raddled

dust collects around him
like puppies to the teat
his torn and tattered soul
flaps in the baked air
in melting shoes, he treads
this raddled old man
clutching his rags and
using bindlestick as cane
but oh, he hides such tales
would flood the parched desert
with your tears if you listened

proliferate

kindness comes
like summer snow
rare to come
and quick to go
commoner barbarity
oh, would that charity
would proliferate
as quickly as hate

charisma

so comes the crash

untethered from integrity
charisma is but a balloon
ferrying passengers
towards the stratosphere
until the lack of oxygen
strains bloviator's bellows
and winded we fall

sleuth (v)

look down
the microscope
or up through
the telescope
ferret out
the mysteries
of the multiverse
in micro and macro
and still my sluething
leaves me blind
to the inner workings
of your mind

foray

Origin Story

water rolls
off my back
quack
quack
they called me
for screaming truth
into the void
not crazy
but annoyed
who'll laugh last
oh yes, we'll see
my first foray
into villainy
I'll become
what they'd
make of me

doldrums

wild fantasies spin
like carded yarn
from sleeping beauty’s
fated finger while
you combat
the somnolence
of daily doldrums
waiting for the ding
to set you loose
from boredom's noose

myopic

the deceiver not in satyr suit
but pinstripe double-breasted
single- minded man myopic
in mentality focused on oblivion
and oblivious to pandemonium
he parents and presides
as he derides the different
and stokes the sulfur fires
of humanity's basest desires

adjudicate

Road Trip

if one could
but harness frustration
and use it
to power a nation
might I suggest
the force unleashed
when father called
into the breach
to adjudicate
the next stop location
restaurant, lodge,
or gas station

imbroglio

one 

wonders 

how much we 

must take how many 

molehills a mountain make

how much embarrassment heaped

upon imbroglio before we go "it's time"

and so thus end the world we know and sow the 

seeds we wish to grow making compost of this utter shitshow

cumulate

ocular clouds conjoin
rain on cheeks to rivers make
so too do kindnesses cumulate
create joys' overflow
overrunning swollen banks
to wend and wind through
concordant countenance
as mountains and canyons
of face graced by cloudburst
precipitate felicitous 

substantive

long for oratory soaring
to swell communal sense
once, I thought, we listened
with more open hearts
when we progessed some
if only in fits and starts
when we consumed
rhetoric more substantive
misspelled ALL CAPS tweets
oh, these days would send
our better angels to retreat
bile boils within my breast
as hatred smiles and simpers
followed by pundits spinning
no more "winning"
the "countrty" wimpers
yet mayhap
a voice will rise
above the cacophony
a voice that defies
the easy vitriol
of baseball cap politics
and dirty tricks

wherewithal

weekend’s end
arrives again
and so, again
I strive
to summon up
the wherewithal
tomorrow ‘gain
to rise
and face the world
beyond my door
the duties and drudge
that drag me forth
I try not to begrudge
but better still
my comfort found
in those at home
that mark my worth

gargantuan

Sisyphus song:

ice bruised,

fever sore,

wind chapped -

over the pinnacle 

under an endless sky
begin and begin
and begin again 

a gargantuan boulder 

and I 

teetotaler

I know that you must leave but before you go

          dance 

                     one last 

                                 across my palate 

                like the finest vintage

                            warm 

                    and mysterious

              heady and rich and rare

                       envelope me 

                     in a tipsy haze 

                 of addled adoration

oh, you would make of me a teetotaler

   for when I have drunk this finite cup

      what spirit could ever tempt me 

          to sip again and overcome 

              lingering perfection 

               with a lesser elixir

                  I would rather

                       abstain

                     altogether 

farouche

Early Epitaph

within the world, her life but little.
she knew that wallflowers have the best view,
so she watched and wrote worlds
grander than her own
(but ever rooted in her home)
and when she dies, they'll say,
"she was fractious and farouche -
mysterious and aloof but, oh - so brilliant;"
and they'll use her words as proof

