What price do we place on freedom
in a world of consumer slaves?
Do we measure it in the lives
of soldiers sent to their graves?

Do we measure it in the families
who lost dads, husbands, sons;
and trust the politicians
whose solution is always guns?

Do we measure it in the comfort
of never knowing first hand
the way that a child feels
growing up in a war-torn land?

What is the cost? What will it take
for us to wake and see:
if this were the path to freedom
wouldn't everyone be free?

If hate will only breed more hate
and if war only breeds more war,
it ultimately begs the question:
is "peace" worth fighting for?

What does it cost-for a penny for your thoughts?
In the worldly person's view-

What is a penny-but a way to tell, for sure, the amount
and cost of things, not always understood right away.

I see a penny on the floor-and I never pick it up-no
not anymore.

It would just be another crumb to add to my pocket-book-
another way of telling how much more I have to spend on just
a little nook.

Let another worldly dweller pick it up, and then they can tell,
for sure, how much they have to pay for things.

They would always have a need for it, more than me now.

I could always add a penny, when I take too much of my time
taking a penny!

That this world is full of sparkles and magic if you’d only look up
It’s not all bar charts and logic and predictable outcomes
Sometimes, things, don’t go how we thought they would
And sometimes it’s true they go even better
I know it’s crazy talk
You think it’s logical that I won’t find a love that will want to marry me
And that it’s even more illogical to think they’d want to sing Joshua Radin’s  “One and Only” with me
And even more ludicrous still to think I’d be able to learn and play the Ukulele during it
And I’m here to tell you
It is logical to think that maybe I’ll fall in love with a girl who loves me back
That she might want to sing with me at a wedding of ours
And that I can learn an instrument
Law of big numbers says so

Roman candles aren’t always lit on the Fourth of July
Sometimes it’s New Year’s Eve
Sometimes it’s the tingle in your spine when a kid jumps off a swing at the peak of their pendulum
Sometimes it’s gunpowder and colored sparks
But other times it’s hormones and spring and eyelashes
I know the world is safer when we do cost benefit analyses of our Friday night options
I know if we all acted like insurance adjusters that we’d never get hurt
Did you know if you go outside right now and look up, you won’t see the Milky Way

I am Aladdin, I have a carpet, and I know where the magic is
I know how to cast levitation spells
Have you ever turned a rock over just to see the bugs run
Ever kissed a stranger just to see if maybe that love at first sight thing was real
I dare you to take a left when you always turn right and see what the world brings you
Maybe you’ll run out of gas, sure, maybe
But maybe you’ll find a bench
Or an old woman who needs help across the street
Or the best photo opportunity you’ve ever seen

Shirk a responsibility for me will ya and play tag with a firefly
There are waterfalls worth chasing
Love is one of them
Laughter is another
Fear can be sometimes
Friendship is always one

Magic is everywhere
It’s on Wednesday night meetings of old strangers at the pub
It’s the first time you hold their hand
It’s a falling star, just the one you saw, in the whole sky
That you never would’ve seen if you stayed home
Go find it
Open your heart to the world
Close your eyes if it helps you see
Magic is logical
If magic wasn’t everywhere we wouldn’t have poems
Or songs
Or Disney
Or a hotel made entirely of ice in some far away country
It’s not so hard to find if you look for it

I’ve got one
A simple one
No risk
No cost
Can’t hurt anything
Won’t miss nothing
Go outside tomorrow
Right during sunset
Don’t worry about the sun or the horizon
Leave your cell phone at home
I know, the horror
Find a stop light
Look at it
Keep looking at it
Stare
Just a little longer
Look for it
The magic
It’s as quick as a flicker
You’ll know it when you see it
Here’s a hint: it starts with a spark
It’s over in a moment so don’t look away
After that it’ll just go back to a stop light you’ll never think twice about
But for a moment it will have been the best stop light in the world
Better than all those fancy New York City stop lights
Pretentious *******
Because you were under it
Because you watched it come alive
Or maybe just because you wanted it to be

Sure life can be a ***** sometimes
And thinking ahead can save a lot of turmoil
Oh but what’s a boat ride if the sailing is smooth
Certainly isn’t a story worth telling
And I want my life to be a story worth telling

That moment when I’m at the wedding I didn’t give up looking for
Where the flowers are my colors
The center pieces my dream come true
On a stool next to my wife on a stool singing a silly love song to our family
I won’t be thinking yeah, you’re right, it was illogical to keep looking for this
I’ll be twisting, turning, free wheeling
I’ll be surrounded with shimmers and sparkles
I’ll be Wingardium Leviosa-ing all over that dance floor
And the cost benefit analysis of looking harder for what I really wanted
Will look like my middle fingers doing the hustle in matching velour suits

Stop worrying about what might happen
Start dreaming about what might happen

She sold flowers atop my cigarette’s sting,
And soiled steppe -
A path splattered someone,
Clocks kept prior and piano strings.

She’d be my last resort,
Parallels bottled – Two-tight braids,
Scarred upper lip and eyes deep,
Diggin’, diggin’ deep into me.

She’d **** if she could,
But money met is money spent,
And knifes in backs are bad for business,
So she’d always be mine.

That said, I’d always be hers,
Scampered, sleepy, and with one drunken
Right eye to wander east come
Sin under satin.

But the hour’d arrive, “One” becomes,
And the breeze would do what it does –
I’d see the sea, the sky, and lastly to hear,
She’d set up shop elsewhere;

She’d be happy, he’d be happy,
And I’d be somewhere sullen,
Somewhere awful, somewhere scribbled,
An echo and if only, a stain upon her altar.

Oh I wish I had my way
I'd stay here, forever and a day
Locked up tight in your embrace
Curled up by the fireplace
With the flames dancing off your face
Our heart's beat as one, they interlace
Such contentment I've never known
You won't admit it, but your love has grown

I can see it in your eyes
The way you linger at goodbyes
I can feel it in your lips
As you hold onto my hips
Your finger's slightly grips
There is love and passion in your kiss
This love you will not say, but I can't dismiss

I know you'll never say it
At times I want to quite
But you intoxicate me
My heart refuses to see
The catastrophe
That's gonna be

For I hide my darkness behind a smile
Hoping you look past it for awail
But I know it's inevitable
You'll find my sorrow and agony unbearable

All our good times you'll dismiss
When I sink into my black abyss
When my pain touches you with it's caress
You will run from me like all the rest

So for just this one day
Universe, let me have my way
I want this time with you to savor
So with my trusted razor
I will carve from me, normal behavior
One last time, in your eye's I wont be a failure

One last time, to lock away in my memories
How you use to look at me
Before I let you truly see
Before you take flight
Leaving me like I was before, all alone to fight

I had a gift for you, once
Wrapped perfectly and in pristine condition
It was the absolute best gift ever
Nothing else could compare.

But first, I was convinced to open it for another
One who wanted to show me how to use it
Then came the second, to show myself I could use it
And the third, to master the use of it.

Now I don't know how many times it's been used
It's well worn, half broken... tainted...
The wrapping paper is gone
And it's value is less than a dime.

I was supposed to wait for you
But I wanted fun and pleasure
And now, this night is here
And my gift is not yours alone.

I'm so sorry...

How much would the devil pay for a lost soul?
Been to the earths core and back,but still theres this hole,
Im tortured by subliminal misconceptions
Neurons put to the vote but the are no elections,
Its as if ive been put in emotional detention with unknown intentions
I feel like an animal in captivity,
In need of cage keys to set me free.
I wish not for happy endings,because i dont want my happy to end,
Is it? Love or peace or even love of peace that will to my happy place send,...me, so i can be free eternally.