which achievement, deportment,
endorsement, and indictment
(more serious than rigging an election)
jump/kickstarts (a divine comedy of errors)
not reason enough
to be deported),
but necessitates more than a facile effort
linkedin to a working knowledge
of familial genetics ofttimes

Take leave

Take leave from City streets
constant illumination head west
through urban sprawl to where
the night sleeps easy

Take time for roads less travelled
those of grass verge and gravel
follow the through-fare walking
along its centered spine

Taking note of the sward what is
there within its keep the hedgerow
along its ditch that forever creeps
to where harvests meadows lay golden

It’s the summer of 1937
Gertrude is only fourteen
She and her older sister sneak out of the house
And Gertrude’s eyes have that certain gleam

She’s mesmerized by the big city lights
It’s something they’ve never seen
They go into a club to see Benny Goodman
As the big jazz band plays Sing, Sing, Sing

- - -

Henry has just turned twenty-five
He and his friends go to see Cab Calloway
They dance having the time of their lives
Jumping and jiving celebrating his birthday

Welcome to Postpartum Days
When it kicks in—how things have changed.
Or have they though? Are old habits just new?
The same things done, in ways unfamiliar to you?

From being up late into morning light,
to waking up to cries that echo through the night.
From popping bottles of liquor to pumping bottles of milk,
and trading cocktails for mocktails, still smooth as silk.

Fueled by the love of exploration
We steer the wheel of pride.
No breaks, no fear, no hesitation.
The journey is a benevolent ride.

The vehicle's not too big, nor small
Sized just right to fit our dreams,
Satisfying to carry and haul
to new realms and extended streams.

Now heading to our destination.
Among Palestine's holy lands.
The sanctities are our salvation
Each monument, a culture's stand.

Melancholy entered my life
In a deeper way
Since September began
And the reason is
You're nowhere to be found
So I search for you in everything
In the deepest shades of blue,
Where sea and sky dissolve,
A blue so captious it blinds me,
Leaving nothing but the weight of its stillness,
In the faint notes of a guitar,
Each string
a voice tremulous with memory,
Its chant breathing
like a distant cadence
A tranquil ache pressing gently
against my chest,
In every placee

It slowly creeps in the shadows undetected
All the while everything on the surface seems fine
Even as the body fights it becomes subjected
To something sinister that at first seemed so benign

The fatal disease then spreads quickly without control
Destroying and consuming everything in its path
Even though warning signs may whisper it to the soul
The mind doesn’t want to realize it or do the math

Many have failed to realize being present and being present are not the same
Your physical body can be in a space
But your heart and head's in a different game
Alike, being there and
Being there, for someone
Have quite different meanings too
Because you can be beside them
but providing support,
is something you find hard to do
You might see their pain, but never comprehend
The sea of pain they're going through
You might think being there is enough.
But their pain needs more than just-
showing up,

The Hammer rose, on anvil crashed,
Sparks flew and embers glowed
As diamonds in a coal black sky
While the farrier sweated and bowed.

He laboured long, all through the day,
By night his music rang,
As his anvil crashed from the hammers blow
So his harp, soft, mellow sang.

One night so cold he sat and played
When close from out his hut
A wailing came, discordant, loud
As wild beast on the rut.

Trump and allies breed like flies,
afraid that we might realize.
They plan to take our guns away,
but we can only run away!

Maybe we'll find a way
to live and love another day?
Beneath the gamma rays.
a second sun!

The time moves on and on,
but sings a deathly song.
His voice is coarse,
his words are terse.

The future so much worse!
It cannot be reversed.
We'll die like flies,
just as they burn us up.