Stranded Coat

Comfortable breezes descend
On a joyfully dismal pea coat

Unaware of its surroundings;
Of the past or future

He is content to hang
By his fuzzy blue collar
Upon a rusted nail
In a salt-brushed coconut tree

He has no home;
No company

He has no friend
[Not anymore]

Wind is the last speck of friendship
This coat will ever know

Strewn about are clues
That suggest a dreadful fate
Of his old friend
Whom he knew so well

Now there is just the change
That comes with sun movement
As distant bells sing their repetition
To call for help in vain

Why is the coat alone?
Who was his master?
Who will tell the story?

Who knows of a story to tell?

Learning

Count hours.
Pangs-a-plenty that pace around the stomach
Through the bowels
Up the throat

When nothing;
No one can
Warn a simple being
Of the sickening, heart-dropping feeling
That comes with growing older

How there is an urge
To speak the tongue of hopelessness
Not trusting a spirit beyond self
To learn without a boost

Yet in selfish anticipation
The truth is but a spark
From realization

That all is a matter of finding
And none is that of being taught

Haiku #2

in a tall building
too fast for the naked eye
we don't know the truth

Haiku #1

proud midwesterner
looking to the sky confused
ending the poem

Good

From a single breath
Life spreads its seed asunder
And flocks of foes are formed,
Cast in a mold of anger

All things that radiate joy
And gleam of felicity
Will triumph and prosper
Past lifetimes of gloom

Fated are those that resolve
to act their role in the gloomy twilight
As tiny, militant spores that
Threaten to mess the lovely

When the meek settle their dreadfulness
And the music can be heard
All else will count
As a beseeching vagrant

From a single breath
Life spreads its seed asunder
And blazing voices of good
Are towering to a flooded peak of perfection

Air Is A Betrayer

Like a soothing breeze
You passed
But upon your cloudy shoulders
Lies a faint hint of youth

A draft that now is biting
Like a frigid night in Barrow
Pulls me back to wonder
If I should close the window

It is from the ground that
I must find my warmth
She does not shift and retreat
From the fear of a home

I scarce can imagine
Sleep without a breeze
But if the air is a betrayer
I can only hope
You find another way in

Losing Imagination

In the cool dark of morning
We’d sit on the floor
Wishing ourselves to a distant place
Watching the shadows as they moved.

I was only five but I recall
A rainbow on the floor that shaped the silhouette
Of a trader, carrying goods on a wagon
In a far off land

How I wished we were there

But we were there
For those three minutes the sun allowed
The illusion
To penetrate my senses

When dreams die upon entering
I know I’m growing older
Slower
Less imaginative

And tired

Strained for hope
I walk amidst the trees
Feel the ground beneath me
And taste the air around me

I am free

If You Want Me

If you want me
Cast away your pride

A failing love is that
Which captures what’s in reach

If you want me
Dismiss all doubt, just hope

For hope is not your foe
And blindness comes when you don’t

If you want me
Assume my failures will not cease

Instead, they’ll just get weaker
And my love for you, increase

If you want me
Petition all the spirits

Remind yourself of why
You ever began to love

Gone are yesterday’s wonderings
Smitten with the thought

If you want me so badly
Relinquish not one assault

Proceed

As I listen to the a.c.
I wonder about the frame of my life
To regain a sense of the anchor
To know how I’ve touched my friends
It’s a quiet, lonely view into hell
Because no one comforts the convicted
Only the victims

The gift given is an unwelcomed pleasure
And the core of my failure
At least it seems
This song makes me wonder how I ended up
Creating this person in me
I was changing for good
Now I’m in need for something stable

I hope I’ll know when
I’ve forgotten the misconceptions
I had before
About love
And trust
And purpose
And selfishness

Everyone needs time
Everyone needs time
Everyone needs time
I need time
I need time
I need time
I need prayer

Breeze and leaves
And dirt and trees
And waves and sand
And her and me
And roads and signs
Are the things that affect me
These simple things

Despite what they think
I do understand
Forgive
Allow
Listen
Pray
Proceed

We all will be home soon

Fog

Have I breathed a word worth a bit?
A thought upon a fleeting sea of thoughts
Or the ache of a detoured life
Is why I seem messy and unwanted.

We wake on a foggy morning
Here, amidst our selves.
A biting breeze tells stories
Of what has come and gone

And I want it.

A hurried fix is what lies here.
Trembling at night, unable to sleep.
For I know fog returns with the moon
And the cold

As a regretful air fills my room.

Why do I fail?
Who will look on me
With belief
And trust
And happiness

Besides those I took for granted?

Soon, all will be revealed
And the hot breath of a new day
Will dissolve all doubt and fear.
Two will discover the purpose of time.
Two will fight the facile

And the fog will roll away.

Children

Smell spice withered and frail
In a cottage along a creek

Tea leaves drown and oil lamps
Blaze as Heaven’s fiery peak

Young ones hear old tales
Of the Arabian and Greek

Soft and silly wonder
Not dancers, smooth and sleek

Only playful souls that shout with joy
Only the faithful, firm, and meek

When shall we learn their lesson?
When is the wisdom gained?

To place a seal of solid doubt
Whenever we feel stained

Or dash the thoughts of beauty
Convinced this life is pained

To look on children, small and glad
With our pools of judgment drained

Then, only then will we be embraced
And our shackles be unchained