Ancestors

Still with us watching and waiting, turning the skies before your eyes, but you are blind even in your own time, it's not your fault exactly because you had no proper teacher, like a blind man reaching for the features of a face they maybe know, you have nothing but room to grow.

Heart Haiku

Anahata lives

It's a green machine spinning

Tides of blessed spring

Deep Into The Night

There is a golden calf in your closet
with the price tag still on it

A stampede on your reason
is so out of season

There are teeth marks on your arm
The cow came home and bought the farm

The golden calf always goes away
Crows line up and perch to prey

on the residue of fright
that led you away
deep into the night

First Nations and Frontier Fascism

Remember Native Americans' yesterday
How they worked and how they played
How they shared with such pride
but settlers shared measles, and natives died.

They were friendly with smoke and fire
given blankets with the disease of liars
Grandmothers wept, oh how they cried
when warriors and babies alike, died.

They had Great Spirit in their eyes
but the devil came west
They did not stand in the way
or beat their chest.

They wove great beauty out of cloth
they knelt down before the cross
The four directions were not to conquer
but the white man was a vicious stalker.

They had Great Spirit on their side
Invaders said that they knew best
Used disease and guns to "civilize"
at the United States Government's behest.

Remember First Nations' today
The dark age has brought them to decay
Liquor, boarding schools, and foster care war
and a sadness impossible to ignore.

Bad Luck Charm: An Ode to Capitalism

I am your conscience that makes your skin crawl.
I am your writ of execution for breaking The Law.
I am the gun you should put in your mouth.
I am the voice in your mind so you won't leave the house.

I am the sweat of shame falling from your brow.
I am the salt in your eyes now.
I am your custom made loafers falling apart.
I am the gaping hole where there should be your heart.

I am the sword confronting your death.
I am the pyrosis burning your chest.
I am the rock and the hard place.
I am a reminder of all your disgrace.

I am your darkness and your fear.
I am the pool collecting the tears
of all of the people that you harm.
Around your neck, a bad luck charm.

Shared Zen

Life is too short for you
and me to be trapped in the ordinary
Making our bodily temples
home to love, we are the sanctuary


We stand by just in case
witnesses to misplaced pain
Their temporary residence 
keeps them living in vain


Outside of the convulsions
an antidote to blasphemy
We cheer the gods within
turning the wheel of eternity


I cry over your beauty
as it bounces off of mine
It always shines in your eyes
like fate came just in time


It goes down so very deep
and always comes around again
Every little thing you do for me
is a step into our shared zen

Manna's Song

Picture me singing and playing guitar
Picture me discovering a new star
I would name it just for you
and hint about it in my tune

I'll picture you on your journey afar
I'll picture you missing me, singing in your car
You're a grown up beauty now, it's true
Looking for answers and you found a few

The poems of handprints
pushed into clay
Leather hands of an
earthen stone fire
Surface again from a candid prayer
Our eyes dance around
the sky for hours

Picture me crying from your broken heart
Picture me telling you it's just the start
I'll pull out your childhood stories I saved
So you can remember what your heart craves

I'll picture you dance your troubles away
You made it and I hope you'll stay
When necessity's invention calls you to roam
you will go remembering your sacred home

The poems of handprints
pushed into clay
Leather hands of an
earthen stone fire
surface again from a candid prayer
Our eyes dance around
the sky for hours

Big Bad Uncle Sam and Little Red In Tha & Hood

Big Bad Uncle Sam and Little Red In Tha 'Hood

"Why, Uncle Sam, what big military bases you are building in Latin America!"
"Yes, my child, the more coups and narco-trafficing to line my pockets with."
"What big drug companies you have!"
"The better to anesthetize and depopulate the American people with, little one."
"What sinister pop stars and secret societies you have!"
"The more devious and self-destructive my citizens will want to be."
"What big chemtrails you have!"
"The more disease and confusion to control the population with, my sweet."
"What big bombs you keep dropping, Uncle Sam!"
"The more control of oil $$$ and puppet dictators I can install."
"What a big economic depression you have!
"Just one more nail in the coffin, Little Red in tha 'Hood!"

