Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #12

Breeze Faith

breezes blow steady

blow straight

cool me coolly

cool me with intent;

breezes blow south

breezes blow north

or west as it matters

none to me as long as

they blow...

here and now

on this warm day;

cool breeze blow

as breezes often do

and as they blow

we feel relief

and praise the

breeze lords so...

as without them

there would be no

breeze faith at all.

28Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #11

Coastal Blues

feisty attitudes freeze freely

along my mental coastline

this day set forth and as

the sun shines on us, we

acknowledge mother fondly

while also wishing her a

speedy recovery from the

forecast impending rain;

deluded travelers are we all

into thinking this day our last

when only further inland should

we ever expect precipitation

especially since our last trip

is this one we have here;

tourist fed pigeons prance

around our campsite as if

we were brought there for

them and stray not do we do

like reaching into pockets to feed

no matter how pretty their feathers;

exhausted are our memories of

all our vacations past this year

when sober was the reality as

to how each day should be lost

once our thoughts anchored

down and with the last

packing of sand we announce

our reluctant departure herein.

27Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #10

What We Can

swirling sails and sea spray

felt by us virtual sailors

imagining the likes of sailing

without really being there;

chair dwellers recline lazily

drinking from their hidden beers

beach goers walk and talk

without avoiding obstacles

children play in the surf

without hovering parents;

adults scream into the waves

crashing through the water as

onlookers smile at ridiculousness

behind polarized lenses worn;

low tide swimmers venture out

behind safe limits of sense

guards blow hard on whistles

as ignorance excuses no one...

morning quickly settle in

and days quickly pass by but

while we are on this shore, we

try to enjoy what we can.

27Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #9

Reassurances

clouds have replaced the sun

dark blues and grays

beach chairs and umbrellas

highlighted spots on the sand

from the sixteenth floor;

seagulls fly at eye level

down drafts of wind

pushed to the ground rebound

far beneath my balcony

seen through an open door;

still waters like a lake move

steadily towards an unseen shore

anchored boats roll gently over waves

as do three jet ski buoys

and the horizon draws ever closer;

darkened days delight the sunburned

while fees are paid for the week,

we continue with our plans to

lounge in chairs on the beach

reading what we can while there;

clouds have replaced the sun

but we all know it is still there

and inside this light of each day

we find many sound reassurances.

27Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #8

Hasty View

of the sand

we dwell,

each time

summer reappears

and more than

thrice,

we venture out

from

our country home;

of the night

we usually drive,

hoping

to avoid a rush of

cars... but,

in our haste,

we find ourselves

too tired to

drive through;

of the arrivals

more than once

we do,

thinking there is

something new...

and,

not really do we

always find

while

our excuses be

somewhat skewed.

26Sept17

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #7

To The Public

under separate umbrellas,

we sit,

not by choice, but

by design,

and,

in between a cooler sits,

providing us both

with easy access;

shade spoils us from the

sun, underneath

as long as we can,

venturing out

only when the clouds are

blocking out the sun;

silver material,

covers the ribs with green

trim and a

sturdy base with anchors in

the ground holds;

beside other umbrellas we sit

but,

not too close as we do

not want to capture any of

their shade,

especially since

free to the public it is.

26Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #6

No Seagulls Fly

a moment of truth arrives on

the sunny side of the day,

there are no seagulls flying

high or low in the sky just

above the water's waves or

even around the shoreline

where all the children play;

and, while no one seems to

have noticed this situation,

it is quite probable they will

and when they do, no food

will they be willing to spill;

high in the blue gray skies

clouds slowly drift by as if

on an aimless journey of

seagull discovery, floating

from here to there and back,

and in their shadows cast

no seagulls fly... still leaving

us to wonder why no recourse.

26Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #5

Beach Accents

a fall sun melts whatever

coolness is left over from

the night before the dawn,

sand and water

as far as the eyes can see

this early in the morning,

minimal crowding

is evident today

since the weekenders

were asked to leave;

uniform umbrellas

adorn the beach's crest

as high tide always arrives

but for now provide

ample shade in which to hide,

while lookout guard

the bathers for attacking waves

and seasoned spectators

in leisure suits snap

curious photos from the

safety of the sandy shore.

26Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #4

Three Yellow Buoys

up and down they move as

waves underneath roll by,

a triangle of sorts they form

some type of equilateral;

jet skies around them glide

as swiftly as is allowed,

riders leave their seats when

pushing through waves they perform;

yellow buoys anchored tightly

mark the acceptable locations

far from the water's edge where

all the tourists seem to go;

yellow buoys throughout the night

remain and lose no air from

within... perhaps, more soiled

than hollow on the inside they are;

perpetual motion are they today

as they were the day before

and after we have come and gone,

they will remain until the end;

footsteps on the sands suggest

walkers on the beach have passed

and I wonder if they too have

noticed these three yellow buoys.

26Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #3

Lonely Days

brightly shinning sun
blisters the eyes
floating in the water
without the misfortunes
of steady currents;

walking sticks with people
search for broken shells
as miners do for gold
without the fear of cave-ins
or being underground;
plundering pirate ships
in days of old ways
patrolled these shores
hiding from the King's Navy;
low tides give rise
to high ones and we
sit through both, never
having to move farther back;
big tires on jeeps
parade from one end
to the other,
one stand to another stand
passing along notes
as if still in school;
joggers jog
sitters sit
swimmers swim
readers read
but my days are spent
writing only thoughts.

25Sept16

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #2

Waters Edge

glimmering
          shimmering water
as far as the eyes can see
struggles
to gain my attention
onward
         forward proceeding;

waves roll over
invisible tubes in their paths
of encroachment,
fizzling out at
the toes of the shore;

Afrika
          colored shirts
walk by slowly
deliberately
manifesting
          justice for all;

clicking cameras
with digital film
capture
what is seen, but
upon review
is almost never the same;

howling
          insights fade
in glorious perpetuity
filtered through polarizing
colored glasses
purchased in the Caribbean
tourists
          forever strive;

failing to grasp reality,
we beg forgiveness from
all the cloudy skies above us

wishing life
were a little simpler
in the way we respond;

night
          slices day
as we slice time
in play and in sleep
wondering
as we do if
our moments here were
worth the dime spent
watching the
glimmering
          shimmering water.

25Sept16

 

Myrtle Beach Fall 2016 Vacation Series #1

Sole Solution

breezes blow gently
steadily
as if a fan were in the sky
solar powered
for its Southern guests;
fall waves and currents
no different from summer
approach the sandy shore
foaming at the mouth
like a race horse;

foreign voices
carried by the wind
not understood
pierce our ears, but,
we see little difference
in their appearances;

pigeons walk
with bobbing heads
back and forth in
states of anxious depression
hoping to find
tidbits of discarded food;

well tanned lifeguards hoist
blue flags of safety and
upon returning to their perches
survey their constituents
who have no voting rights
at these cooled off shores;

lamentation limits scurry
around the ground like
bug-eyed crabs whose home
has been disturbed by the water
too cold for us to enter and if
we did, too rough to pee into,
so less liquid is consumed;

humidity still hangs heavy
when not blown away,
sun still scorches the toes
when nooners are the
sole solution of the day.

25Sept16

Fabrications

truth hides behind
the bushes in the
backyard like a
fallen bird...
waiting to be eaten
by prowling felines
and, if not
will soon be
covered by fall leaves,
winter snow and ice,
melting our silently
through suburban drains
that feed the districts
that promotes commerce
that allows the truth
to be molded into
whatever it needs to be.

20Sept16

A New Story

underneath the shadow
of the righteous light,
we see a plethora  of
false hope crucified
like Thanksgiving pigs
who could not wait to
seasonal adjustments
in their store prices;

underneath the shadow
of the righteous light,
we are enamored by
an illusive indignation
from those who believe,
as if they know not what
they are about to do;








underneath the shadow
of the righteous light,
a version emerges that
captures boldly all we
had perceived to be lost
and in the re-finding, we
have a new story to tell.

