I dress up every Sunday,
but only in my mind
My coat and tie in tattered shreds,
the past and future bind
To celebrate in peasant rags,
as memory dances free
Imagining in formal garb
—what only I can see
(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)
I dress up every Sunday,
but only in my mind
My coat and tie in tattered shreds,
the past and future bind
To celebrate in peasant rags,
as memory dances free
Imagining in formal garb
—what only I can see
(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)
Some days my mind is hardened,
on others like a sponge
Today my thoughts are heartened,
with feelings on the run
Tonight as light transitions,
and darkness fills the void
My mind and heart will lay as one,
true lovers—dreams of joy
(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)
Wedded to a grownup dream,
betrothed to whom I sleep
My lover laced in shades of gray,
her shadow most discreet
Vows of heartache lost in time,
one chance to pledge again
to tend her garden—heart unbound,
and till her love unstemmed
(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)
I said no to the man
and made my own bed
I cut my own trail
with eyes straight ahead
In debt to myself
but thankful to all
My words freely spoken,
their verdict my call
I beat my own rhythm
on multiple drums
I structured the lyrics
to sing and to hum
The nighttime began
what the morning forgave
A living refusal,
my back to the grave
The years have renewed,
all memories collide
The young and the old,
the truth and the lies
A comet yet burning,
new verse in the sky
One word still an orphan,
and homeless
—GOODBYE
(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)
Our mistakes are paid
in generations of denial
Old footsteps defaulting,
new judgments on file
The future in debt
to invoices past
tomorrow debentured
—arrears mounting fast
(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)
No one lived more inside the moment,
No one left others more bent to his will,
No one remembered more for the things that he said,
No one more misunderstood while being so loved
—than Muhammad Ali
(Louisville Kentucky: July, 2020)
The greater the love
—the shorter the trip
(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)
While writing verse from now till then,
its toll I humbly paid
Across a bridge where time had stopped
—the truth to pass each way
(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)
The sun went down alone tonight,
clouds abandoned
horizon dark
The moon in twilight hesitation,
distance empty
redemption stark
The sun went down and disappeared,
light a memory
warmth to chill
A trail of comets turning back,
morning cancelled
—future killed
(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)
Passing each other
on the cusp of goodbye
A prayer of forgiveness,
a desperate last sigh
Feeling the emptiness,
hearts gone to stone
Lost in the memory
—of love we had known
(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)