This life is
Such a mystery
I’m puzzled at every twist
A Rubic’s Cube
I’ll never solve
My answers, always miss
Enigma
living life out loud
Pumped
“Allow me to offer my most profuse apologies…not!” Frank shouted after the big, black Buick as it pulled away from the station.
He began to chuckle at his own cleverness, eventually cracking himself up, riding its euphoric wave before degenerating into a coughing jag which felt like karmic payback.
And just like that, he clammed up again to his usual monosyllabic existence at the pump.
Decay
There’s a wound I hang on to
Like a cavity I won’t get filled
I finger it with my tongue
Test it out each time, anew
Is the pain still there? Yes, it is
This old friend, this pain that feels like me
Catch 22
Invisible hand
Grips my neck
Stifles my breath
Can’t break free
Of me, yet not
If I drown it
I drown me
Fill in the Blank
“If I’d had any inkling this was gonna happen, I’d never have ________”
worn these high-heeled shoes.
tried the fish instead of the beef.
had that fourth martini.
said what I was really thinking.
bent down to pick up that dollar bill.
agreed to a second date in the first place.
Soul Echoes
Who’s there, yearning, in pain
In the dark of my past
I look behind and see
The silhouettes of the many
From whose dreams I was born
I feel their unrealized needs
In the needs of my present
What they have not let go of
Holds me now, outside of my life
I see you, I say
I’m sorry, I say
This is yours, I say
I lay their burdens at their feet
Look them deeply in their eyes
Thank you for dreaming my life
I’ve got it from here
Passing Attendance
“I got my trill, on Blueberry Hill,” she spoke-sang under her breath before going into a fit of giggles that took her an unexpectedly long time to recover from, almost three vehicles going through the toll.
All this in response to voice of the driver of an old, long, black Cadillac whose purply-blue hued hair was rivaled only by the vibrating lilt of her sung “Have a nice day!” after she slowed to hand her $1.75 in coins to Jeannetta’s gloved outstretched hand.
It was moments like this that kept her job interesting, and she shook her head in awed appreciation before returning her attention to her half-eaten baloney sandwich.
Both Sides Now
I lean heavily on them
My dominant traits
A desire to color inside the lines
Follow the rules
Play it safe
They serve me well
Except when they don’t
So I am strengthening others
Going outside the boundaries
Breaking the rules
Taking risks
Gonna have an ambidextrous spirit
Herbal Reverie
“Allow me to speak candidly,” she said with earnestness to no one in particular before finding herself poised halfway between the kitchen and the veranda staring out the window.
And just like that, the realization that had prompted the remark in the first place drifted out of her consciousness and on to wherever such realizations go when unattended.
And so it was that she sat down once again to a cup of camomile tea and a romance novel to while away a long day’s afternoon.
Beyond the Pale
Broaden my horizons
Been looking for the same old things so long
From the views of this self-made prison I call my life
If I close my eyes and hold your hand
Can we leap into a whole new world
I want to stretch to see new sights
My heart is pounding, my body, so alive
I’m ready – let’s jump – and see where we land
Beyond the Skinny Branches 