20Sept16

Pretty Pity

the end
         of the beginning
                            looms
         and,
we are no closer to our purpose
than we were before;

a tale
      of pities
              and of cities
cast out with all the other

                    truffle, still...
no room for doubt rests upon
our shoulders nor yours too,
for that matter...  as
being unaware is fashionable
to say the least or most;

no nets cast today
                         in the surf
                 and,
            no french fries tonight
will be baked or consumed
unless our
unreasonable landlord
comes down from the sky.

19Sept16

FATE

blue gray
gray blue
it's all the same to me as
light is light
even when
there is no sun;
and, no
darkness appears
to prevent the day
or create
a new format
from which
our live
have been led;
shepherds and sheep
we are all
and to that end
we all have
been delivered
from our fates.

19Sept16

Life's Traitor

illumination

is  good for

the soul,

incrimination

is good for

our salvation;

hollow feelings

hollow lives

hollow endings,

we live them all

equally; and,

with care

we feast with

life's traitor

in an

effortless moment

to recapture time,

replacing it

inside the womb

from whence

it came all

those years ago,

when souls

had no

illumination

at all.

19Sept16

Dead Attitudes

there are no mirrors on the wall
into which I am supposed to look,
but, if there were these mirrors,
what I would do I cannot say, as
I am not one for personal reflection,
nor am I one for self-indulgence,
even though there have been times
of  sadistic self-incrimination;
life gets as good as it can since
alternatives are unacceptable
and if it wasn't what it was, it
would always be something else
beyond understanding or control;
the strings of life jerk repeatedly
at expectations and perceptions
that have been laid out before us
as if it were a buffet laundry list
and we feast until our mental
bellies are full so we we retire with
smiles and all but dead attitudes.

19Sept16

Designed

we are designed by the intelligent
instead of those who consider
themselves to be rather ignorant;
still, we are engineered and pre-
programmed to be a specific way
and without delay in all that we do;

and, with that intelligence we are
breed and raised and free to graze
until taken away for years of service;
we are inspected and projected,
rejected daily and refurbished,
but never really turned away by
the so called hand that feeds us;
and yet, we are pushed and fall
in line with speech patterns and
postures that would make our so-
called creators very proud of us.

19Sept16

Day Blues

life's tunnel tilts at the end of
an unexpected journey, we all
have to take sooner or later;
still, we are fortunate to have
been inside at all...  feeling:
our way around
feeling each other
feeling the days flash by
with the flow of it all;
tables turn and we slide...
paths curve and we ride...
ever so gently flies by with
not even a nudge or two,
until we see first hand, it all
clearly has been left behind;
a canvas of acceptance lies
against the corner of a wall
in an upstairs office in which
retreats were taken and lives
rationalized by the hasty,
wastefulness of our lives;
no sun today, either just a blue
sky of light so maybe I will
watch for it again tomorrow.

19Sept16

Waiting for the Day

under a living room lamp
my coffee sits
in a weakened chamber;
my back rests
against the couch with a
rather comfortable posture
of crossed legs
as my eyes fix upon
the window and the dawn;
she awakes the
senses of another day
and helps me recall
that nightfall has
finally disappeared...
until, it creeps back again
into the lustful
sordid lives we keep;
mixed metaphors of
business and pleasure
await recall
as the shadows begins
to fade and
light emboldens us all;
a tide of pride glides into
my thoughts that I
have once again survived
and am able to watch
with amused curiosity that
our cats are as bored as I.

19Sept16

Cats

vanilla yellow felines prowl
in the inner sanctums of their
homes and dwellings looking
for anything at all overlooked;
each new participant yields
a potential treat and is so
declared by loud howls of
"pay more attention to me;"
hair balls and shedding hair
clog the machine robot daily
as it scurries around their
fortified habitat hoping to
catch one of them off guard
and more or less unprotected;
clever cats notice it all and
sit there on their soft butts
looking at you as if they are
thinking you are a tad stupid.

