GEN Zombie

Half alive or living dead?

I wonder what they could be feeling.

A whole generation in mechanical motion

like a line of red ants on the ceiling.

A stale smile on a frowning face, 

a stiffened glance like day-old bread.

When they do decide to look at you 

they’re staring just beyond your head.

Shoot them up with flashing lights,

from that pocket slot machine.

No need to drop a single dime  

to lock them in their own fluorescent dream.

And say a voice were heard from outer space

claiming it could pound us flat,

they’d shrug and be quite unimpressed,

quite certain “there’s an app for that.” 

 

Life's a Witch

Living alone, life's often quiet as a mouse

that’s ‘til those two started nibbling on my house!

But you're saying I'm the bad guy here?

That I'm the element the townsmen fear?!

I'd taken pity on your troubled youth,

offered something better for their sweet tooth:

I’d just baked cookies for my coven,

when Gretel pushed me towards the oven!

Life's hard enough for any gal, wouldn't you say?

And I never said I was in distress.

It’s not a crime to look this good

        in a long black dress.

I don't need anyone to sweep me off my feet,

I can do that with my own broom.

(I didn't uber to this courtroom)

No the hat is not a costume!

Tell the kids, I don’t wear a disguise:

I’m as plain-complicated as any of you guys.

They can visit whenever, there's no need to think twice. 

No need for apologies (although one would be nice).

I hope that they learn we’re not plain bad or good.

We all try to get by as we best think we should.

I don’t ask ye for much, save to be understood:

see the world that I see from this side of my hood.

#Halloween2020

Vagabond

I can’t regale you with a sonnet

I can’t play piano or guitar.

I wish I did, I wish I could be 

more than another guy at a bar.

You look me over top to bottom,

curious to see just what’s inside.

Besides the loose change in my pocket,

well, I’ve got nothing left to hide.

    I don’t need to be smart to be clever.

    Don’t need a watch to tell me time won’t wait.

    While I can’t draw, or keep my plotlines straight: 

    My art is in the life that I create.

For those of us who grow up knowing

food doesn’t show up on one’s plate

We hear an appetite that’s taunting, 

biding its time to seal our fate.

And like a gunshot in the distance

it forced me to a running start.

That blast still echoes in the caverns

that love left vacant in my heart.

    I don’t need to be smart to be clever.

    Don’t need a watch to tell me time won’t wait.

    While I can’t draw, or keep my plotlines straight: 

    My art is in the life that I create.

    Why erase a wrinkle, why hide a single line 

    when they chronicle the landscape of a lifetime?

    Like razing trees to better see a barren line.

    A pristine canvas is a song without a rhyme. 

Won’t promise I can buy you diamonds,

and I've no use for fancy cars.

I do swear your life won’t be a blank page

but a night sky peppered with stars!

And I never did like a blank page:

an empty sky without stars...

 

#JohnTravolta

Ashore

Don't care to ask why skies are blue?
Content to say it's somehow true, are you
preferring not to know than know you could be wrong?

You built the rules that wall you in
this prison of what-you-believe, then
you sit on that shore so sure the current's just too strong.

Staying awake leaves no space to dream in,
mistrusting what sits in the shadows.
But those who avoid the unfriendly seas
become captains who sail in the shallows.

You fear a fall, but don't we all?
Why crouch behind a make-shift wall?
Nobody hides from time by ducking as it passes by.

Can't fully numb the hurt you feel.
Life carves us scars to show we heal.

I'd rather see the petals fall, than risk they never bloom at all...

The Get Away

Well, running away is easy 

and driving off is even fun.

If it means anything to anybody

I’d never meant to hurt anyone.

Got wrapped up in my own story.

Started a tab of open trespasses.

Ditched the aftermath for the afterparty

leaving someone else to clean the mess.

  Wind in my hair, got both hands on the wheel,

  I’ve forged this iron will into a heart of steel.

  So many years late but I now I'm ready to be...

  the person I should've been at 23.

Felt good making bad decisions.

Ain't nothin wrong with tryin' to have some fun?

Ditched all the pleasantries, wrote off the casualties...

Nothin' 4 shots of bourbon couldn't numb.

  Wind in my hair, used the regret I feel

  to forge this iron will into a heart of steel.

  I'm 20 years late but I now I'm ready to be...

  the person I wanted to be... at 23.

I thought the open road would always let me get away

but scenes repeat themselves like I'm on a track.

The devil holds a silken leash, he’ll help you have your way,

but I would rather roam free with a cross on my back.

  Wind in my hair, used the regret I feel

  to forge this iron will into a heart of steel.

  I'm 20 years late but I now I'm ready to be...

  the person I wanted to be... at 23.

Fallen Star

How I'd looked up to you
shining down pure as starlight,
beaming in your silk nightgown
a fairy dressed all in white.

You'd read me a story,
the only one you could tell,
with each run I would wonder
if it might finally end well.

   After ever after, there's no genie in your bottle
   to grant the lost wishes you wipe off your lip.
   And all the kings men and all the kings horses
   have left you with me in a sinking ship.

There's no room for dreaming,
can't fit it into my suitcase
for this road trip from hell
up a long winding staircase.

You say we've arrived but
what waits at the top?
A new dragon to chase
then a hundred-foot drop?

   After ever after, there's no genie in your bottle
   to grant the lost wishes you wipe off your lip.
   And all the kings men and all the kings horses
   have left you with me in a sinking ship.

I charted a course chasing you through the sky,
thought you twinkled for me to stave off the dark.
But as you started to fade in the fresh light of day,
I could spy the black hole in your heart.

#DemiMoore_InsideOut

Tug of War

You'd think I'd know you better
I fell for you when we were 10.
This castle built across a lifetime:
a house of cards against the wind.

I missed the signs completely
I'd blindly followed every rule.
Stood on the pedestal you fashioned
and tumbled off a broken stool.

You pull on your side
I'll tug on mine
not quite how I imagined
the bloody end of the line.

So tired of this but I'll hold my ground.
This game's not over 'til we all fall down.

Rich on a pocket of dimes,
we'd both be half-baked in the sun.
Back when "i'm sorry" came so easy
and losing games was half the fun.

You could always make me laugh
even times when I'd be bleedin'.
How could I know you wouldn't outgrow
that old propensity for cheatin'.

You pull on your side
I'll tug on mine
not quite how I imagined
the bloody end of the line.

So tired of this but I'll hold my ground.
This game's not over 'til we all fall down.

Strength is spent and skin is raw, far as hell from what I planned. Do I hold the means to be free? Or is this a noose in my hand?

So tired of this but I'll hold my ground.
This game's not over 'til I take you down.