Sustainability

The brief bursts of joy we’re lucky to get
Can help offset those times we fret
The warmth of a smile can be preserved
To soothe us when our luck has swerved

Deny your desires whenever you can
And never expect, be preemptive or plan
Accept that which happens and do what’s required
To try and transcend whatever’s transpired.

Universal

The spectral glow of starlight calls
My eyes to gaze in awe
At splendor when that old sun falls—
Creation’s twinkling maw.

Dying

Is innocence fleeting?
There is no defeating
The silvery soldiers advance
You can purchase a pigment
Your win just a figment
Of a fool with a fanciful stance.

Sacked

Everything we see
Anything we hear
Really has to be
Questioned for the fear
That it’s all untrue

Today they can make
Their lies seem real
But it’s often fake
So never kneel
Because they tell you to

If we can’t trust
Our ears and eyes
It’s time we must
Demand goodbyes
From politicians and their crew.

Emptiness

If you dispose
Those would-be woes
You’ll never know which way it goes

So let it play
Out, you may
Find that things turn out your way.

Setting

We did the gig as planned
And played on that hill all day
Till the sun went down on the band

The crowd got out of hand
As we laughed and sang away
We did the gig as planned

On their sprawling family land
The breezes made the tall grass sway
Till the sun went down on the band

The scene was truly grand
And I wished that we could stay
We did the gig as planned

Upon appointed grains of sand
And played songs that made them feel okay
Till the sun went down on the band

They asked us back for next year and
What else could we possibly say
We did the gig as planned
Till the sun went down on the band.

Offensive

We aren’t led
We’re ruled
Lies are fed
We’re fooled

It’s not right
We’re bled
If we don’t fight
We’re dead.

Servitude

He felt he didn’t matter to the world

He was just here to do the tasks
No one wanted to do
Because he wouldn’t wear the masks
That others squinted through
He refused to play the games
The discontented played
Devoid of any noble aims
Or markers to be paid
He was just a simple soul
Most comfortable alone
Impatient to achieve parole
For having duly shown

The world still mattered to him.

Carnivorous

The weakness you deny
Gets stronger by and by
Until it’s hard for you to fight it off

You'll never fix a flaw
You ignore, it’ll gnaw
Away at you, despite how much you scoff.

Vacillation

I know more than I say
Well, at least I think I do
But doubt is always in play
For what is really true?
I guess it all depends
On who insists it’s so
Don’t be swayed by friends
That say more than they know.

Cathode Ray

There was a guy who watched TV all day
And ate his meals on a TV tray
And everyone called him Cathode Ray.

The doctors got a big surprise
When harvesting their bawling prize
For Ray had technicolor eyes

And though the birth was quite routine
He’d fuss and make an awful scene
Unless he saw a glowing screen.

Every day Ray sat and stared
At all the empty nonsense aired
But never even remotely cared

About his lost lethargic lot
His TV dinners were nice and hot
And in the end – he got the plot.

Vernal

I saw a golden gull today
Go soaring overhead
It was garbed in a sparkling ray
From a sun fresh out of bed

It seemed as though that brilliant ball
Rose taller than it was
It sprang to spin towards the fall
As something vibrant does.

Exemplify

I don’t live for accolades
I just want to be a kind man
There are no holy hand grenades
Just changes to the plan
So never mind your stellar grades
Do what good you can.

Dispatch

They show an explosion or two
And tell us the world is at war
Complete with a dictator who
Will soon be outside our door

The hawks have come home to roost
On corpses collected in stacks
The body count needed a boost
It’s a good thing they cooked up a vax

If nothing reported is true
Then why do folks get so upset—
They’ve learned to spark outrage on cue
How long before you’re why they fret?

Dejection

You need it sugar-coated?
Okay, here you go:
You’re wonderful (whenever you obey)
Although I could have gloated
I'm not too thrilled to know
That freedom is so meaningless today.