We couldn’t survive

each to the other

We couldn’t let go

to live

We couldn’t give

without retaking

We couldn’t express

what we felt

We couldn’t stay quiet

when being together

We couldn’t come back

from the past

We couldn’t forgive

what time had rescinded

We couldn’t remember

— to forget

 

(Woodstock: Summer, 1969)

 

He wandered to the rim

looking over and down

Lost in a memory

his fear as a shroud

As voices from faces

that he never saw

Called out from the darkness

— with time overdrawn

 

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024) 

Innocence a foreigner

if beautiful or dark

No one who can lead the way

— has purity of heart

 

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Killing shared values

our lives on death row

Kinship aborted

— the world soon to blow

 

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

The pendulum swings wider

both right and then left

Those things that divide us

fomenting unrest

The wasteland between

what was once common ground

A minefield of mutual exclusion

— profound

 

(The New Room November, 2024)

That one final

  bullet

That one final

dagger

To use

on another

Or to use

— on ourselves

 

(Dreamsleep: October, 2024)

“If thou wouldst 

be my critic

Thou must

— wear my soul”

 

(Woodland Avenue Philadelphia: May, 1973)

Stealing from a thief

those phrases gone

Scales rebalance

 words in song

 

Once recaptured

then released

The chorus joyful

— the world at peace

 

(The New Room: September, 2024)

Be home

when opportunity

knocks

Your door

 left open

— lights aglow

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2024)

Trapped in a

ditch

on the highway

of life

Comings

were going

all motion

had gone

 

Till fates

saving whisper

in the ear

of tomorrow

Granted me

traction

in search

— of the dawn

 

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)