18Sept16

Wisdom Tossed

energy flows from one aspect
of life to another aspect of life
in the hopes of passing along
that which is considered wisdom;
but, somewhere along the line,
these strings of energy, recombine

in such a way that wisdom is
lost and that which is passed is
not wisdom at all, but a variation
of distorted, undocumented truth.

18Sept16

Indifference

a winter wall of discontent
has been built between me
and the summer of my youth,
leaving me floundering off the
coast of my illusive dreams;
still, I pursue and still I'm
barred from entry as my mind
fries in the pan on the stove top
without the oil of olives burning
off the skin of my indifference.

17Sept16

We Travel Alone

once there was
but no more it seems
as life sleeps its way
our of most of us
and wee appear
differently from
one year to the next
but, there is
really no change;

once we were
but no more and
life lives at the
bottom of thoughts
as we play pool
with the ones
we can beat...
laugh it off and
continue until
no more laughs
come out of us
and, it is time
for us to retire;

once, it could
have been but
no more as looking
back offers
no solutions and,
if it did,
too late for us
to change I fear...
or,
so they say
at the cafe
down the block
after buying
cheap meals
and receiving free
coffee refills;

once, it was real
but no more
yet the real was
true and honest
and was given
because,
it could be so,
whether needed

or not, still
we knew it
was there;

once, it all mattered
and life left us
homeless with
illusions of how
if might have been
for some...
and those,
were the lucky ones
but,
for the rest of us
we travel alone.

17Sept16

Too Late

no one heard our morning prayers
nor did they hear the evening ones
we recited either, as they were too
busy make plans for our future
(without our involvement) or they
were more concerned with our
questions that prevented us from
seeing our own feeble realities,
until those realities had been
destroyed by our reckless actions;
then, and only then, were we
informed of our shortcomings
that could have or should have
been corrected if our prayers had
just been listened to by them.

17Sept16

Thankful

darkness betrays the light each
morning when light appears low
on the horizon and creeps across
the land as if it were a fog of
enlightenment sweeping its way
along the land ever so gradually;
but, when the sun appears, its
light is a stark contrast to all
that has passed before as the
black veil of night never saw its
likeness until shadows appeared;
and we, as its nocturnal goblins
pranced around rather undetected,
eating street light as if it were
Thanksgiving all the time and we
had much for which to be thankful.

13Sept16

Findings

time has
as its mistress
temptation
which thrives
on the undisciplined
and the relative
ignorant, who
have once believed
that destiny
is linear
and, as long as
we are moving
forward that
we will find
our own
mistress.

13Sept16

Graves

there is no puzzle

no key to life

just living and dying

and what one might do

in between the two;

life holds no mysteries

no subtleties  

just minutes and hours

of the day and

weeks and months

of the year and

what all will be told

when the truth is known

and our life did

not last very long;

and, in the process of

its unfolding, we

learn a thing or two

about ourselves and

it is that mystery that

sends us to our graves.

13Sept16

In Which We Witch

the wee hours in which we
pretend to live have become
the hours in which we witch
ourselves into into believing
no witches exist except in
fairy tales and movies of the
like at which we are seen
attending, but, fool ourselves
not do we do for when the
last curtain closes, we put
on our little witches caps
and prowl the streets of our
imaginations until we find
a soul or two that is highly
susceptible to witches brew
and we set up heavy cauldrons
in which we cook our brew
and deliver in the wee hours.

13Sept16

Strictly Southern

fake fire places in
Southern homes add
to the illusion of warmth
and comfort that we
hear so much about
when we want to listen;
dreams roll in and out
on the Southern tides,
leaving  no stones turned
in their path as if the
destiny of hospitality
shipped out in the last war;
caretakers shuffle
from one task to another,
baiting hooks just in case
the blues run, but the
rise of what once was,
will never rise again.

13Sept16

Nothing in Between

house cats become
deck cats and then
become park cats
as we expand the
realm in which they
were trained to live;
park cats become
deck cats and soon
become house cats
as the realm in which
they lives returns to
the way it has been
and we failed in our
understanding of the
basic nature of cats.

