The gentle fog of last night’s revelry
Walking the streets before the sun
Overcorrecting the crooked events
Getting myself right before the day’s begun
Dreamscapes fading in these early hours
Scars to tell tales of an alternate narrative
Truth impedes the recital of our union
Clinging to our bodies not always so imperative
Setting the scene amidst several libations
Resulting in sloppy notes from the underground
These aren’t mundane epitaphs from stone
Rather just trinkets for creation to remain unbound
Jesus was a rouge agent Calling out institutions woefully unjust Up-ending currents & the status quo Powers that be & reigning corporate trusts
Holding fast in the face of arbitrary traditions We won’t look to long at your offbeat proclivities Unnerved authenticity & outspoken truth But they’ll chalk it up as additional incivility
Looking again to God, but knowing She won’t talk Red-lettered honesty; realism against expectation Unvarnished tales of the meekest souls Rapt against our most quietly brave ministrations
It is not a sin, no matter what they say For love triumph over all — beyond how we explain For truth is greater than words Thus loyalty & devotion shall forever remain
I’m not worried what the preacher says For he doesn’t understand our match Too ancient to grasp our harmonization He has his own itch he can’t scratch
All that matters is how we feel inside True love is not a notion they can reject Our bodies & souls eternally intertwined Upon a higher calling our passion connects
Disturbed themes & distant thrombosis A hitch in your giddy-up when it’s time for tea Transcendental visitations From dreams may come answers to our makeshift reality
Pouring over the brackish tomes with devotion Gentlemen & ladies of letters; luminaries of thought But truth doesn’t cure our limited capacities Bare harbingers of the illiterations we’ve wrought
We’ve taken ill in our posh-marked libraries Leaving fingerprints on memories we loved the most We maunder through our raging debates Knowing full well they’re all books about ghosts
Darkness creeps in on our musty resolve Syntax prescribed with an utmost surgical query Descending by the light of our candelabra If we survive, we’ll be counted amidst the weary
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Thought it to be an easy read Yet the words were hard to digest Meaning dancing slowly in my mind Subtly creeping past the singular rest
Retracing lines to navigate ritual Where do we reform elegant words Removed from obvious transparency Heaped among the notorious & absurd
But we can still be returned to normal Reassembled without any scars of the war Truth absolved of the fictions we wrote Back to the pages I quietly implore
I don’t have pretty eyes to attract
Nor a beautiful body to distract
A middle aged, middle class white dude
with no street cred
With charm & gentlemanly conduct
instead
I’ll have to choose the proper words
To prevent from being misheard
Where did our youthful exuberance go
Closed off from a litany of feelings of truth
But I don’t want to be like them
Not worried about a bent halo or tarnished tiara
Angst of foregone conclusions
I want something of substance
Never tamed by society’s expectations
A slow, smoldering strangeness
Embracing the stature of being a little weird
Impervious to judgements of being bland
For through and through, I can only be me
Never standing for someone else’s brand
I hope to always be wild enough to be free
Knowing the bottom of the depths Untold theories where passion lies Encased all in a delicate French lace The truth that logic & gravity defies
Earthbound creatures can’t be understood It’s simply not in our fallible DNA Attempted in conversational tones But we’ve lost connection anyway
Trying to find a way back to the meaning Reason doesn’t apply to moments like this Disregard the pressures of our past That we might create our own sustainable bliss
Riding the cooler winds back east
Someday my simple dreams will prevail
Spent too many nights frozen & cold
Once again lost, I know he’s on my trail
Speak to me, for I’ll know if you tell the truth
Look at me, so I’ll know we’ll make it through
This soul damaged in these distant years
Wanting to be pure & return back to you
I need to shine down a path for your life
I want to be an example for you as you grow
May you always have shelter to weather a storm
I contain a perfect love you’ll come to know
You don’t know it yet, but you’re going to save me
A lifetime of joy just waiting for us to find
Adventures & endless discoveries ours to share
A new life, released from that which binds
*written many moons ago before the birth of my first child
Cold coffee & a stash of lost dreams A distant memory of those rail yards But we weren’t ourselves with honesty Not the renegades or anything that hard
Images of what we might yet become Grabbing self-regard before it fades Destroying their notions of modernism Returning to polka dotted shirts & dark shades
We all have our morbid skeletons The vague semblance of a broken soul But somewhere are the clues to the truth Somewhere when lightning meets a weary, old skull
