The Wheel

It rains upon my nose
And my shoulders all the day
Though I walk the empty streets
In my wet and soggy clothes
The tap-a-tap-tap on the sidewalk
Lets me feel that friends are near
Their voices echo in my mind
The mirror image of our talk
Shines behind me like my dreams
And I cannot comprehend
That they’re no longer there,
Why change befalls me, yet it seems
That what I want I cannot have
Though the flowers on my path
Bloom in colors bright and sure
The pictures from my past, a salve
That soothes the loneliness I feel
Choices made to just survive
Kept me from the truth of us
And the spinning of the wheel.
So I’m hollow deep inside
The words play o’er and o’er again
Yet the rain washes off the pain
And the truths in me abide.

A Single Rose

A single row of simple roses
Waft their scent through visions clear
Symbol of the love of man as he proposes
Bringing heaven to earth and lingering here.
Gentle as the blue in the sky come spring
Yet powerful as the warrior’s blood is red
A rose kindles love more than anything
And holds more truth, whatever is said.
Like the comet that races through darkness
The rose creates a stir in the hearts of all
Touched to the lips with essential finesse
An outpouring of the one’s heart, you hear the call.
Love, you are the magnanimous giver of Light
Between two who are forever precious in the other’s sight.

Hope

In boxes stacked one atop another
In darkening closets where stories are kept
The secrets we keep from one another
Are the stories that play in the mind as we slept.
And so the sweet dreams roll like videotape
Where imagination lures the strong and the weak
The antagonist rolls his moustache and swings his cape
While Cupid flies above on tiny wings. We seek
The bright and beautiful solution of all that dismays,
Our rolling thunder is siphoned into tomorrow
Yet we celebrate what become our happiest days
Hoping that we shall never revisit our sorrow.
Come lightly then, with the most generous hope
And waken to your new life as your sweet eyes ope’.

Family as Friends

Friends hold hands through good, through bad,
The evil in the world is offset, thus,
And those who will stand shoulder to shoulder
Rise above the trifles and the pain
That darkens the doors of all we hold dear
Making our lives less than we hope for.
Though with our friends beside us
We climb up from the pit to stand in the sunlight
Making a life that is better than what we had
And we can rejoice to have those we love with us
We can step forward, our hearts beating bolder
The past no longer marking us with a stain
And our sense of humanity grows year by year
Yet, we count our blessings without keeping score
With cheer and joy we do what we must
Our friends held dear in our heart as we say, “goodnight.”

Forever Free

It sparkles from the darkest corner
Where words cannot be found within
And no light brings imagination to bear
Yet you know, it is there. It is there.
So you stumble on, step by halting step
Thinking that soon the shackles will fall
Hoping that the mire of the mind releases
The magic at the intersection of inspiration
And that feeling of falsehood, your foe.
And then, like a lamp with its flame flickering
You realize that your eyes have been closed
That you were lost in a slumber, snoozing,
And now, the flame becomes a fire, for
You must write, you must share
You must take flight to give your heart’s desire
Life upon the plain page, forever free.

Summer Heat

Wilting grass and flowers sag
Summer sun beats down
As flies buzz so fast past your nose
And shade trees barely make a difference
Because there is no breathing in this
But one must hide inside
With the protection of roof and walls
Along with the perpetual churning
Of the air conditioner in each room
And a tall glass of iced green tea and lemon.