My feet are melded to the concrete
as though a hundred stoney fingers
are fused to the soles

and the only way to step forward
is by tearing hard enough
to leave skin behind.

They only let go when I walk away.

Such a resplendent, luminous thing
A smile
It's mere gleam
lifts my soul
Fills it with immeasurable, euphoric light,
As if every star
poured its gleam into my chest
I feel limp, featherlike
So ecstatic it almost aches,
A felicity so esoteric
it blurs the margins of reality,
Leaving me breathless, alive,
In a world that abruptly feels infinite

It came back bouncing,
like a greedy ball—
a cheque I badly needed ,
now worth nothing at all.

“There’s no sufficient funds,”
eventually, they’d say.
“Try again later—
maybe another day.”

Or perhaps next month,
as if money might spring.
Who really knows
what tomorrow might bring?

This is no joke,
but the worst nightmare.
It might never be cashed,
never to be declared.

Their voices silenced by the intolerable mob
Remember how powerful you felt as you watched them go
Immigrants
The LGBTQ+ Community
Women
Environmentalists
Persons of Color
Those Brutalized by War

You certainly prided yourself with your superiority
Remember the words you chose as they walked by
Criminals
Anti-Christian
Ownership
Oil and Wealth
Indifference
World Dominance

Victory lies at the end of my rainbow!
When the shadow no longer
veils the door into heaven.
Where I will be free to
think and feel what pleases me.
Not be subject to pain or fear anymore.
When I stand in the presence
of that which created me.
Maybe I'll find out what I have always believed.
That I am eternal in a dormant state
and that I organized my very own mind.
I have become just what I wanted to be.
I've given myself to life's unfair tyranny
and yet I've retained my own identity.

My wife has her feet in their customary position, on my lap.

"Oh man, my favorite socks have a hole in them.", she says.

I am fully aware that I am married to a person
who will cut the end off the toothpaste tube
to get the last little bit before tossing it.

"Bummer.", I offer. "Looks like you'll only get two
or maybe three more years use from them."

lurks within the outer limits of cyberspace,
where dark shadows eclipse edge of night
indistinguishable from the twilight zone.

To the great poem I may one day compose
I know you’re lingering around somewhere close
You won’t reveal yourself until the time is right
So I keep you in mind expecting your light

And once your inspiration comes to my heart
I will craft you like the most reverent piece of art
Weaving words and expressions that say it all
When a lifetime of memories begs the call

But if the words don’t come to me just like I said…
I will recite them in free verse from my deathbed instead

Just one beer
A sly twin to,
You can eat only one potato chip
Who has actually managed that feat?
Wouldn’t want to know them if they did.

Restraint and will power have never
really been close friends.

No one gets dressed for just one beer.
The establishment knows it
You do too, every Friday night.
As the bartender smirks
filling the glass after being chided,
“Not too much foam.”

Howl and weep
all the day long.
Singing the same old sad
melancholy songs.

It’s not the depression
that’s getting you down.
It’s that same situation
that spins you around.

Year after year They’ve been
Keeping you here.
With the intension to make
you their prisoner.

Don’t fall for their lies
or for your own petty fears.
You have the command of this
just switch your gears.

Keep your advantage
and your own brave ideas.
Don’t bow down to strangers
in the end they’ll adhere.