But the simple fact is grace is unearned We live our lives as if we’re undeterred Ignorant to sin & repercussions thereafter Yet hoping for the winds to remain unstirred
Truth & love are bound to our dreams The inconvenient reality of the harsh pain of day Trudging through our irksome tasks Bright light stuns us into a stuttering delay
Fall to your knees in complete repentance Submit your soul to the warmth of His sunshine Release the burden of mortal expectation Forever embrace the perfect love of the Divine
Speak up, stand up; announce to the world
Spread the news of truth’s availability
Don’t be shy; we’re all in this together
Easy now, no need to hate on my virility
I honestly distrust anything popular or sacred
Passing them by & allow them to hide
I have to figure it out 20 years later
Force-filtered through life & time & tide
Opposing magnetic poles claiming Orwell
Both deluding themselves he’s their saint
But he was human & all the related flaws
His divinity seems a little too quaint
We need people with a firm, decisive choice
No interest in your ineffectual, intellectual porn
There’s no time for pussyfooting around
We must find the truth & feed it to the bullhorn
Transparent dresses hanging in the mud room Saran-Wrapped for mild protection Eyes closed to foreign tales Tempered thoughts of stifled affection
Painted prose with regurgitated eyes Our dreams left choking on the floor Scribbling beliefs with thick gouges Manufactured truth with cries of Nevermore
Redundant weight of classical heroes Forcing us into bastardized Groupthink Yet my mind still wanders to her opaque passion Chasing her dragon with endless ink
Listening to Wollstonecraft on the radio “Don’t turn that dial!”, that’s what the DJ said Not tied to any system; I’m still analog I’m dangerous; so the advertisers pled
Hereditary responsibility to the common good Therefore I don’t believe what I’ve been taught I see y’all got opinions, from your suburban thrones & these school systems regurgitating corporate rot
Criminal malpractice leaves us with poor examples But we’ve seen far worse on both sides of the aisle Bribing the lowest common denominator for votes Rewrite history, but perhaps that’s not in your files
I’ve been cast off, labeled a subversive heretic But I’m easy – so I’m doing my best to unlearn To unwind these falsehoods they tried to entrench The slow burn; time to take candor for a turn
Rash choices based upon juvenile aesthetics The understanding that we all might partake Though one must know speaking the truth too loud Turns into testimony & they might burn us all at the stake
I’ve traveled the world
& I keep returning to the same notion
I’ve seen interesting places
But I never again want to sail the ocean
My simple truth is that I’m content
I’ve found a good life; that should be clear
The grass is never greener anywhere else
We’re on an amazing course; we shouldn’t veer
There are so many opportunities
I would never close any of those doors
I don’t ever want to let go of your hand
Now that I have & forevermore come ashore
Treading lightly on the soft highway Searching onward for the Earthbound divinity Through the desert with the primal scream Broken decibels ring out, yet amount to infinity
Silver pistol tucked in drawer of hosiery Known to man only by a chintzy nom de plume I always preferred a thick bottomed almanac Slowed, but we have big energy to exhume
Dawn rises, yet the Truth still silently sleeps Looking for prophets in the glittering sun Too bright for our modern, mortal myopia Be still; be patient as time is not yet overrun
Junky little notes Throwaway lines on the postmodern stage Cultural fragmentation in empty streets Truth whittled away on an evaporating page
The disillusionment of an appropriated life While the world’s on fire; downright ablaze The American Dream sold off to the lowest bidder Feeling dissociative in these recent raucous days
Our dishonest & unaccountable government Are trying to sell you their uninspired vision Trying to sway your vote by gripping your throat But their cockamamy pleas will be met with only derision
Acknowledge these peaceable arts Boring affairs these days, if truth be told The proper staffing present & accounted for I flirt with the notion that fortune still favors the bold
Reeking of this polite society These standard fare sisters & brothers But I’d be out there before the mast Swilling shanties & rum; if I had my druthers
While we were off sleeping
The rains whipped themselves up in a squall
The flowers rose from their dormant stature
We were left to discover what never was at all
Stripped away our delinquent delusions
Forced to find the truth of this precipitation
Life is a fragile balance of our dreams
Love draws us close while fusing our imaginations
There’s so much talk of being wild
Like there’s a constant harness holding us back
But its just an illusion for others to see
You’re choosing to embrace all that you lack
These false pretenses are keeping you low