12Sept16

Humor

humor leave us speechless
when it fall on deaf ears and
ends up on the ground for us
to walk upon on our way home;
humor fuels the fires of discontent
when bosses force us to listen
and measure our future by how
hard that we are seen laughing;
humor offers sarcasm as its base,
reading contempt between the
lines and wonder why spouses
don not understand anymore;
humor destroys families as it
passes over those homes who
do not have bloody doors nor
did they ever want to have one.

12Sept16

Longevity

beyond the point of commonplace,
lies a world of forgetfulness of all
that is right and clean and we see
it everyday when we take our
constitutionals if weather permits;
inside the sandy dirt, we keep our
heads and their thoughts as we
tend to other business in a world
of fluid commerce, seeing all
strangers as welcome even after
using their lives to cash out;
we drift aimlessly in our minds
when we can and without permission
as if some secret agent on a binge,
knowing what we may find will be
quickly and quietly rescinded since
it was not part of our contracts.

12 Sept16

Election Day

freely frolicking funerals litter
our pedestrian highways on
more than one occasion recently,
no action on our speculations;
souls dangle in crisis unheard and
unseen by the popular majority,
who spends more time answering
questions than asking them;
mass confusions ushers us into
our own mass graves as politicians
feast on banquet venison and rice
honoring all righteous speculation;
caskets of hope are carried daily on
the backs of those already burdened
and who are ignored by the wealthy
until it is time for election day.

30Aug16

Our Serenity

life lives in the shadows
of the mind,
hidden from false pretense
and absurdities;
life dwells in the future
of uncertainties,
leaving the past to fight
for its own survival;















light and dark clash as
they always have done,
winning and losing, but
never giving up their cause;
knights of survival
pawns of disbelief
moral fabrics not blended
torn tapestries of time;
the game is always the same
always being played
living our feeble lives
in self absorbed serenity.

30Aug16

Fall Feast

fall fails to ignite an interest
colorful leaves fall still dead
rains make roads slippery dangerous
life guards have packed up their saving stuff
ballers run sprints up and down the field
hoopers practice since the season is soon
commercials depict winners and losers
and I know my time is yet to come, waiting
on the side of the road for the wrecker.

30Aug16

Living Easy

comfortable living suits me
nice and lazy and all
doing nothing all day
but living easy and free
without concern or attitude
and when the day is done,
I sleep well too since my
comfortable living world is
all about living with cancer.

30Aug16

Without Commitments

steroids blend health
with obesity in a final
attempt to regulate
control over nature's
outcomes, leaving its
victims powerless
with self controls that
may or may not work;
yet, as faulty as it sounds
logically, it leaves us
without a commitment
the following week to
be anywhere at any
specific time to be
tested once again and
fine tuned in an effort
to live a little longer.

29Aug16

Fueled Doubts

closeted feelings leap out
like a jack-in-the-box

when confronted under the
right set of circumstances,
hurting those around us due
to our previous silence;
yet, we do so anyway to
protect our own self worth
and because we seem to
feel more accepted now...
when acceptance is only an
illusion of equality in a
world that thrives on hate
and discontent fueling all
of our self doubt realities.

29Aug16

Editorials

pure thoughts and
pure love lay on the
ground in a twisted
and perverted mound
of sexual struggles;
teasing and pleasing
comrades until the end,
we have been told,
but, the ends of the
means is always
justified they say...
in weak editorials
of the dead, leaving
us to wonder if it is
what they claimed
or what we feared.

29Aug16

Chasing Tales

darkness lingers
inside me
like an old friend
who has over stayed
their welcome;



light stands in the doorway
of my imagination
like a mistress
waiting for money and
an invitation in;


death underscores life
in its battle for
recognition and existence
in the barren world
of conflict insanity
where evil and good
are non existent concepts;




filtering air
filtering blood
filtering life
as we spend all our time
chasing tales.

29Aug16