Go ahead and make your mark, the flame is already sparked
Gather with the other fires or go out in the dark

When you run from other people you're giving into sin
Because you ran from other souls your light is going dim

Seek forgiveness while there's time the hour's getting late
The people God put in your life are all tied to your fate

Turn from sin and turn from evil but pray for a soul's remission
No one has authority to hurt a soul without the LORD's permission

When the end of the earth comes, death will take all children of eve
But a spirit will breathe life into the graves and grant good souls reprieve

A new beginning will unfold for those who held their heads high
They will shine like the sun and spread their wings across the sky

But those who always ran from truth will learn they are unfit
Though they try to run again they fall into a pit

brush and shovel
sweep it up

i have learned
to fill my cup

you're all ******* liars
leave me alone
why cant i have the privacy
of my own ******* home

you're all ******* liars
you let me die inside
said you'd be by my side
forever
but when i needed you most
you lied
you ******* lied

If the harsh words you spoke

could ever rebound,  

you would have known

how painful they are.

What poem will you wear, when first we meet?

How will I recognition-you,
when you transverse my land?
Unknown our faces, our voices,
Only silent words electronic exchanged

Will lantern, it be: one, if by land, two, if by sea?
Will your ID badge, passport stamped and state,
Your chest bear a witness-sign?

The Arrivals Board flashes:
                    une poétesse est arrivé
                    eine Dichterin ist angekomme
                    a poetess has arrived
                    una poetisa ha llegado

Will there be a haiku in your hair,
A limerick exposed by raucous grin,
Or just ten words
allotted for your entire visit?

Desperate to locate
Urgent to sensate
Matters I take
Into two cupped hands,
On the shoeshine stand
Climb and recite-shout

Know me by my words,
Know me by the lilt lyrical
Of my American accented,
Canadian Tongue of my mother

Know me by my words,
Carved by time on my forehead,
Poetry is the blood of this fool's soul,
Hear me, find me, look upon me slamming

Poems are the thorns in my palms,
See me crucified, bleeding stanzas
Upon my shoeshine stand cross
Recitation resuscitation welcoming:

Benedicting Gloria, Gloria, Gloria

But if this should fail your attention to secure,
Or the TSA unappreciate my second coming,
Look for the crowd gathered round,
A man of moderate height, in a tall hat,
Beard scraggly, looking sorrowful
Reciting the Gettysburg Address

Either way,
Should be easy peasy to find me,
Grab your bag, off to short-term parking

This is how an Americana poet meets n' greets
Arriving poetess from a foreign land

Is there any other way?
------------------------------
Postscipt
Alas, five years on and I know in my heart
that you are not coming...