Images of a manicured life on your social media feed
Spending your days adjusting other’s perceptions
When these aren’t the actions a happy life really needs
It’s difficult to perceive any truth as you focus the camera
The projection of crazy as you manipulate your reputation
Here’s a secret, the honest people don’t really care &
The real wild ones don’t bother with perfect punctuation
One must be a seeker To discover unique truth amongst the thorns Head down, hiding that grime I feel inside I’m intelligent, yet not enough to forewarn
Trying to eek out a stable existence With all these storms heading my way But you have to want to be something more Never content at the beginning of the day
We’re bordering on anarchy With the streets continuing to seethe This communal madness Fighting for our shared right to breathe
But I have a long forgotten confession Which will leave you confused & aghast Tacked to the back of a soul’s liberty Forever within the defense of our contrasts
Disquieted moments in the afternoon These Springtime rays have a golden hour Reflecting youth into my weary eyes The reassuring notion of dreampower
Yet gone are the mornings we woke afresh Our mortal flesh reeling down on Earth Life; the thorn in the side of this existence Internal fire requires our souls a wider berth
The slings & arrows shall never fully hinder For love always eventually finds a way Darkness cannot extinguish the sun This truth discovered by the piercing light of day
Overcast Navy sailing away
Pull up your trousers (black silk)
Your stay here has been cut short
Prominent sundresses & of that ilk
Humid weather slowing me down
Manicured hands releasing winds to blow
Settle into your newly structured mind
We never asked you to row so slow
Not listening to rumors on the deckplates
There’s a truth down there you can’t feel
Displacement registered in the silence
Absolutism shook along the keel
I still know you in spite of your success
For I knew you when you were poor
Beauty does not replace kindness
It merely opens up another door
I’m not going to forfeit this life
Grasping at reality along the way
Running headlong into risk
Finding out what the youth have to say
Nurturing growth & development
Truth remains after their neglected lie
Sweat falls from my brow – a start
We can’t let the dream of freedom die
The world is burning around us So much hate & confusion in the crowd Misdirection & a body of lies Truth has no relation to just how loud Don’t know if you can trust anyone these days But I refuse to remain ignorant anymore Shutting out all their aggressions Returning to peace with the click of my door
A study in inexact notions Differences upon the prospective scene Our unruly burdens confound us Nothing to save us when life turns mean
Yet we can never let apathy rule the day In these times, we must be all the more aware Knowing truth can be unpopular Yet compassion is the way to genuinely care
I am a seeker of truth In the darker moments of existence When our souls are hurt & freedom is at an unfathomable distance
Broken frameworks & deep mistrust Will you take me home after I’ve done my bit Honesty is the only way we’ll survive Open & earnest with the unblemished truth of it
Incomplete rants are broken thoughts Antique shutters dangle in the breeze Vaccinated by expired truth serums Eye twitches; our hostess is ill at ease
Yet remaining upright on the page Our fate wrapped in a trickster’s charm Subtle strokes without remorse Only dried ink leaves us disarmed
Subverting all the easy answers Sacred is our fundamental right to choose However your speculations drift Cut the devil’s throat and wrap him in Winter’s hues
I put my faith in a baby child
& He will lead me
I will follow in His path
Being shown what I need to see
I give Him my whole life
I will seek His truth
In my soul He does dwell
Guiding me through days of youth
His love will lift me up
Through the life He gave
I have faith in my Lord
& I know that i am saved
Lost in a deteriorating moment What more can we do to be free Close our eyes to the darkness Tiptoeing quietly, down to the sea Searching franticly for the answer But the obvious truth is often a ghost False memories are unruly traipses Inclinations leading me, down the coast Is there a way to be clean again To bathe in the ocean’s gentle roar Hope against hope; possibly a way To find sunshine that might restore
If you met me in person You’d think I was an uninteresting guy That I had no personality But the truth is I can be painfully shy But if you let my words speak I can flourish & blossom before your eyes There might be something worthy If only you can wait for the surprise
Just because you’re the inspiration
Doesn’t mean you’re the intended
Taking what life gives us
Even those not comprehended
Just because you’re the muse
Doesn’t mean you’re the truth
Finding open sores upon the soul
Lingering there since early youth
Just because you’re the source
Doesn’t mean you’re all that real
Gone once my fingers close
You’re merely a ghost my heart can feel
