They come to me phrases,
crying out to be whole
One last bridge to cross,
no fare for the toll
Prodigal wanderers,
not spoken or heard
My breath used as payment
—conveying the words
(Villaova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)
Smashing The Mirror
Do you wilt in someone
else’s shadow
Do you fawn in someone
else’s praise
Do you rise in someone
else’s dawn
Do you fly with someone
else’s wings
Can you break the chains
that hold you
Can you smash the mirror
of regret
Can you kill the demon
of envy
Can you end the bondage
—free at last
(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2020)
Till Fortune
“Blood is thicker than water,
what we had thicker than blood”
All wounds long healed by memory’s salve,
divined from up above
Our bonding copper wire,
wrapped round a thousand times
Till fortune gets down on both knees,
and bows—our soul’s conjoined
(Listening To Bob Weir: March, 2020)
Backhanded
“All you can be is all you can be,”
damning with faint praise
A lover, not a girl to wed
—left hand falsely raised
(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)
Nothing More
The Sage cried out these final words
as he rose from where he sat…
“There’s nothing beyond everything
—and everything beyond that”
(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)