I heard the blaring wails
Of strangers playing pin the tail
On the donkey

Reminds me of a time
When we use to play
Swing the flail
At the monkey

We were young
And feeling spunky

But when the morning comes again
I’ll see you then

Today I’ll wear my positive attitude
Just for you

Till the soil in the flowerbed
Even if I’m feeling blue

I know it may seem old school
That I’m still sipping sweet vermouth

The memories flair up
And I’m returned to youth

Come upstairs
I’m on Floor 2
The one that has
A distant view

Just a couple steps away
From knowing where you are
I feel your presence fade from me
You seem so very far

The little talks
And street lamp walks
I thought would bring us closer

What was I to do?

Worry not your pretty head
None of it was true

Eighteen green balloons
Circling around the bed
A few blue flowers in bloom
Just to counteract the red
In your pleading eyes
Candles carry on the lies
Of specters caring on the side
Just knowing it’s your time

Down the hall the gurney hastens
Secluded, little airtight spaces
Where the walls are growing faces
The Lord left all His grace behind
Installing breathless tangled braces
Locked within are faithless traces
Doubts tumble down a *****
Towards sober trials
Drunken chases
Seems to me too late to race
The pulsing threat of black embraces

A myriad of visions slip
A pair of switches toss and flip
What used to be your fabric twined
Now lies outstretched and slowly rips
Paintings of your past receding
Into modern microchips
Rushing laughter comes to grips
Against a brush of fingertips
Until the shining light makes way
For vessels in memoriam
The last of life escapes in ships
Faintly passing by the sound
Of others on their final trip

Happy birthday, grey sky
You were always so shy
Unwanting
Unwilling
Just itching to hide

Come on and say hi
Or hang there and cry
Unstable
Unmoving
Receding from life

I cannot say why
You're resting up high
So earnest
So honest
Yet failing to try

Concerned for your pride
With quickness and stride
I'd say you've played safe
If not for the balance
You battle inside

Pondering over and over
Until I can't sit still
I think I've had my fill

Mysteries overhead
While all its edges spill
Within a songbirds trill

Echoing far beyond
Across the verdant hills
Bending neatly as it builds

Eyes peeking far afield
Just to savor thrills
From such distant kills

Sound waves shame the schism of the hemispheres,
Lost and found like anomalies,
Drawing battles out of thin veneers,
And a fading sense of honesty

Your baggage claims you at the gate,
Zipping fast like mood swings,
It finds itself in front of fate,
Each and every bite it brings

Crafting laughter from the silence,
Making names so hastily,
Your open discourse leads to violence,
This vision is now hazy

You'll see yourself a carousel,
A distant faction at the edge,
The rise and fall of broncos,
So steadily they're all abridged,
Mechanically outpaced and flanked,
By armies standing at the ridge,
Of time

A twilight glimpsed through a visage faintly,
Awaiting results from a far away machine,
Slipping codes through random pathways,
Hear them ping so quaintly,
Interlacing on your television screen

Raucous sounds fill the outline,
Momentary pauses to cut between the scenes,
An image floats so freely,
Beyond the bounds to what cannot be seen

It asks you briefly for monetary gain,
Asking questions with no answer,
Your glued eyes mute to all the pain,
Rusting spokes must peddle faster

Metal soldiers storming through the alleyway,
Introducing coldness to the ground,
Praised collectives call for them to stay,
And wrap our souls within the sounds,
Of wordplay

Fraying vines are kicked up, swinging,
Winds changing course to shield them,
Desperate calls are left out ringing,
No response or reaction

A watchful bounty boasts of the autumn haul,
As members, strewn about, are hinging
Wasted flags are clotted in the smog,
Of cities running hot, unflinching

Coerced by diamond songs and halos,
Complete, concise and fringing,
Tangents whizz past the silos,
Around its frame, fogs collecting

Fabled hands reach out to touch me,
Freeing threads from connecting,
Watch the world shed its colors,
Rainbows diffracting shades down the river

The clamor of business arrangements, far overreaching,
Legislate a syndrome
Parasitic clauses penned down are leeching,
Their soldiers sent home,
A *******'s rules are best left for breaching

Stitched within the puppet's membrane,
A captain's log for watching,
Left alone these methods will stain,
And lead us all to nothing

A thank you for our time in passing,
Pleasing rounds of discourse singing,
Asking for what cannot be known,
Behind the curtains masking