It's the enervated hold
Which is the first to fold
A hand of jokers
And deuces
Sold to you as gold

One tries to will it true
This hand of gold anew
The power of will
Tides one through
Yet doubts unspoken grew

And grows the unsure strong
Leaps and bounds along
But one keeps it down
Looks away
Being strong is not to long

One does oft wonder though
How one got to be so
When the truth escapes
Through tiny holes
While Joker lies aglow

So one hopes that one can hold
This designated mould
Truth be dammed
Just look away
One's right is not to fold

He struts down the sidewalk
With a hint of a frown
His spoon swings beside him
Jaunty hat as his crown.

Childers peep with a gasp
As they watch him strut down
The musk that follows him
The stains on his gown.

There he goes, they whisper,
As the sun settles down
The Badass Chef, they say,
Of this Badass Town.

He pounds dough to a pulp
Whisking eggs beyond shape
Beets up on the salad
Stomping vatfulls of grape.

Skewers meat without thought
Chops neat through a bone
Flays sharks without care
Needs no sous, works alone

The Badass Chef
Of this Badass Town.

He hangs up his cleaver
At the end of the day
Dripping droplets of what
None have courage to say

He blows out his flambe
Spoon back at his side
Turns back to his war zone
Fists clenched with quiet pride

There he goes, they whisper,
As the sun settles down
The Badass Chef
Of this Badass Town.

I lie not awake
Yet unasleep
In those moments
Caught between
I think I see
But you see not
The Life that could
Have been.

The moon eclipsed
The flag half mast
The wick not
Yet aglow
All the beauty
At but half full
Accepted as enough.

It must be true
That one accept
The half as near
The whole.
For it does not help
To seek the truth,
It undoes
The beauty known.

Thus die the dreams untold.

Lashes the twister, belts around
Twirls and dances, thrashes the ground
Roots and foundations, tossed amuck
Both mighty and meek, rendered unstuck

Frenzy of flight through hurricane skies
Through chaos born transient ties
Each whirl of wind brings falling debris
Both drip and thump land fleetingly

But

The Eye sits, in the thick of the storm
Untouched unplussed, the formless form
Watching the gale through translucent lid
It lives without, while sitting amid

I am the Eye
That never does cry
Knowing all that is seen
Is a bewitching lie.

The hollow core
Hollowed out some more
By hollow thoughts of a
Hollow mind
A hollow being, a hollow find.

The hollow well
Donns a hollow shell
Wrapped in hollow garb with
Hollow walls
A hollow being, a hollow fall.

The hollow life
Lives through hollow strife
Hoarding close hollow joys
This hollow whole
A hollow being, with hollow goals.

All that's deployed
Pours into the void
Of this hollowed out life
Hollow fills
A heavy soul, sits heavier still.