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Harry chased the shadows
around rooms without windows,
straw up his nose,
a bottle of Jack Daniels
on the moveable food tray,

the eye of the storm,
fierce, beautiful,
and like a hurricane
he came and went without meaning.

all he owned was time,
walked the days
like old newspapers
blowing down a deserted street.

Harry wandered the neon sky

on fire with wounded women
wrapped in night,
caught by the song
of mermaids and sirens
who sweetly sang Odysseus
onto the rocks.

so he chose to fly, soar
above the high wire trapeze
into cloudy silence,
grasping for tranquility
in the heartland where serenity
always slipped like water
through his cupped fingers.


the sky is a fickled lover
always just out of reach.

reckless grace,
the sky leaned closer
and Harry kissed the clouds.
I learned from the water,
You need to rock the boat,
To survive.

In order to keep in balance,
You must move against the waves,
To keep from going down.

When you reach the island shore,
Lay on the sand,
Staring at the blue backed sea,

Knowing you made it through.
A rocky old row boat is all we have against the storms of late.
 Aug 24 Chuck Kean
Josie
He smiles at me
May I take your order please
Cappuccino, latte, or me
Frothy steam
Coffee kisses daydream
Red lipstick blotch on the coffee cup
Thank you
Your welcome
He will always be my special barista. I will always love him.
Three more hours
to sleep
unopposed

Three more hours
from verses
supposed

Three more hours
of quiet
and peace

Three more hours
my dreams
to appease

Three more hours
where time
has been screened

Three more hours
to live
in between

Three more hours
not hither
or yon

Three more hours
a reckoning
— dawn

(Dreamsleep: August, 2025)
"Now I look for her always
I'm lost in this calling
I'm tied to the threads of some prayer
Saying, When will she summon me
When will she come to me
What must I do to prepare
When she bends to my longing
Like a willow, like a fountain
She stands in the luminous air
And the night comes on
And it's very calm
I lie in her arms she says, When I'm gone
I'll be yours, yours for a  song
"

Lyric from "Night Comes On"
by Leonard Cohen

<.
the morning comes on,
the blackbirds mark my Coming
with vociferous, unmelodic caw~cawing,
whisper a quick one line prayer
to whom, if anybody, who guardians
my soul & body combo
for one day more restoration

yes, you guessed, sitting before
the water's and landed tableau,
painter's tablet on lap,
wrapped my fav big ugly brown bathrobe,
coffee in my right, left pointer finger doing all the work,
of rat~tat~tap,
shedding my *****'s contents

yes, again, wish you were here, too
especially those who are long past their expiration date,
who I failed in ways inexcusable,
but don't linger for the heart reminders me,
probability states, I-won't have to wait too much shorter,
my due date unspecified, but we all knownow it ain't in the
far distant future
~
all this buys a way of introduction,
please consider yourself fully induction,
get you a pillow, and we both admire the movie
soundtrack of the goodly good of a stiff breeze welcoming us,
the bird empire gone quiet mostly, but the dutiful osprey parent,
wanders, floating, eyes by practice sharpened, for their are babes in
the nest that possess needs that must be attended to, for that is their
calling,

mine?

if it be your will to let me spill,
a moment the same, yet so wonderfully
different, sharing this day in all its specificity
have learned from its predecessors of thousand millions what
combinatory natural excesses it is duty bound to present us with,
for this I suspect, be my calling, waking to be an official greeter of
the miracle we so casually call good morning,
to be burdened in this manner, writing mad hatter style
of all the varied and variegated sensational sensoria overload,
I accept,
the anxious urgency of burning~some need
to capture every detail, without fail, to satisfy our
mutuality of wondrous awe that we have all arrived
in the same place, identical when's and where's here,
but no answer have I as to the Why, nary a clue, but here
I end, this poem dies, its calling  fulfilled,
and I am lesser for it, poorer too,
am disgorged, expunged,
having given, forgiven,
but low on excuses,
all I can, is that my
calling to, calling from, has
both been answered and filled,
leaving me satisfiably
pleasured, satiated

and called,
yours for a poem
.>


silver beach
Sun Aug 24
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