But Once We Are

sunshine through the window comes
melting outside frost,
dangers of the cold persist while
remaining cozy inside,
heat penetrates the senses
cold defines its boundaries
solutions no longer exist for some
others perish from too much,
alive we are but once
dead we are forever,
playfully we skip rope in the sun
voyeurs watching from inside,
windows magnify the distance
adjusting speed accordingly,
space has no limitations
except life does not survive,
bound for the future we are
wanting now only a thermal
increase to our predetermination.

February 23, 2025

Dimensional Caretakers

time lives on the other side of reality

reality controls time's advancement,

the universe is stunned by the birth

of coincidence it had buried in black

holes after the cosmic inflation...

exponential was the growth that

until now was forgettable and will

become lesser known once time

and reality join forces, creating

warped dimensions who's whole

responsibility lies with the inherent

explanation of spacetime...  a time

where space is nonexistent and 

what we see or experience is only

illusion's reality - we exist on the

edge of non-existence and the

dimensional caretakers that have

arisen out of nothingness and

have become our guardians.

February 22, 2025

Born Without Color

into this world we are born

not of our own choosing

but here nonetheless...

we are naive and innocent

afraid, ignorant, and

dependent upon others...

we grow up angry, alone,

and very much indifferent,

looking to understand all

we don't really want to know

but need to survive...

we are meaningless to nature

to her unlimited skies

to her great oceans and seas,

to the grains of sand on

which we walk daily...

we have no colors inside us

save for the red blood

keeping us alive -  we spend

our days wondering why.

February 21, 2025

Wondering

decide for yourself which way you go

a silver moon collides with thoughts

cattails frame the image

a lone bird investigates,

the morning sky makes a disappearance

as does its afternoon reflections,

glowing waters simmer along the surface

of feelings we so often forget

when trying to live our lives,

disrespecting nothing in our way,

once the hindrance is removed...

we are free to grasp and reach out and

learn new things from experiences

but, like the bird, we hesitate

caught in the image of wondering.

February 20, 2025

Falling Snow

white covers the arms of trees

the bodies of bushes and the

earth's bed upon which we sleep,

beauty lives on the other side

of the reality we see daily...

green and brown highlights

move past our gaze, birds

feed of the ground and from

each other to stay warm...

tracks lay down the direction

impact denotes the size

width shares the speed by

which they vanished by...

light white blinds and we

betray our surroundings not

so carefully as before, leaving

no one behind, pursuing the

action needed to survive it all.

February 19, 2025

A Road Once Was

not just any road will do

the one closest to you,

lined with evergreens

covered in snow and on

the ground just barely...

it is the road most familiar

the road of dirt and mud

when it rains - walking

along the sides where 

the grass grows tall in summer

not at all in the fall...

the road on which you walked

to the lake many times

with you pals carrying polls

and coffee cans of worms...

it is the road your parents warned

you about being on after dark,

and the road that was always

the short way home after school;

it is the road paved over now

that leads to a grocery store,

gasoline pumps and burger joints,

the road no longer in the minds

of children and their youth.

February 18, 2025

Political Delight

blasts of artic air sweep downward
into the southern valley,
an explosion of cold filters its
way through the smokies,
premature plants suffer the worst
unprotected and open...
caught off guard children
huddle together outside, normally
maintaining their distance
from those not similar...
miles of water streams freeze
along their banks while fish
sink to the bottom of ponds,
smoke from chimneys blow
trails southward in the sky,
signals hikers beware.
moods inside are somber,
wrapped up in sweaters and a
few blankets not packed away,
those without heat stay in bed
while others feed animals with
thermal undies worn tight...
a year to be remembered for 
more than just political delight.

February 16, 2025

 

Sympathy

mark of the devil on our foreheads

non-believers cannot sleep

wake me when it is over

says the devil...

he is too busy to track it all,

a curious group of people we are

believing in that which no one

has ever really seen...

believing in tales of what

we think someone said or

might have been true...

faith accounts for little

if it is only expressed after death

in a ghostly cloud that floats

around aimlessly...

a puff of awareness that knows

everything there is to know

and then some...

a metaphor of life

and the living where only a

few years have been granted

and then no more will you be.

February 15, 2025

Street Wise

you say I - I say you
we say nothing no more,
days of giving
long since past
giving those days
we know won't last,
nothing gained - nothing lost
we served only one
but that be gone today as
it was the day before
and the one before that,
certain of nothing,
very little we are...
our lives cut short by
our refusal to participate,
and yours too
because you capitulate,
damned if we are or not
it matters no to us or you
or anyone for that matter,
we are who we are and
have been for decades. 

