Insignificance
Whatever you do in the world,
Will be insignificant.
You can sugar coat it if you want,
Say that its not true.
But one day there will be no one left,
To remember me or you.
You can be a famous singer,
Like Beyonce of Jay-Z,
Or a nobel prize winner,
Like Albert or Humphrey.
It all doesn't matter.
Ashes are just ash.
Will the world end in ice?
Or in a red hot flash?
The point of this poem,
Is not to make you sad,
But to tell you to enjoy your time,
And stop being so mad.
Stop worrying about little things,
Release all that stress and dread.
Don't worry about that broken glass
Or your messy unmade bed.
Enjoy life.
Smile at the sky.
Laugh when something is funny,
And enjoy the wild ride.
Your wand, your call.
Make it rain with your words.
Summon that storm and start it with some pit-pattery onomatopoeiae. Then electrify the collective mind taking its precious time to witness your impressive might by throwing some phonetic intensives in the jive. Forget about any windlimit to your speeds, any decibel threshold pathetically parading your thunder, see. Now get some twisters in the mix to optimize that cauldron's elemental diversity, make it more legitimate. And finally, tightrope over that shit walking the fine line between eloquence and verbosity.
Or, simply, keep it clear-skied and unwindy.
Your wand, your call.
Round rock
I am a round rock
Laying in a river bed
Many days I tumbled
The ice and sand-my home,
I cracked Against others like me-
Wayward, heavy, stones.
Pushed without cease
I suffered the rivers errant way,
Thrown without mercy
My edges were all shorn away.
Every corner - ground to nothing
Wondering what next could be in store,
Every cracked appendage
Wore me down a little more.
I knew myself to be shrinking,
And As I became smaller
I buckled down and I tightened my belt
but I loosened up my collar.
I am a round rock
Laying in a river bed
Countless angry, thrashing waves
Have crashed upon my head
The under tow picks at my feet-
Inviting me to sink-
Her embrace is tempting,
But the current denies me peace.
If I am smooth
It is because the rough was beaten from me
My prickling skin, battered down
But I am smooth because I fought back
And I refused to drown.
I am a round rock
Laying in a river bed
There is always something left to polish,
I have not seen the rivers end.
But when I reach that delta fan
I'll be smooth
And small
And perfect
Finally allowed some peace
Laying in its quiet sand.
Ascending
The hulking, burnt out husks,
Of rusting semi trucks-
Sleep here in dead grass
The putrid, wafting smell,
Of bloated, hot soul-shells-
Caress cars from the road side
The lean frames and hungry eyes,
Of feral cats go slipping by-
Over oil stains and empty cans
Darkness settles in on us,
Inside our tiny mini bus-
We're on our way to meet a man
We check the ties on our wax wings,
We've heard its bright but worth the sting-
Inside the City of Angels
Check in
I'm tired
She said aloud to no one
Watching the shuffling patients file
Through whispering doors
To hallowed floors
Once spattered with blood and bile
Her mind is at ease in mountains
In forests, meadows, and glades
She longs to breathe the sea in
On these hot dense concrete days
Her aching heart is pattering
A slower sadder pace
Having in the smaller hours
Been made to feel displaced
The clotted, jerking flow
Of the hospital's sad parade
Seems a constant sorrow
Of the life that she has made.
The King of Sunken Treasures
My working man,
Has soiled hands,
His nails are lined with grease.
His calf brown eyes,
go flicking by,
the ghosts of things he's seen.
The hush hush whispered echoing,
Of the ocean, ever beckoning,
His sailing heart from home.
My working man,
Has softer hands,
Than you'd think of a sailor.
His wolffish grin,
is broader in,
Comparison to his rancor.
His Hours now are spent,
At ease with strong back bent,
Over keys instead of Pistons.
My working man,
At age 18 gave up civilian pleasures,
To sail the world,
And keep up ships,
The king of sunken treasures.
Stained glass
The dull ache of a familiar pain fingers its way through cracked and remodeled ribs
Your strained voice lets the suffering ooze out in small bursts
I am not sure if I am helping or not
but I try.
In between the shuddering tremors I can feel you go limp and heavy with a numbness like the crackling fuzz of a broken TV
My body responds with muscle memory
I imagine the invisible wounds you carry, untreated
Stuffed with gauze and wrapped quickly and carelessly
The burden of the yolk on your neck
Yet you stand upright
Your bones crack and your muscles ache with the weight
Yet you stand straight
Shoulders back, chest out, head up
Imperial
Yesterday a little girl smiled at me
I thought of you
And I smiled back
Burning wild.
High desert
Umatilla.
hungover
smoking
a cheap cigar
AC
dogs
heat
head on fire with something
I can't explain save the feelings of expectation
and fear
Sunday.
people leaving church
blow around me
in white SUVs
their faces twisted and
smug
equity in Christ
they eye me as they pass
I glance at them sideways
then watch the road
hot brow
eyes red and sore
the short afternoon sun
burning wild
dirt and displacement
and small corpses
the desert is an ocean
my hands feeling old
and broken-boned
and thick
surf the radio
modern country and
evangelists
I keep it in the right lane
while the faces blow past me
on their way to somewhere terrible
not one ounce of rescue
in them
not one ounce of mercy
not one ounce
of intelligent curiosity
I check my review for the
rental truck
my buddy behind the wheel
all my belongings in the
back
and switch my thoughts to the small bar in Baker City last night
small town
a rare nightfall fast
gripping our drinks
and breathing easy in
that place
the town outside with
just enough light
to make you trust somebody
my buddy stepped outside
to have a cigarette and we laughed through the window
at a couple arguing
in full denim outfits
walking past
people eyeing us
objects of mystery
walking the street back
to our rooms
drunk
alive
back within our
element
the summer moon against
the clock tower
the smell of old Main Street
the last few survivors
beating the night
stumbling home or to
their spots behind
old buildings
we stopped and watched the clock tower
its face lit yellow in
that moonlight
a heavy metal western
I switch my mind back to the road
nothing changes out here
not the dirt
or the beauty
or the stark expanse
bleeding across the heart of escape, of youth
the faces blow around until the last exit of another town
I watch another white one
exit carefully in my rearview
their death is a lie
but regarding death
there are no better
answers.
I wait for the truck to reappear in the rearview
the road opens up into
a long dream
stark and exact
and without end
without fail
American Woman
comes in clear
over the static
an old
biker
passes me
and gives me
the devil horns
I return them with strength
while he
switches lanes in front of me
and tears off up the road
on the way
to somewhere wonderful.