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