The words are formed and primed to do their dance
Upon the bones of honor in disgrace
You’ve strung your bow of tongue, awaiting chance
To send that verbal arrow nocked in place.
But then, just as you are about to fire
There falls a slowing hand upon your bow
Eliding tension for a reason higher
Than all the reasons you could ever know.
The arrow is dismantled word by word,
Replaced by disposition quite reversed:
An arsenal of patience undeterred
By thoughts seducing you to be your worst.
It is an act of courage to withhold
A poisoned arrow, be it cast in gold.
Parenting
I’ll let it slide because
I know you’ll learn someday
That all you said there was
Just all you didn’t say
A day on the prairie
Today:
just a day on the prairie
bounding
leaping
suddenly silently wary
slow down
amble on
by the brown
stroke of dawn
The Faces We Forget
Now even as we mourn the loss
Of famous faces for the good
They heaped upon the world they touched
As only people like them could,
We can’t forget the faces that
Were too horrific for the news
Because they bear the marks of death
Witnessing inconvenient truths.
Let’s not forget the faces of
The elders who we push aside
That WE may live in peace and comfort
In the days before THEY died.
Let’s not forget the faces lost
Without a home to call their own
In games of war where bombs are tossed
By oh-not-so-mistaken drone.
And if we cannot see these faces
We must close our eyes to see
For that is how the blind are blessed
In matters of a mind that’s free.
Latibule
Nothing ejects me
from my latibule
atop this mile-high oak:
do nothing
and I’ll be down
What I Said
So here I am, I’ve found that slice of time
When I said what I said; I freeze it dry
And step toward its body laced with crime
To analyze the what, how, when and why.
It looks quite innocent from where I am,
A figure cloaked in camphor-scented lies,
So I get closer till the fog of glamor
Lifts, revealing all my tongue devised.
Its face glows bright, a blinding flaring red,
Its hands are raised, upturned without a care,
I look for smile but find a smirk instead,
And cringe to see the maggots in its hair.
I let time roll to crush its nasty head
And plan apologies for what I said.
Drive Safely, America
The roads are icy and the wind is chilling
The fog of information thick and clear
You aren’t free till your heart is into willing
To cut the bonds of ignorance and fear.
Drive carefully, America.
America
Wiped down my cabinets, murphy oil came to the rescue
Unpresidented is trending about
So I cleared up the fallen snow before it turned to ice
And I logged off to look for America
The snow is coming
Now they say the snow is coming
Out this way, so we’re becoming
All excited for the work that lies ahead.
There’ll be driveways needing clearing
Icy patches interfering
With the plans of children rushing off to sled.
If you must bear a burden
If you must bear a burden,
Bear it like a tree.
If you must hide a secret,
Hide it like the sea.