friends with your enemies

Time is a rollercoaster

Not a roadmap

Time is a full cupboard

Not a recipe

It’s the rapids

Not the river

The ink

Not the book

A weight wrestling weightless

A variable avoiding a void

Time tries to be a mentor

But ends up more a friend

tenyearanniversary

 Flailing flopping

A decade’s a decade

Rigid stopping

I charged, I paid 

I was the city 

And the city was me

We chewed on the grit, we 

Argued who’s free

Train tracks and avenues

Street lights off and on

Bank statement, revenue 

We’re rich til it’s gone 

I love that I knew

My home from the get-go

The beat, tried and true

Augmented my flow

Location can be an answer

The place is a feeling

The words became a dancer

The skyline was my ceiling

trivial

 Developing dependency

Disaster destruction deplete

Decisional delinquency 

Destroy data delete

Around like a cyclone

The cycle denied loan

No clams means no clout

In vacuums we shout

Got no hope and no answers

No money for cancer

If it’s trivial then it’s trivial

And it’s trivial so it’s trivial

ALL ALONG

I wish the park were mine 

(but isn’t it?

but isn’t it?)

manufactured, manicured

mapped out majesty

mixed messages, more masterful mystery

urbaned inclusivity illusion’s electricity 

with all this put on auction

narrative naturalism 

placed its bid 

 

 

I wish the streets were mine

(but aren’t they? 

but aren’t they?)

ricocheted rumblings resemble

reunions, resurgence, rebirth 

all day every day

beated path, bereaved wrath

back at the beginning

nobody could drive 

 

 

I wish the lights were mine

(but aren’t they? 

but aren’t they?)

blinding belligerence backtracking 

before before before

we were once without

we shine, we shout

now we’re barely a people

without the devices 

 

 

I wish the city was mine

(but isn’t it?

but isn’t it?)

every ember embellished 

elastic, enamel, erasure 

underground thriving

undeniable surviving 

each piece of the puzzle 

was mine all along 


opals

I thought I had become an opal

I baffled and dazzled and dazed

pressure compounds ignite and ablaze

a precious prism perpetually hopeful 

 

I’m sure that I’m still an opal 

found my new pride, froze all my praise 

hues fought for, stakes got raised

fearlessness had made me vocal 

 

beauty was one thing, magic quite another

the colors you see are the ones that are there

catching the light, caught will discover 

answers that twinkle with a glimpse of your stare

 

the market had peaked so we won’t be sold

I blink, pink and green and a slight touch of gold 

 

a breath of fresh air

i am in the woods

just like thoreau recommended 

i didn’t give up my life or stuff

but for this morning, i pretended

i’m out here transcendenting 

quiet by an early fire

all my dreams got stuck in branches 

peaceful calm my lone desire

all the birds start talking shit

all the bugs are giving side eye 

but i’m shutting out distractions

well, i’m giving it a try

so when i’m gone and far away 

back in the city i call home 

my blood and guts are forest lush 

no matter where i roam 


we're out here

Too hot, too cold

Not young, not old

The days weeks months

Have blended together

My brain my only friend

The start swallowed the end

I realized that infinity

Is different than forever

New year, new nothing 

We could whisper or sing

The only thing left

Is the way that we feel

Not morning, not night

No reliance on light

We wander on our own

To figure out what’s real


one day you'll understand

unmotivated

unmelanated 

unsure what’s so new

about the new year

undeniable

unreliable

until change is made

noone will be freer 

unbelievable 

unretrivable

under delusion lives

muted out truth

unlivable

ungivable

unsung heroes 

keep grasping for youth

unlucky

unstuck we

unlive as an attempt

to open the door

unsinkable

unthinkable

undone then rebuilding

still hoping there’s more


citrus

spending time

saving money 

days half rainy

still half sunny

spending money

saving time

thought i was a lemon

turns out i’m a lime


going, growing

 Feeling awful literal

A punch speaking guttural

No metaphor no allegory

try to chill, hide my glory

Rest relax rewind and find 

The mind spinning in reverse

Behind complacency, adjacent, see, to normalcy 

The roar, the sea, the ocean of devotion 

To the status quotion 

Never pictured myself there 

But I got quite the scare 

I closed my eyes 

And saw those guys 

Like quicksand quickly sinking 

But I believed in all my thinking 

So I kept up, kept on

Let bygones be bye gone 

Had to keep digging 

And see where I’m going

So much to keep learning

So much to be knowing


Summer of 2020

We’re a people on the edge

Pass the sledge

Hammer it down

‘Led’ by a clown

There’s hurting, such pain

No societal gain

We’ve been cooped up, shut off

It’s a loop, yet they scoff

Cuz we’re living in darkness

One death didn’t start this

Full collapse and mounting

Layer after layer made the thing

Til destruction was the answer

Revolution or a cancer?

Who needs to listen? 

Badges through smoke glisten

Set flames to the divide

Pursuits of happiness collide

As many simply try to live

And others give and give

We’re bleeding, we’re burning

Fighting, marching, mostly yearning

For the free that’s promised 

In the land that’s lost its

 Way, but hey

Maybe that was all just 

A fairy tale anyway


PANDEMICRAMBLINGS

maybe let my mind run free 

seek to be all I ever thought I’d be 

in a crisis, it’s like this 

challenge and this rest

to maybe show the best 

parts of our society

come to be free

they threw out the system

regret we didn’t listen

to warnings, it’s swarming 

a virus infects us 

it’s greed, they succeed  

to sell the stocks

sell the bonds

steal the clocks

steal the calms

wreck it down to very dust 

because we trust 

a system built to glisten fake and false

it robs our pulse

and it was built to FAIL US 

it’s spreading contagious

it’s fucking outrageous

we debate and argue about advantageous 

for so very few

distribution mutilation is nothing new 

but is a wipe out clean out cash out clash out 

actually the who what how why 

we try 

to feel we need

we must truly believe that

EVERYONE IS WORTH SOMETHING 

we covet, reward a horde of bullshit

we need to wake up to fix it

I’m all for hope and time and rhymes and jokes

but all the fun is gone

we sit waiting for the dawn 

but when it doesn’t rise

the truth will eat the lies