Together,

Our hearts may start a fire

That in isolation

Waits a spark

 

Eternal,

Our souls may join as one

As our spirits

—light the dark

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)

One of life’s challenges

is to find your own speed

 

Where travel is constant,

 destination in sight

 

Too fast,

 and yesterday abandons your future

 

Too slow,

 and memory stretches beyond your grasp

 

(Airplane to Richmond 10/14/2016)

A prisoner of my poetry…

a captive of this chair

 

The air I breathe connects me fast,

this corner now my lair

 

I take my meals here sitting,

my sleep in naps between

 

The written and the spoken word

—both jailer to this dream

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

In the end…

the only thing left

—is what gets remembered

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

Yes, I’m a Poet,

but I refuse to be conscripted

 

I refuse to be a victim,

my words made out of stone

 

I refuse to bleed my heart out,

on a page of blank simpatico

 

I refuse to give you weakness,

knowing strength you have disowned

 

Yes, I’m a Poet,

but my sword is sharp and pointed

 

My shield is scarred and colored

with the blood of firebrands

 

My breath won’t plead while shouting,

every name a future conquest

 

My pen in hand, a weapon sure

 —its ink the truth commands

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

To steal injustice

from the eyes of a child

 

And place it beyond their sight

 

Is to save today,

when tomorrow is gone

 

The future—blinded by fright

 

(Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia: November, 2016)

Gonna roll me a reefer,

and smoke the past goodbye

 

Gonna empty that last bottle of gin,

and kick this bye and bye

 

Gonna drink that woman away, Lord,

if I have to turn to rum

 

Gonna smoke that reefer till my fingers burn

—her memory on the run

 

(Villanova University Vespers: June, 2019)

 

 

Drowning at the bottom,

  the top so far away

 

                Lifeline snapped, memory torn

—reasons unbelayed

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2019)

Do you want education,

or just to get high

 

To reach your potential,

or pie in the sky

 

If it’s learning you want,

then take off the mask

 

That laptop you worship

—deceives future and past

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)