Space To Grow (+5)

Does your mind have a second floor

 that’s very seldom used

A place your thoughts can freely roam

 safe from life’s abuse

One story up, your story forms,

  its telling far below

The height of peace and solitude

   —with space for you to grow

(Santa Fe New Mexico: February, 2019)

Dropping Fast

Racing the dark from Albuquerque to Flagstaff

 old questions trailed behind me

The highway marked with broken dreams

 of searchers long ago

As Gallup filled my rearview mirror

  the sun reached out and grabbed me

My last horizon dropping fast

 —the finish line aglow

(Flagstaff Arizona: February, 2019)

Captured

Striving to be anonymous,

 the hole got deeper still

Ties were broken, ropes were cut,

 less water in the well

Alone within my loneliness

 the darkness came at last

The wish, I wish, I’d wished away

 —had captured me at last

(Flagstaff Arizona: February, 2019)

Dead Apostates

Write intrepid and unafraid…

 your ink to stain their minds

Each word a dagger spilling truth,

 new blood for all to find

Write intrepid and unafraid,

 your message screaming loud

Where dead apostates felt your wrath

 —disciples standing proud

(Sedona Arizona: February, 2019)

America

The power of dissent

 —a true measure of our freedom

(Flagstaff Arizona: February, 2019)

Freedom's Hope Denied

I live in places  

 you’ve never seen

And sleep in nightmares

 you’ve never dreamed

I choose in dimensions

 above either or

Beyond the pain

 you can endure

My memory lapses

 in moments freed

But fate imprisons

 all I see

Escape an option, death allowed,

 but only if I’m willing

To marry freedom’s hope denied

  —and damn my soul’s foretelling

(Flagstaff Arizona: February, 2019)