You Know Who You Are

You Know Who You Are

Nicole Danielle Rhoe Melnick

Up yours you know who you are

you thought it was forward toward love

I cut every chain that captures flesh

that’s grown out of the mud

You thought I’d just play my guitar?

Waiting for a surprise from above

like an apostle on the road to Marrakesh

to eat a nest of grubs

I’ll return your gestures post haste

promise there’ll be no delay

to testify in your case

so you will not alchemically lead us astray

Your leaky tongue dripping waste

rapaciously contaminates our days

You may like the putrid taste

of destruction and decay

I know I have to go alone

to know discomfort and count the tally

of all the pots cooking soup from stone

some on the mount, some in the alley

There is proof in burning a throne

chip away at the grand finale

scratching away the polished chrome

I put an end to this dilly-dally 

Until I Arrive

You have traveled out of the bounds
of my presence, but nothing else
You have torn my heart as it was
so attached to your beautiful face

I expect to hear your movements
in the next room, but all I hear
is the chirp of birds and
the wail of fire engines warning

There is no fear of fire because
the burning embers have been contained
for now by my loneliness like a
wrecking ball swinging at emptiness

Dearest Philip, I know it won't be long
still, I think of your departure
just before you said, "Don't cry."
The silly tears billowed in both of our eyes

Everything I do is a chain of
how I feel about you, really
an expression of love that we constructed
a mutation of the gifts you give to me

Yucatan Poem

Sidewalks jetting high and sloping low

the starmen’s omnipresent glow

I’m walking and crying in my sleeve

in ten days I’m gone with no reprieve

Spirits always riding high

the people I tell don’t deny

but back home I don’t try

someday I’ll finally say goodbye

Young lovers every corner that I go

street dogs gliding to and fro

in friendship their tails to not deceive

in the myths I must believe

The twins battled for dark and light

The God of War put things right

but little children have their fright

that lifts away in the breeze like a kite

Shitty Haiku

I have never seen
shit turned into something gold
unseen holy shit

Simple Survival

You keep me too grounded
when I am a creature of the sky


You once taunted me
that nothing I had to face
                   could shake me
as though this was evidence
that I am somehow unnatural
instead of facing the fact
that I know what love is
and I soar with dignity
I don't sit on fences


You have indeed taught me
by both good example and bad
by helping others realize
the dimensions of the earth
                       from the sky
are blemished but
have the potential to heal


The feathered veins of ash
turn into gold
and there is no more talk
of simple survival

Now You Are Free

You keep dissecting science to reveal some kind of truth
You'll not detect a soul from that sterilized white booth
Tell me how you won those subsidies and degrees
By amusing those who pass down stolen properties
...I see that you are pleased

Before, I pictured children in far off foreign lands
Pretending to be airplanes with outstretched arms and hands
Now they are racing to eschew such a vulgar charity
Messages inscribed on bombs dropped voluntarily
...It says "Now you are free"

I don't know if we're waiting for the bottom to drop
I'm running out of steam but not ready to give up
If we want change, it must get worse for the majority
A military draft could bring down our authorities

Thorn In Your Side

I told you before not to sublet your soul
When you were young, virtue extolled
It's been wrapped around you
                            like the parasite of old
Itinerant plague touched down
                            to turn hearts cold
It's a thorn in your side

You always said it's coming in with the tide
Flotsam and Jetsam far and wide
It's hard to contemplate the size
                             of a Great White's pride
But if you got in there
                             it's empty inside
Thorn in your side

Let's salvage what we can as ripples fade
They bribed you but you were not made
Your greater self came through
                             through Hell's Arcade
Time will tell the worth
                             of such a trade

I don't quite know how far they've come
devil his due or slow and dumb
Their chances have slipped away
                             ...but they're not done
Cold hearts are consumed
                             by a guileless sun

No more thorn in your side