I have never been to the snowy peaks
Of sitting stones that pierce the clouds
Cutting strange patterns in their
White vaporous forms

I have never boated through the muggy swamps
Deep within the borders of our southern states
Dark marshes that seem to be made of moist jungle green
With camouflaged gators lurking just beneath
Ready to gobble you up

I have never seen the center of an ocean or a sea
Never been lost with only water on the horizon
The only life left to see swimming deep beneath me

I have never walked the tundra
Seeing nothing but winter’s frosty sheet
Awestruck with my dumb luck
But becoming snow blind
Alone with my mind
In a vast white wasteland

I have never and perhaps I never will
For lack of opportunity or depths of fear
But in your photos and words
I have seen this world
What a gift you have given me

Duly noted
and
show boated
A cross of
what you need
And what made
your belly bloated

Secretly promoted
Enthusiastically gloated
All for a piece of metal
Cold and gold coated

Humbly devoted
Bold Italics posted
Only to line the ranks
Heavy and revolted

Pepsi
and
Pop rocks
Shoved
in a mouth
Just to end up
Exploded

inside, outside
upside, downside
east side west side
don't be so snide

i find you cried
after you tried
needing two minds
seeking bedside

"abide all nine
thousand and five"
ain't but half fried
feeling you died

your side, your hide
not my own fight
up to you Clyde
but ****, you slide


molded, folded
formed, stolid
candy coated
heaps of no dead

inside noted
kept you floated
safe and boated
from the toted

to your faux-head
mercury and lead
hitting homestead
killing your bed

Clyde I warn-ed
you turned instead
mind insipid
soul got shredded


waiting hating
same-old-stating
working, pacing
"what's you bringing?

me some red things
lectric singing"
know it's stinging
making ringing

could be stringing
I'm just saying
Clyde you're dying
writhing, frying

clinging, peering
never hearing
you keep working
I'll keep singing

We have ridden camels
in the Kalahari,
Flew Eagles over Canada,
walked across the Niagra.

We have boated up the
Nile and pierced the
catacombs of Rome.
We made love by the
red rock in Australia.

Our adventures overlap
memory.
We've spun the Sun and
tossed the moon,
walked on coals,
groomed gorillas and
climbed to Lhasa.

We were married in Tibet,
among the Chinese stalls,
made our way to India
and slept with tigers.

The planet swings
as we kiss, and spins
to the rhythm of Joy.


Caroline Shank

moonlight on the bamboo shoots
falling stars mark sharp edges
cutting skin with blades of grass
the roots push the concrete out of socket
yellowing drought bringing out
bucket handles and flowery gloves
shoving back the strawberry runners
two by four planter boxes
rot –
brown blueberry leaves crunch
corpses of raspberry stocks bend and snap
complete lack of moisture or tending
rendering fat of homeless cats
in a vat of future soap
gifts for loved ones
never realizing the suds
were once fluffy paws
and sweet meows –
summer drags, the fifth month being the hardest
lard fest at the local poke’a’pig
barbeque, burning maple…
giant oak stands guard, devoid of leaves
only helicopter seeds wait for a breeze
my sweat soaked sleeves need that same air to flow
but, no…
we must languish in the swelter
lakes fade and long dead tree stumps
see the first light in 100 years
fighting for shade, boated fish
swish scorched fins
desperate for any reprieve –

I again in me am lost,
Restrained by the sound of my voice in the wind.
There is no tamed charm or lucid movement,
That brings forth a natural act within the play.
The game is always on and the challenge is difficult at best,
What do we succeed for when we become everyone else?
When individual specialness becomes a back boated myth to nowhere,
Is it irony or sarcasm to ones idioms that makes the difference?
A play everyone plays,
A test at one point everyone fails.
We are all not complex,
But neither are we all simple either.
So the question remains,
What are we?
Frivolous travelers looking for a place to lay our head,
Or someone special to enjoy the rest of our lives with.
The question feels unanswered,
And lost feels so much clearer than being found.

Behind the disguise of a smile
Fear quivers in the shadows
Adrift from society
Numbness takes over- allowing all to shut down
No-one is life-boated from the cloak covering her
The disguise hiding the drowning girl she is

Hurricanes of confusion prevent from air
Weights tying down, sinking, unable to breathe
All pouring in until there is no more her
Rip Currents of emotions dragging her under
Poseidon's wrath begins to take over inside
The sirens poisonous song leads her to false hope

Standing in the shadows of hypocrisy and Judgement
Her body blindly shading to numb blue
Yet her mask distracts
from her gasps for air

Suffocating on overwhelming anger, sadness, joy,
Feeling with every inch of her bones
Constantly at war, one second swimming
Suddenly the tsunamis of her lows ****** her under
Then Slowly the pace begins to tame
Slowing, slowing, until inevitably stopping before time

Helplessness fills her lungs
Not even CPR can save her now
Finally the storms stand at ease
Free at last as the last breath is exhaled
Leaving behind the omission to mourn
Heavens wings will soon explain

The Treaty of Peace is signed
ropes of emotion now unraveled
None will understand
at last the numbness fades
The mask falls off
Left floating on the tides of tomorrow

When the lifetime and the girl
Were gone a long time
The poppy and hail fed the storm
The song never was heard again
The seas are dull and empty

The disappearing air wears me thin
My hair has found it's brush
In the halo of unseen wind
The girl sees me after ten cities and ladies
The seas are lifeless

The amorous water came out
The girl I cared for when we boated
To sail and turn
The birds got tired waving us goodbye too

We were so in love
We might have been in love too young
A song was left unsung
Were ten cities that lay in ruin
And the people crouched in a din
Cruel as can be the seas were unloved

It does not help to be in love
If one cannot help or save you
When you are drowning