He stood by

my cradle

And followed

my hearse

Unlocking

two portals

Both blessing

— and curse

 

(Dreamsleep: November, 2024)

Today

 I decided

not to rhyme

 

The words

in volleys

poorly formed

 

Predicates

outcast

 covers smashed

 

Their accents

bouncing

 meanings lost

 

Today

I decided

not to rhyme

 

Appeasing

some

beyond the fence

 

Connections

broken

  phrases served

 

Playing tennis

without

— a net

 

(The New Room: November, 2024)

Reaching into the

public consciousness

the words were given free

 

Blowing fresh holes

through blind consensus

nothing there to see

 

Reaching into

the common anthem

selling out for fate

 

Lost in the current

of tomorrow’s maelstrom

— passing heaven’s gate

 

(The New Room: November, 2024)

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what time had rescinded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)