February 9, 2025

Word Flow

words flow like the rain
down a mountain side
or off a slanted roof,
they mix and mingle
form and reform...
in the mind
on the page
an explosion of letters
spell checked and verified,
words from a sunset or sunrise
winter scene with snow
summer scene with birds
falling leaves of fall
spring's mowing grass smell,
words taken from thoughts
from memories and dreams,
from the reality of living
and being open to all that
forms around us...  from the
tiniest kitten to the large cat
from the fire of a campsite
to the rapids of a river...
words flow like the rain
we catch them when we can
use umbrellas when we cannot,
the flow is constant, if we take
the time and know where to look.

February 13, 2025

Warriors

down through the heavens they come
these ancient gods we are told
bringing us enlightenment
raping our females along the way
half-gods were born too soon
replacing the weak males in time,
it was not a friendly time nor was
peaceful in the cities and towns,
transitions and transformations
ruled our lives, dictated our futures
changing our societies forever,
we were never free, never meant to be,
we were always someone's play toy
someone's experiment to make us
better and more resilient, more
durable in combat and more lethal
in winning all our battles - no longer
were we the beings first created
but a new species of warrior who 
questioned nothing, not even death.

February 12, 2025

Questions Determine

we are who we are now
previously not the same
ahead different as well
to be determined somewhat
we suppose right or wrong
not th4e same except
for here and now...
we have no crisis here
just misunderstanding
over whom we are and
who we will become
if anything at all...
 decisions made reflect
not the change or the
proximity of it all - 
as we are that which we
became wholeheartedly,
still not what was intended
or anticipated - the changing
of DNA and all - the genes
went to some but not all,
we were modified directly
or indirectly so, some say...
who are they to know?

February 12, 2025

Legend

drink the waters of the Nile
you will return one day,
the legend goes...
as does so many others,
inundated by them
we are these days...
no one knows for sure
they cannot say
are they true or no
we be wondering...
the water of the Nile
I have drunk once
in my youthful days
not many more years
older can I get,
have not yet returned
nor do I plan to with the
world like it is today...
so much for legends say.

February 11, 2025

Hate

 

billionaires barf out statements 

thought to be in everyday use,

in front of millions...  hoping

to change attitudes...

preconceived ideas...

and opinions...

how do billionaires see hate,

many of us wonder.

flying around in private jets

eating croissants in Paris

bagels in the Caribbean

or drinking expresso in Rome...

Hate is what we know...

what we learned from preachers,

manifested in the teachings

of those who came before.

Hate is not for sale or bargained with,

it is what we live with daily,

it's all we know to do with each other.

February 10, 2025

VALENTINES 2025

A gift of greeting this day represents
for old and young alike they say,
A sweetheart chosen by many
others just an infatuation perhaps...
Those of us who have lived a while
see not the gift or greeting or sweetheart
but the person with whom we have spent
over one third of our lives and with
whom we have loved and continue to love,
With whom we have disagreed and with
whom we have shared the best of life
and the negative side of life as well...
We see the partner with whom we have
built our life and future and with whom
we see at first light when we awake,
We see the person with whom we share
our soul, our hopes, fears and happiness,
valentines are perpetual for us or not at all...

February 14, 2025

Out the Window we Look

beyond the day, the hour, the minute
we live...  supposedly...
in silos of desires and wants,
fantasies of dreams and wishes
imagining what might be or not be,
we struggle with realities
wondering why we are less fortunate
basing perception of what we see,
what we think we know or that
which we have been told
by those we trust not to lie...
looking out the windows of our
lives...  we sit or stand...
as it makes little difference,
informed or not informed
as the case may be...
winter replaces sunshine and then
it is periodically reversed,
we know not how or why,
relishing in the change,
hoping for more of what we like
and less of what we do not,
knowing expectation fall short,
out the window we look
to see firsthand what will be.

February 8, 2025

Divided

right and wrong divides us
a line so thin, barely visible
good and evil is in there too
fighting for its place in the sun,
dogs chase cats and rabbits too
cats chase rodents and hoppers
we are alive because of our beliefs
yet we do not consider ourselves
lucky if we were to die...
morning after pills rock the future
impacting corners of the world,
we care less or not at all while
those who fight us have no opinion,
we are fans of neither, casting
doubts on those who are...
nothing in return is sought but
the pill is kept in our pockets.

February 7, 2015

Fulfilling Prophecy

warmth permeates the boundaries
of the mind
cold stimulates the actions
of the body
we are one without ourselves
two together
crisscrossing lives like city pigeons
defecating
measuring our existence through 
forsaken lenses
grasping at death as if it were 
highly overrated
moss lined memories give still births
to thoughts
creepy people enter our lives as if
collecting taxes
dormant children sit at monitors
wasting life
criminals beg for clemency with hands
in judge's pockets
we have created the society from which
try to grow
nurturing the future like pigs sucking
on boar teats.

