What is the substance

of nothingness

 

With nothingness the substance

of thought

 

Where is the truth

in indifference

 

Apathetically frozen

when taught

 

How then to measure

reluctance

 

With action the villain

of time

 

Seeking to baptize

the vacuum

 

Where consonants hide

—from the rhyme

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2023)

You can’t burn out

if you’re not on fire

 

Jim roaming wild

pyre to pyre

 

The only way out

the only way in

 

Flaming the moment

—death rebegins

 

(Las Vegas Boulevard: January, 2023)

Today

I unlocked

a new window

 

One

I had never

opened before

 

Air

rushing in

calling me back

 

Voices

familiar

yet foreign to name

 

And

as I passed through

that new window

 

Leaving

behind

what used to be me

 

Losing

my shadow

to futures long past

 

Reaching

for something

—becoming the dream

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

 

What can’t be forgiven

must be forgotten

Memory the catalyst

for sorrow and pain

 

The future endemic

its danger befalls us

Salvation escaping

—reluctant to change

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

 

Do our children inherit

our shadows

 

Denied of the light

their birthright implies

 

Willing them darkness

in probated limbo

 

Leaving what sorrow

—forever reminds

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

Escaping your humanity

—the biggest myth of all

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

 

If your heart is open

and true

 

Your grief is as deep

as your love

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

 

The difference between

what you want

and what you need

—is what you can fit on a motorcycle

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

Can nothing extend

beyond something…

 

Can never be

possibly where…

 

Can dreamers awaken

the insomniacs sleep…

 

Can no place

ever be there…

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

We make the truth we need

to worship gods of time

And love in spite of hate

whose conjure ill defined

 

We set the past in stone

to keep tomorrow chaste

And travel inward free of both

—whose presence we displace

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)