All the things I think I get
All the plans I think I laid
All the folks I think I met
All the hands I think I played
Everything feels like a dream
All suspended in the air
I don’t hear it when I scream
I don’t see it when I stare
Then the I-ness of existence
Hits me right between the eyes
It’s the craziest inversion
Of the sum of all my lies
All alone with all my I’s
The 26th of Feb at a Panera Bread
“Go stand behind the guy with the grey hair.”
“That’s gross. Did she actually say that?”
Set my buzzer on the chair right next to me
Among the crumbs where a crumbled someone sat
I meander out of the loyal meter
Of the country-western number playing back.
Egg and cheese on an Asiago bagel
Verse contrived like my Sunday morning snack.
And this light roast blend
Is sure to send
My senses into spiral
With no sobering end.
Fake smiles
Keep them together
Moods change
Like the Chicago weather.
Got to go.
Thanking
Thank in words
Thank in deeds
Preferably fulfilling needs
Alarm Clock
That you wake up when it matters
Before the alarm goes off
Makes time a matter of mind
If what matters, matters enough
Song of You
I wrote this in honor of a friend of a friend who has entered the last stages of a 10-year long battle with Benson’s syndrome, a visual variant of Alzheimer’s Disease. This is dedicated to all those enduring the many forms of dementia out there. Peace and love.
It doesn’t matter what it is
It doesn’t matter why it’s there
What it’s for or where it goes
Or how it got upon that chair
All that matters is your heart
Playing softly in your chest
Celebrating all you’ve got
You’re so different from the rest
Sweet and sinless is your breath
Drawing circles in my hands
Home is past the stream of death
Where the sun is in the sands
Let the moments come and go
Each a lifetime on it’s own
They don’t matter now, you know
All that matters has been known
Smell the flowers, grab the sky
Hear the laughter, even cry
God is greater than it all
You will get to ask Him why
As will I
Hope Like a Drop
Hope like a drop
Of dew clinging fast
Resolved to outlast
Deceptions of vapor
Well into and past
Just words upon paper
Cloud of Truth
A cloud is like the truth
Hangs around for you to see
Ignore it till it drenches you
As rain eventually
Step Lightly
Step lightly as you walk upon
The hallowed floors of knowledge
Knowledge doesn’t give itself up
To heavy soles
It’s Hard To Be A Muslim
It’s hard to be a Muslim in these times
When random border checks have gotten cold
With camps and waterboarding on our minds
And neo-nazi haters walking bold
Like foreigners in lands we hold our own
We’re dust on maps dividing us apart
Unfounded fears turning hearts to stone
Impelling policy bereft of heart
We hear the names of prophets tossed in vain
By voices on the left and on the right
But can’t submit our intellect to gain
Admission to a Garden wrought from Light
It’s hard to be a Muslim till we see
That Muslim is just all we need to be
Life rolls on
Life and all within it roll
On like the waves in the sea
Up and down forever bound
For the shores of infinity