nomothetic

despite a surfeit
of contrary proof
still we hope
that justice adheres
to some nomothetic guide
that karma binds
in kind of a moral noose
from which the pure
of heart break loose
that the universe discerns
between the measures made
by man
and the measure made
of the man

liaison

ethereal thread

       tremulous twangs

              like the strings

                    of a fallen harp

                        liaison between

                    head and heart 

          carded and spun

       like twine

 it binds

like silk

       it shines

           gossamer

              yet stronger 

                  than rope

         we call it 

       

            hope

 

mea culpa

narcissists and sociopaths
rarely apologize
and when they do
it's often lies
surprise, surprise

somehow
those whom
everyone knows
most owe
the world
a mea culpa
never get past
the "me"
you see?

clement

heartsore healed
by clement kind
friends in heart
by love unbind

boycott

frustration mounts
helpless we feel
as out of their mouths
come statements unreal
and we are left
with letters and shouts
we boycott and still
frustration still mounts
the airwaves are peopled
with charlatans and hacks
making their stacks
on stacks on stacks
and when they are finally
removed from the air
their contracts are honored
and we just despair
we made our points
but they're still millionaires

syllogism

a 

web a net

a crude crochet

of spurious syllogism

cast out to cover us all

like a propaganda parasol

I

I

I

I

J

 

venal

progress but a
sandcastle
built patiently
with nascent hope
and heaven sent joy

quickly destroyed
by the venal frauds
and the wave of
dismay they surf

fomenting disarray
and portents of decay

behest

he drew my portrait
in chalk and charcoals
across the broken pavement

he watched
as rain dissolved me
every day

as though
he could absolve me
from the aching

ghost of guilt

ultimately
intimately
his tears
dissolved me

at my behest
he drew me indelible


trapped me
in amber memory

so he could set me aside
and set me free

malinger

lie in bed and linger
snuggle down into comfort
cool calm hand on troubled brow
long to malinger, to feign fever
and stay forever far from day's
decisions and diversions
but alas, alack, oh me
the alarm rings again
and there are places i must be

demotic

the wild youth
chat with 
demotic ease
and I freeze
search my soul
for a lingua franca
to somehow convey
that though they
believe it not
I was kinda cool
back in my day

paradigm

it is we
must shift
our view
the paradigm
oft affixed
and rhyme
and reason too
so find the new
inside or else
be not distressed
when the world
where we reside
resists our change
knowing we tried
and will again
until we’ve turned
the tide

eclectic

spirit wild
eclectic child
of the dawn
dances out her song
in fits and starts and
all the parts disparate
merge to make
mosaic whole
stand back and see
she shines

abominable

hard not to be disheartened
when the world shows
its worst. those who every
bubble burst. abominable
and brimming with bile.
bottomfeeders most vile, trolling
every virtue as though t'were vice.
they aren't kind, they aren't nice.
so, when the tables turn
and they're exposed for vermin
scattering - expect a smattering
of condemnation rightly earned.

rapporteur

tension tight, I twist
while you, ticking off your list
of "you didn't do that, you did do this"
look evermore pissed

so you submit, you hypocrite,
I can't acquit myself and so sit
through this dismaying summit

you are a rapporteur reading
off the minutes of a meeting
leaving me barraged
by my faults reportage

campestral

easel set, unsturdy.
she stands
surveying the lands
in amateur eye
under open sky
and plans..
if she moved
the church
from here to there?
would she capture
the campestral beauty better?
or painted the sunset redder?
or should she stick
to the letter and paint
just what she sees
before the canvas
kites in the breeze.

handsel

you deserve the love
you so freely share
so begin by giving
yourself self care

love yourself
as if you just met you

your foibles charming
instead of damning

ring in the new
and gift yourself this handsel:
forgiveness
for the year just past
and from this day to your last

be kind

to others, true
but also to yourself too