As deep a slice can go
Without nicking the bone
Gestating old emotions
I thought I had outgrown
So comical the turn
I’ve naught to do but laugh
Always trudging forth
On so elliptical a path
I know not who I am
I know not what I know
A pattern deeply rutted
So upward I must go
Can’t say I haven’t learned
The message all too clear
Now it’s time to ascertain
If I’m really here
Just another face
Inside the spotted glass
Disappearing
Hazy with smeared kisses
From beautiful women
An unwashed commingling of strong bonds
And stifled pain resurfacing
If you are ever here
It is wise to bring someone
to tell you how beautiful you are
For the honesty of such a place
With its chipped edges and grime
Will make the scars rise and the tears threaten
Punctuated by the sizzling, flickering light
Reminding us
this is what we are left with
Now choose your favorite bit of scrawled wisdom
And go
For the next look is always the hardest
A pregnant bud
Poised so to burst
To feel the sun
Its role rehearsed
Within its essence
Lives the will
But leaves of green
Occlude it still
The petals push
Against their walls
Aching to spread
Destiny calls
But what comes after
Realization
All those thoughts
Cause hesitation
But if n’er she shows
Her silken suit
She’ll not have borne
The sweetest fruit
A sharing of blood between us
A sharing of cells and skin and breath
A likeness in each one of us
To each one of us
We spread like oil in water
But still end up in clumps
We are all seeking something
Even if it’s just another day
Exactly like this one
We don’t want to be beautiful
As much as treasured
We don’t want to be bold
As much as heard
We don’t need to feel free
To live
But freedom
Is one of the great things to live for
That
And love
Ground to gravel
Cut to ribbons
I unravel
Just by livin’
Hard streets pounding
through my shoes
All compounding
My constant blues
Iridescent
Sidewalk puddles
In incandescence
The stars are scuttled
The skyline looms
set to devour
Nothing blooms
at ungodly hours
Resuscitated
by a patch of grass
Incarcerated
in broken glass
Shabby tinsel
still frames the lights
So with hope and pencil
I start to write
We reach out to the universe
Through thought or prayer or ritual
The need for explanations
Is human and habitual
Impatient to unfolding life
We harvest much too soon
as changing as the currents
’round a newly freed balloon
Suspending expectation
but trying just the same
May float us to our freedom
up above the mortal game
Below I go meandering
With a glacial stride
Some fear this place of darkness
But it’s where I go to hide
The monsters left so long ago
So I can be alone
Once youth is lost you come to know
The monsters are your clone
For angry you, and bitter you
And you plagued with regrets
For haughty you and jealous you
What growing up begets
But as the candles multiply
There is an integration
You can no longer court denial
With this clever separation
In this place now monsterless
there only stands a mirror
Tis’ not cursed or enchanted
but reality much clearer
As the talking heads blabber
O’er the freshest cadavers
With fingers all pointing away
They churn out excuses
For heinous abuses
Who will be the scapegoat today
They submit all their answers
Like impeccable dancers
Coming down to a resounding “Not me”
Why is it just here
Is so riddled with fear
When we have the least reason to be
Be it a man
With nefarious plans
Or the ease with which he gets a weapon
We must drive for solutions
With fierce resolution
Or we might as well say that we let them
Sometimes life will tell you
This is not what’s meant
Despite all of your efforts
And time that you have spent
So delicate a structure
That constantly it’s falling
And you don’t stop to listen
To the new voice that is calling
Or should I say old
It has always been there
You have heard it and felt it
The bore of its stare
So dip in your toe
Run it through your fingers
See how it feels
Feel how it lingers
Hear the gentle click
As it falls easily in place
A passionate renewal
To eclipse the grueling race
Heirlooms of the good old days
Bring us closer to our infancy
Though carefree and easy
Memories lack consistency
When our world was but a playground
We were fresh in our naiveté
But soon a jarring moment
Makes us see things in another way
No more do we skip about
And smile at every stranger
The Technicolor fades a bit
Once introduced to danger
It’s then that we begin our course
Of trying to return
To the days we spent in sunlight
Without seeming e’er to burn
We suffer through the cyclone
Of an unforgiving world
Hoping one day we’ll reemerge
A windswept little girl
The Mewriginal 