In our voyeuristic ambivalence
In our savage pacifism
With bureaucratic diarrhea

We **** on Lady Liberty
And wipe our *****
With the Constitution

The skies weep
In unrivaled joy
In unprecedented sorrow
In perfect ambivalence

We'll never know

Hamster wheel
Stagnant pond
Second hand parachute
“Used once, never opened”
Like your mind

At least one of us is blind
And commits errors of degree and kind
Like a clock that always shows the wrong time

Your window to reality is a dusty painting
You aim the wrong gun in the wrong direction
And doubly missed the mark

Stop building walls
Stop filling motes
Stop burning common ground

Quit grasping at air
All delusions are out of reach
Instead, fight personal entropy

I might have to eat these words
Chew the page from my notebook
Maybe this correction is projection
So I’ll write it backwards too
And read it to my audience...in the mirror

Trees forbid the sun
Park benches beckon
The bustling tranquility
The unyielding softness

Her flame melts time like wax
Pinhead of light
In crushing ethereal darkness
Single punctuation mark on a blank page

Sadness of a thousand hearts
Oscillate her strings
But love moves her fingers
And melts arctic emotion

My words dance like smoke:
"Your eyes are the moon
My heart is the ocean"

My words shoot like a bullet:
"I want to rip your clothes off
and f**k you on the floor"

Seething injustice grows
Vineyard with deep deceiving roots
Exponential expansion
Bears insidious fruits

Don’t water the crops
Don’t eat a single grape
Don’t drink the wine
Bring to fiery waste

Midnight wolves bear down
On the campfire of my sanity
Menacing, howling, advancing
My outward calm, inward storm

Stared too long into abyss
Flames burn low
Vigilance fades
Fangs rend flesh

Colorado mountains climb into thin air
And demand two reasons to be speechless
Peaks that quench and ignite existence
And silently demand reverence

Beauty and terror wed
Uncanny companions
Hardest and softest thrive
Unspoken and unspeaking
Ascending conquerors
The spider and the flower

City lights cascade down the hill, like a luminous waterfall
Dark watery horizon flirts with the skyline
Stars accent the heavens - grammar of the universe
Sand melts into my feet
Waves bathe my ears
The soft wind shares her secrets
The sea is the wine of shore-side lovers

I wish your taste danced on my tongue
I wish your voice kissed my ears
I wish your touch lingered on my skin
I wish your aroma embraced me
I wish your eyes loved me

Only tonight, my empty arms sigh

When I taste wine
I taste your soft lips
When I feel my sheets
I feel your rhythmic hips

When I play soft music
I hear your quiet whisper
In the dim light of dusk
I trace the curves of your figure

In our habit of silence
Pierce unspoken splinters
All is well on the surface
Below the root withers

We drift along slowly
A shallow river of wine
The shoreline grows nearer
All things end in their time

Summertime in Berlin
City of possibility
Quaint and lively
Large and small
Soggy and crisp
Comfortable and borderless
Perfectly flawed
European cornucopia
Harsh language, soft smiles
Birds awake me every morning
Neighbor plays Bach loudly
U-Bahn here and there
Perfect coffee while the perfect song plays
Perfect barista with an English accent and lovely smile
Smooth and lucid caffeine buzz
"Must try before dying"
On to Italy soon
Farewell, sweet Berlin

Seas and weeks apart
Sometimes fated connections
Let time dig a grave

Banish confusion
Revive possibility
Don't fear the unknown

I’ve learned not to fall for the beautiful souls
That beckon but never reach
That knock on your door but never breach
That learn but never teach

It’s not in the cards of life’s unshuffled deck
I’d rather find another than keep
I’d rather not feel than weep
I’d rather daydream than sleep

Experience is the artisan of wisdom

Time is the costliest therapist.

Adaptability is the highest virtue of evolution.

Truth abides in the seeker.

Greatness is the purposeful accumulation of the mundane.

Wisdom is a basket woven from the inane.

Discomfort is the seed of growth.

Science is the art of quantification.
Art is the science of unquantifiable expression.

Time is the rations of life.

Marry fear; courage and achievement are her offspring.

Misfortune is a chain to the fool, but a **** to the wise.

A wicked blighted power
Commonly called “hate”
Broods deep below the surface
Latent – it stagnates

And when at last it rises
From a heart of ashen cold
It breaks the bonds of brotherhood
And foolish men, makes bold

Like cracked and shattered glass
Collected and combined
Then thrown into the sky
And rained upon mankind

It cuts straight to the heart
And stains the spotless soul
In a ****** vengeful rending
A harsh collected toll

The only thing love ever killed
Was love’s antithesis
And all its evil relatives
Removing all the darkness

Those acrid vengeful vices
Expansive in their scale
At last have finally ended
Love – their coffin’s final nail

If I wanted to live in España

I’d buy a quaint little cabana

I’d visit for summer

Make love to my lover

Quién se llama Susanna

Violence is no medicine for anger

Revenge is no food for the soul

Vice crucifies on an obsidian cross

And consumes your humanity whole

Love is a dangerous vulnerability
Love is grievous crime
Love is the salt in the wounds of broken hearts
But at times love is sublime

I feel my heart escaping
The great love-beast released
Within my chest it twists and turns
At last the pulses ceased

A colossal shipwreck of matter and mind
The end of heart and heartbeat
But a phoenix will rise from the ashes
And burn with unquenchable heat

Seconds pass
Like hours
When you miss your lover
Days pass
Like years
When you think of her

The truth
Hurts and frees
Soothes and stings my heart
Like lies do
But what's true
Conceals too
And I knew I'd have trouble loving you
But I do
I do.

You’re a torn windblown sail
You’re the one test I fail
You’re the ghost in my nightmares
That’s ghastly and pale

You’re a deep buried splinter
You’re my long, dark, cold winter
You’re the bars of a dungeon
And the door I can’t enter

You’re a long broken chain
You’re my stabbing chest pain
You’re the dark clouds and lighting
With a single drop of rain

You’re the one who never stayed
You’re a double edged blade
You’re the cold breath and biting wind
Of winter’s gray fade

I’m a bird on first flight
I’m the dawn at first light
I’m a tensed jaw and clenched fist
Before first street fist fight

I’m a tree with no roots
I’m a cowboy with no boots
I’m a gunslinger with two guns
But neither one shoots

I’m a mournful groan
I’m a heart of stone
I’m a rider on the mustang
About to be thrown

I’m a song never wrote
I’m the burned bridges mote
I’m the broken hearted lover’s
Frayed last strand of hope

I’m a lonely soul
I’m the toll booth’s toll
I’m the twelve dots on the loaded dice
About to be rolled

The mighty tree grows

Because its deep unseen roots

Search and find water

Mental alchemy

Potent personal potion

Transform from within