Poems: 070521 - May 7th, 2021

040521A
----------- 

The gathering 
of what was gone 
before it ever began
continues deep
out into the night. 

Ghost lit ships
that never sailed 
bound distant places
never known
past grim tidings.  

Darkness is best 
as to the time of day 
covering over 
the day's impediment 
proved too much. 

What has broken 
can never mend 
among the torn away
from holding on 
turned precious. 

We do not know 
what it really means 
past the sounds
and odd feelings
not being right. 

They did not let be
and they did not let go
beyond emptying 
anything found 
still lost inside. 

We scraped by 
going around the rims 
threatened with destiny 
downed by descent
damned forbidden depths.

We fall into it
as to the endings
that others want
for others
but not for themselves. 

A cruel fate 
at the best of it
fighting for something
we won't get to taste
before an end of it. 

We are going around 
but we have been here
many  a time 
until too worn  
for what we came for. 

Shut the door 
close the window 
tug at curtains 
hide that face 
in damp pillows. 

Doesn't really matter
how we agree 
or disagree 
it will be the same
come tomorrow. 

--------------------

050521A
------------

Didn't know much
about the old way
and don't know
the new way at all. 

The new stuff 
is all the same
and the old stuff 
saying goodbye. 

There is Solitude
as the most jealous 
of lovers 
letting no one in. 

I don't know 
how we got here 
and I don't know 
a way out. 

Nothing is new
and everything else
is already done
as news at eleven. 

There used to be 
something of a hang out
but now 
there is none. 

Things change
exactly that way 
and no one is there
knocking at the door

Middle of the day
midnight is a state 
in the country of mind
with borders closed. 

They are watching 
along that road 
for anyone 
you wanted to know. 

They have plans 
but they won't say 
what those plans are
until we are gone. 

----------------------- 

050521B
----------- 

Take a spin 
lashed to the wheel 
of a bum steer gone
to always headed out. 

Where we are going 
is to somewhere  
past land's end 
and not on any charts. 

A quick cutter 
slides choppy 
across the body 
gone electric. 

Down streamed
from any generation
that might have been 
the generation of love. 

It is not that way
in any place now 
where everyone sells 
their bits of broken time. 

The flower girls all say
it is a bleeding shame 
that you try to buy a rose
and have to pay for thorns.

The cat ran away 
with a leftover tongue
leaving nothing to say
and nothing is free. 

We always want 
for something 
that will never be 
the consolation prize. 

----------------------------
 
050521C
------------ 

Make me up 
into someone different
than I was before
I don't want to be 
whatever I once was 

Something lives
and something dies 
turned around and over
the far out side 
of what goes to not. 

That part of us 
that never really exists
anywhere anyway 
but watches from afar 
what was done and what did. 

Prompters know words
that we refuse to say 
where they only confuse 
the edges of our lips 
to being pursed up tight. 

I cannot tell you 
and you never would 
really ever understand 
why things change 
as much as they do. 

Nothing ever comes 
the same way it came
ever and again
but something inside us
always waits too long. 

All the ways to lose
where no one is winning 
and something to fix 
with no way of fixing it 
time after timed out. 

Downed for the count
on a stray punch 
that you never threw 
sprinkled with the glitter
of cruel stars. 

Climbing ladders 
to touch the sky  
just so you can fall  
back into the midst 
of nothing special. 

You would feel horrible
if you knew 
but it will be worse
making up explanations 
in a run away mind. 

------------------------

050521D
------------

If you ever did anything 
you won't be coming 
in that deranged state 
of being out of mind.

You cannot be trusted 
with any of the people
who did nothing at all 
and are well known for it. 

You cannot be whatever
they happen to tell you 
and you cannot be 
whatever they don't. 

Try to make yourself 
into something comfortable
to be worn as loose 
as an old sweater. 

The invites are cancelled
and your name is stricken 
from all of those lists
but you get cashiers' smiles. 

You cannot be bought
but that is your problem 
so keep it to yourself 
as no one wants to share. 

Short and long of it 
gets taken down 
to much the same thing 
as doing comes undone. 

The way it goes
for any stray monkey 
caught up the middle 
of someone else's business.

Shred the evidence 
and burn the documents 
the way they did 
for Richard M. Nixon. 

Nothing comes out clean
from it never happens
in any legitimate corner 
of any known department. 

You were never there 
and no one kept you 
anywhere in mind 
after you had left. 

----------------------  

050521E
----------- 

Bolt out of the blue 
is a riddle 
without any response
holding together 
the sky and earth 
where they are broken. 

Everything was coming
to flying apart 
as the clouds tore away 
flinging frustrated 
pieces of canopy 
into miscellaneous.

Shreds of gatherings 
mulled over 
in terms of relation 
done wind song 
far gable shudder 
headed out to rooftops. 

Another parade 
carrying ghost ships 
across glass lakes 
that cover the doing
and the being done. 

We have gone over
various details 
pertaining to isolating 
the pros and cons 
bolstering stray habits 
on both sides.

Tragic thin line 
dangling from heaven 
gets pulled 
during any emergency
causing a full stop 
chain reaction heap.  

We try to climb  
past the oversights 
fleeing the sharp pull
carried down under 
the getting over 
having been denied.

Only the lonely 
wet whistle  
cries its solitude 
into lost nights 
turned matchless 
long soliloquies. 

No one ever listens
that hard or long
to complications 
and all those failures
failing to simplify 
what was uncomplicated.

Tried to break in 
to whatever was left
on ingredient labels 
breaking down 
happiness into chemical 
percentages of others.  

Pencilled in 
on the wrong rosters 
and pushed to join 
crippled movements 
herded the other way 
by the ignorant. 
 
Never works that way
and we are had 
as what we cannot be 
and forced to assume 
various other shapes
in perpetual exchange. 

---------------------------  



070521A
------------ 

All victories are hollow
and there is always wishing 
one could find a new face
from among those in the gallery. 

Any face would do 
that might look like someone
who is always being seen 
somewhere in a favourable light. 

Something that promises
a story book life 
when it reflects 
into the cruelty of mirrors. 

One that everyone wants 
always being pictured 
as if they can own it 
as their own. 

Something one does not mind
being recognized in public 
rather than sliding through gaps
trying to avoid being a target. 

Something not appearing 
as though dragged in 
from unspeakable battles 
carting dead and wounded. 

A magazine face 
that says Hollywood glossy 
centre spread in the monthly 
everyone tends to read. 

The face that is the very same 
as the ones in the advertisements 
effectively made up to hide
commonly recognized flaws. 

All those little differences
that should have been avoided
in a life told in sketchy tales
struggling to fill in blanks. 

Fabricating an ordinary story 
that seems safe enough 
according to old recipes 
being tried and true. 

A face considered predictable
and to be trusted
to inspire absolute faith
delivering the latest pitch 

There is so little tolerance
for anything unusual
between grocery shopping
and what comes to table. 

Turn on the screen images
to discover what it is
that is currently popular 
and who is trying to be it. 

-------------------------------