Everyone is brave

inside the café

Tall glasses of courage,

fear toasting itself

The sound of the motors,

the drape of the muleta

A court full of jesters

—reliving the lie

 

(Amtrak To 30^th Street: May, 2021)

Too much honor

kills with impunity

 

The intrepid among us

—perdition surrounds

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

The best of the worst,

rules amidst chaos,

honor amongst thieves

—brothers in blood

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

If I chose the right words

I could talk to God

in language still unspoken

 

His arms to reach out

and welcome me home

with grace—my heart rewoken  

 

(The Book Of Prayers: May, 2021)

The dead are tired,

the living go on

 

Breathless and timeless,

all energy gone

 

The dead left to wander,

betwixt and between

 

Finality’s heartbreak

—the end of the dream

 

(Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House: May, 2021)

Time,

the moving image

of eternity

 

Having no

beginning

and no end

 

Confounding

every mind

that begs to question

 

Shaping

all there is

within its bend

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

Preferred indifference,

the Stoics say

 

The arm’s length model

where choices stray

 

In for a penny,

in for a pound

 

The shield left naked

—when outward bound

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

Love,

in the end

—betrays us all

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

Jet Stream Mother,

your prayers go unanswered

The beginning deflated,

the ending in sight

 

Dancing in place,

the four winds become mistral

Your children left orphaned

—adrift in the night

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

Differing from our enemy,

in one way the same

 

Our conflict in common

—to praise or to blame

 

(The New Room: May, 2021)