February 6, 2025

Burned Memories

 

where was my fiddle when Rome... burned

hidden from me I suppose..

unkind gods they are were who

took my territories from me...

suspicion moved quickly from one

mouth to the other, from one

soul to another, from one country

to another as if none of them remembered

who had brought them there.

who had arranged passage with bribes of coin,

betrayed as if Caesar was present...

Brutus had not died as I was lead to believe,

we were once all there were

we did it all...   the decisions...  the wars

the times in between when life was good,

now we are no more and I must flee

and burn all my memories behind me.

February 5, 2025

Footsteps

follow in their footsteps 

if you follow at all,

teach like there's no tomorrow,

hide under the rugs all

those things of embarrassment

of which only you

has had to deal...

remember the moralities

of the past as they are

nowhere to be seen...

drown the babies first before

they are changed and

generations end the only

life they ever knew.

February 4, 2025

Southern Sunshine

sunshine flows through the air

cats lay on the deck,

feelings are tempered and

hate has left the backyard,

life in the south intertwines

with the climate, park picnics

walks along smoky trails...

birds call out each other

inviting all relatives,

we live on the edge of comfort

basking in the sun with

our growing gardens...

simple and simplistic the years

flow by in pigtails and cutoffs,

life slows but is not forgotten.

February 3, 2025

Moments

in the sun laying on towel
paying in puddles with a dog
surfing at myrtle beach
walking at cades cove or
any smoky mountain trail,
living in the shadows of
our ancestors, log cabins
living off the land...
kayaking on manmade lakes
or canoeing on the seine,
dancing in the moonlight
wearing silk pajamas,
combing hair around the ears
eating corn off the cob
smoking a corn cob pipe,
spitting tobacco on the street,
we live in moments fondly
some are disgusting
moments nonetheless
and always remembered.

February 2, 2025

Spacetime Sounds

a leaf falls to the ground
without a sound
so too does a tree with
no one around...
we must be there to hear
we must be there to understand
humans though we are
we are not omnipresent,
minutes before or after
seconds or hours
space advance time around
our existence - over which
we have no controls...
we rage against the physics
of it all, no knowledge
left undisturbed...  we defend
our place in it all even when
its terms are confusing.

February 1, 2025

Reassemble

an ancient bird flies across the 
nation on a sacred mission,
it flies to the north, to the east
then to the west and south,
it flies low and high and
nowhere does it fly where it
finds no one that does not hate,
the ancient bird flies up into
the heavens as far as it can go,
when it gets there, it begins to
rotate around and around 
until it explodes into over
one million pieces...
each one of those pieces falls
down upon the ground and
buries itself deep into the earth,
for over a million years it
remains underground until
archeologists dig into the hard
earth and uncovers the soul
of mankind broken into a
million pieces, so many over
such a broad area of land
that they decide it will take
entirely too long to reassemble.

January 31, 2025

Reconciliation

the mind closes itself to light

darkness permeates

rivers of doubt persist to flow

fed by streams of fear,

meandering thoughts move

from one lifeless boat to another

hoping for salvation...

the devil smiles are her handiwork

those who she controls

those who she commends

silly males follow her into evil

hoping for erotic, sexual delights

receiving pain in return

agony in the reverse of love

with no desire to see differently,

darkness creeps into light

destroying all opportunities

for any kind of reconciliation.

January 30, 2025

Politics

across the aisle they look
for sympathy they suppose
none is forthcoming...
words are exchanged 
in a heated format
scorning those who scorn
evoking a feeling of quilt
that has since been denied,
wondering why and
wondering when they
belabor their approach
hoping to garner something,
again, nothing is given...
retribution they spout
out of filthy mouths but
are ignored once again
before they decided to 
turn a blind eye to all.

January 29, 2025

Winter Fall

light windows on the floor

angled and obtuse.

dust lays on the glass

from previous day.

warmed sunroom from

overnight cold waits for

morning occupancy...

winter bends around houses

infiltrating front yards,

frost on the grasses,

leaves and branches,

deck floors and railings.

throughout the day, we

are privileged to remember,

knowing spring is just

around the next corner.

January 28, 2025

Mort

chimes for the dead
ring out on the square,
for the living
there is nothing...
only death is precious,
life is just another
day surviving,
another day of manipulations
and being told things
are about to change,
death is a relief from life,
we all relish the end,
say goodbye to those we know
hello to those we are
about to meet...
we fear the end since 
absolute it is.
no remakes or changes
can be made...
dead is simply dead.

January 27, 2025