't know what I'm doing,
I don't know where I'm going,
I don't know who I'm being.
I keep getting asked this riddle
for which I have no answer,
An answer with a riddle
I can't decipher.

I'm only trying to be
the vision I'm a seeing
but it seems sometimes
so meaningless to me.

I can only nod and smile
as my words are delivered,
I can only look at the door
and wonder who
it was that stole the mirror.

I know somewhere
a breeze is blowing
but it isn't inside of me
I keep watching my shoes
waiting for one of them to make a move.

I don't know what I'm doing
I don't know where I'm going
I don't know who I'm supposed to be.

Where do you look when you are so lost
and can you tell me
what will be the cost
to find one's heart's desire,
I don't have the answer.

I don't know the road ahead,
a rearview mirror floats in my head.
The darkness is on either side
I know I have these flashlights
hidden somewhere inside.

Listen closely
you can hear your name
calling you,
But this time instead
down the road
I will go.

I don't know what I'm seeing
I don't know what I'm feeling
I can't find the road to being
I only know what I've been told
I only know what I believe
my mind has been known to deceive,
I don't know who I'm trying to be,
I guess I'll find it as I go,
Moving on down the line,
One more time.

You can come along with me
but only if you want to be.