All the fluff and pleasantries of idle conversation are merely dust gathered on a field ready for plowing. Beneath this smile of congeniality is a pulsating passion to create. A life worth living, castles worth building, and a vast river of thought meandering through my mind.

I love a fairy tale, a story of old, or one that imagines the future. I frolic through three dimensions to get to the fourth. In that realm, magic takes me to worlds I wouldn't know had I not sharpened a pencil.

I meet people that exist and yet have no physical presence. I know them better than I know myself and, in our introduction, I discover who I am. Their weaknesses are a mirror of what haunts my soul. Their strengths in time become my strengths. Should they falter it is my desire, nay my duty, to encourage them. I rescue them from the dark alley ways, the tunnels, the dungeons, the dragons, and bring them safely out of peril. I give them friends, lovers. I set obstacles in their paths that will make them stronger. I play Devil and Creator both.

When their story is told I gently close the cover of my book. I invite you to come with me, and explore the inconceivable; explore the More of our dreams.

Abandoned for hours

This city is still

Stoplights, they flicker

Wind brings a chill

I walk the same route

Each morning before light

Share the same sidewalks

Where they say goodnight

Addictions for some

Mental illness for others

Teens on the run

Escaping the their problems

People, yes people

With stories to tell

Lives full of promise

Living a homeless hell

I ask, "Where are you from?"

"What brought you here?"

"Can I bring you some food?"

Response, "How 'bout a beer?"

Most are, what they are

Responses the same

Money or Medication

To dull lifelong pains

To have hope, now that's something

That's nearly impossible

When people ignore you

As if you were invisible

I don't have much

Just shoes on my feet

Steps to my office

Right past those that freeze

Regardless of answers

To my questions above

I think I've decided

I'm going to show love

Make an effort to stop

And have a conversation

To just be a voice

Or someone to listen

There may not be breakthrough

Answers the same

But maybe, just maybe

A life will be changed