Feigning reentry

from places I’ve wandered

Destiny challenged

the status-quo damns

 

Feigning reentry

from freedom unhindered

Life but a journey

its trappings to ban

 

Feigning reentry

its price was my freedom

The given agenda

new death to the dream

 

Feigning reentry

refusal my mantra

Staying in transit

—new rivers unstreamed

 

(The New Room: March, 2023)

 

(if it’s)

 

Love me …

hate my writing

 

(or)

 

Hate me …

love my writing

 

I can live with the hate

 

(Rosemont College: March, 2023)

Retracing my steps …

picking up the pieces

of a misguided past

Cleaning up the memories

that so litter my

attention

Given one more chance

to change

the things I never intended

Given one last chance

to right the wrongs

—of my prodigal ways

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)

How did he drive

those cars that fast

 

Far past the limits

of traction and time

 

Speed as his master

death as his

mistress

 

Chasing defiance

the sweetest

of wine

 

(Juan Manuel Fangio: March, 2023)

 

 

The reason we give it so much verbiage

the reason we give it time

The reason we search the light fantastic

the reasons left ill defined

 

The reason the choices finally matter

the reason we pick and choose

The reason we leave a trail behind us

the reasons we’re not bemused

 

The reason the voices call within us

the reason the nights are long

The reason each season traps our longing

the reasons both right and wrong

 

The reason when nothing’s left to answer

the reason no sirens call

The reason we leave the past unanswered

—the reasons we can’t recall

 

(The New Room: March, 2023)

 

Without

the conception inception

connection

Life

 is a desert

—of lost possibility

 

(The New Room: March, 2023)

Using the simple

to state the sublime

 

Syllables shortened

—magic refined

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)

Does light exist

without an object

to reflect against

 

Are good intentions

worth the time

as latency projects

 

The cobblestones

that lead to hell

a long and one-way path

 

Without an act

of conscious will

—a future damning past

 

(Villanova University: March, 2023)

 

Beauty changes

the embattled soul

A transmutation

ennobled whole

In darkest throes

to spread its light

Forever bathed

—in pure delight

 

 (Dreamsleep: February, 2023)

The paradox

of self-awareness

near and yet so far

 

Looking out

to see within

imploding like a star

 

The door that enters

exits free

its threshold bright then dim

 

Allowing what

the psyche fears

—to pass both out and in

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)