The hotter the flame

— the brighter the light

 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2025)

Running off

to somewhere else

the past tracks

close behind

 

Its shadow looming

steps in place

while preying

to remind

 

That time pursues

the fleetest man

with doggedness

and ire

 

To kindle each

mistaken step

into a raging

— fire

 

(The New Room: December, 2025)

Greatness

spawn’s reincarnation

like the dawn

rebirths the sun

 

Alexander

Patton, and Churchill sleep

but woken

rebecome  

 

When destiny calls

the greatest rise

to battle

zero sum

 

And stem the tide

before the flood

on shores of victory

— won

 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2025)

 

I drift

into the mirror

chasing eyes

that once were mine

 

And leave behind

the futile wish

in memory  

confined

 

The silver backing

traps my fear

releasing

what’s been hidden

 

As I become

divorced from time

resighted

— and regiven 

 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2025)

If you hang out fresh meat

the wolves will come

Once they have eaten

the faster they run

 

Blood from their fangs

remarking the trail

Where vermin can hide

— to attack and impale

 

(Dreamsleep: November, 2025)

Upon reaching the top

I found a new bottom

Polarity shifts

once the apples are rotten

 

Direction a ruse

of misguided fruition

Where searchers take flight

— in a new convolution

 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2025)

By courting with death

we validate life

 

The deeper the fall

— the sweeter the height

 

(El Capitan, Yosemite: June 2017)

There are only two kinds

of people

the Chilean poet said …

the innocent

— and the living

 

(Dreamsleep: December, 2025)

The merciless poacher

his larceny quells

Shooting wherever

the desperate dwell

Leaving to rot

what his vengeance can’t steal

Stalking and preying

the weakest revealed

Stirring up warnings

and ghosts from the past

Damning his nature

and future aghast

Hanging his conquests

on walls that defame

That last spot for him

— dark trophy of shame

 

(The New Room: December, 2025)

Poetry …

the desperate

exercise

of the socially wracked

Feigning with

words

what their confidence

lacks

Imploring

the reader

to embrace

and befriend

One step

from the needle

the bullet

—  the end

 

(Rereading Kerouac: November, 2025)