The world is full of villains & misguided souls Trying to drag us down to where they forever dwell They take advantage & find ways to get elected on lies Summoning their teams of bureaucrats to send us to hell They have money, power & zero regard for the truth You’d have to be deaf, dumb & blind to not know what’s amiss But I don’t want to give them anymore of our time I solely want to focus on our next kiss
Sheep in wolves’ clothing
Alone in the natural spirals
A delicate peace teetering
In a time when hate’s gone viral
A profound wilderness
With the Shepherd long forsaken
Truth & reason at risk
With Faith’s foundations shaken
Does compassion still exist
Love faltering/dreams now monochrome
The Devil removing his mask
Once he’s comfortably at home
Love letters to myself A hug written upon a notecard Scribbles for no one else Sometimes life is just too hard Taking moment away from the herd Break off from all that I know Losing myself in nature’s glory Words can slow the overflow Breathe – just letting it happen Soon, I’ll be able to take some more Reflecting my small truths It’s easier to recover upon the shore
A naked woman upon the figurehead Standing proud in the breeze Calling to the Sirens & wenches Knowing the truth of these seas Her beauty remaining firm & intact The ship around her orange with rust The sailors with splinters in their palms For she has a wooden bust
Answers lurking in the shadows Though sometimes never found We may have loved & lost & our hearts forced underground There is always some eternal truth Traipsing back from your forgotten youth
Such a beautiful specimen As I’m sailing through a mirage Blue waters falling into crystal eyes More interested in her décolletage Aspirations following the deep night Knowing the truth of a certain fashion Toe to toe & inequality reigns My only hope lies in enthusiastic passion
I’m driving down by the beach
Radio tuned to Lana Del Rey
Trying to turn back the clock
Warm, salty air to celebrate the day
Looking for a moment to feel alive
To relive the trappings of youth
Ignoring the aches of aging
To deny the inescapable truth
Sitting here dissenting all forms of gov’t
Looking for answers in these coffee grounds
Uncovering more & more hatred, with less hope
These political ovations do nothing but compound
Society has gone astray, Jesus take the wheel
We’re all being watched by a perched black bird
Incoherent shrieks & mumbles of “Nevermore”
Universities stacked with all the quotes they misheard
Where are the heroes to protect democracy of the republic
In the wake of fraudulent saints & a presidential pretender
We must devise a prophecy to overtake our future
Lady Liberty’s hem is ablaze; with no elder statesmen to defend her
We’re led by fools, fractures & frauds
Finding ourselves at crossroads armed like Checkpoint Charlie
History won’t be kind to the weak or evil all the same
Needing a guardian like Justice Ginsburg on a Harley
I’m raising a small army of Lost Girls
Feminist soldiers marching – in all but the name
Seeking love, peace & equality for all the people
Hindering harmony will leave you squarely to blame
We all have our differing loyalties
But truth will prevail when time comes to an end
Our trials will be but mere footnotes to antiquity
Faceless angels guiding youth; they shall forever be a friend
*previously posted, but I think we need to come together and stop fighting amongst ourselves.
You didn’t sell out, you bought in At least that’s what you regurgitate But you, yourself, are a cog in the machine Grinding out this state sponsored hate You speak of crying in the streets Heartbroken your flavor of evil didn’t win But it’s a system of corruption throughout With each career politician speaking the sin Where did all our heroes & leaders go Driven out as the bureaucracy multiplies Buried the truth in all that paperwork We’re doomed unless the people rise Against these manufactured lies
The sultan of suntan Smelling like oils & lotions Sand clinging to your soul Cleansed by the water’s motion Purged of evaporating dreams We can focus on existence Wringing it all out At love’s steadfast insistence All secrets illuminated Nothing remains within Cover of cheap shades Truth permeates the skin
Cavernous depression falling down without truth
Wet streets refracting the bitter twilight of the moon
Trenches & overcoats pulled tight to repel the world
A need for answers that cannot wait past this noon
Try to place everything perfectly into its correct box
Finding out the little control we have while we’re here
Knowing the results we wish to see once the sun rises
No need to stay dry when you’re drowning in this fear
You’re holding expectations Needing me to be a better guy Wishing I was more successful Hating my truth; you’d prefer a lie So I wander within my own skin To become what you want in a man Each day, I’m ever more the pirate Soon, they’re be no more Peter Pan
“If you’re in the middle of the ocean, with no flippers and no life preserver and you hear a helicopter, this is music. You have to adjust to your needs at the moment.” – Tom Waits