Freedom

Shadows     Even the wind was somehow hot and thick that June evening. Standing in front of the old bowling alley, my favorite old dirty Misfits t-shirt glued to my back with sweat, the oppressive night air seemed to somehow diminish all thought and reasoning, almost as if these record high temperatures were melting my brain. Finally, after enduring this for hours, I decided that I’d had enough and was going to do something...

I couldn’t see the snakes. When they came at night, Puffing and hissing around my bed. I slept on the ground Without a light Other than the stars. Glowing softly over my head. Beauty above. Death below. To sleep was an act of faith. Closing your eyes When well you know That fangs are coming. And sooner or later, you have to pee, Wearing chains.     Such a life does something to you. It...

Freedom covered me in bubble wrap To protect me from life Because that stuff would surely kill me. It took a while before it was safe to feel again. To look at my face in the mirror and count the bruises. It took a while before I believed That smiles were not a disguise To hide evil.   Freedom didn’t come with a map To help me find my way back home, Or to navigate...

Love Remains I’ve heard it said… That even if a man came back from the dead We still wouldn’t listen to a word that he spoke We’d tell stories about him around fire and smoke We’d call him a ghost So we’d haunt ourselves with old memories instead And leave his ghost to grow lonely inside his own head   I once knew a man They cut off his hand Buried it in the African...

Crunchy Pudding             “I’m so damned hungry.” I mutter to myself which makes me smile just a little bit. Momma used to always ask me why I had conversations with myself. To which I would always smirk and reply “If I want an intelligent answer to my question, why not ask a genius?” I have always been sort of full of myself, even at a young age. Somehow, I could take a problem and create...

It’s always there It’s the air that we breathe in It’s the water that we swim in It’s the current that takes us Down to the altar and makes us Drown   This water, it used to be wine Until we tried to trade our shame For thirty silver coins salvaged from a shipwreck that We bought off the docks with a hand written check that… Bounced   And now Shame is the currency we...

I’m untouchable. People think my shadow Has PTSD land mines. They keep their distance, Heads down, Safe behind the line Of yellow Traumatic Hazard Tape. No one wants to get blown to hell. Look what it did to me.   Life gave me chains To wear on my ankles. I broke them and made wind chimes. They sing how the breeze doesn’t blow back But forward. That love always rhymes. I have my storms. Depressions...

You sleep like a feather Slipping silently  From the nest of a dove Over a river at night Just one note from a  Muffled song Even just a slight breath of air And there you are Drifting down To the icy water Wide awake   Me? I sleep like a brick Like shoes made of concrete Encased in the mud Beneath the bridge Beneath the fishes A mouth full of gravity I sleep on borrowed...

A poet walks in and pours himself all over the bar. He looks at every patron near and far. Word after word he brings to bear. Yet not even a single person really seems to care. Yet he refuses to stop and recites some old lyrics. But it is almost as if the patrons can’t hear it. He decides to give a few limericks a chance. But some grumpy old man just spits chaw on...

You sit there hidden away from the world, Sitting against your favorite knobby trunked Willow. Hiding from the hot July Sun with your head on a Burl pillow. Meanwhile participating in epic adventures in far off lands, Touring across the galaxies and exploring unknown desert sands. You have an infinite number of possibilities, The multi-verse of knowledge at your very fingertips, Should you just apply yourself to whatever problem is at hand. The princess desperately...