Limits

Her hair was white
her beetle was green
and I was seeing red
until that right
allowed my machine
to actually move instead.

Acceptance

Their melancholic framework sags
in filthy threadbare rags
and on their dirty cracking feet
are plastic shopping bags,

they scrounge through trash for scraps to eat
for precious spoiled meat
but on most days they only find
a banquet of defeat

but that's ok, they seldom mind
they're quietly resigned
to living like a leper might
ignored by their own kind

as though they don't exist despite
the amplitude of plight
that you can ease with just a smile
when they are in your sight.

Counteragent

I can see it in his somber eyes:
he didn't get his way and had to face
that life's one giant compromise,
a never ending exercise of grace.
He can't quite understand it yet
but knows without a doubt it's so
for he's found out (to his regret)
the price of telling Mommy no.
My heart just aches to see him sad
and though I know he has to learn
it's hard to watch him struggle through
the maze of knowing good from bad,
but every disappointing turn
is nothing Grampa can't undo.

Take That

It seems my evil scheme has got
a chance of being real,
was pride the impetus to plot?
The wounded fight with zeal!

Fly by Night

The frantic crows
are in the throes
of freedom now that night has come
they swoop and dive
content to thrive
in darkness where they journey from

why must we fear
this time of year
we rule the world (or so we think)
but all those caws
will make you pause
to wonder if we're on the brink.

Mishegaas

The moon looks like a sleepy eye
whose lid is half descended
I'm betting much the same as I
do now that day has ended

I'll go home as I always do
and crawl beneath the covers
to dream of dances in the dew
between forbidden lovers

but since I am a dreamer's son
whose grip is slowly slipping
I hope one day to greet the sun
and find my feet still dripping.

Fecundity

You don't need to be verbose
to say a lot
or think your dreams are close
to take a shot
no measured tune's required
to sing a song
you'll always be inspired
if faith is strong.

Disembodied

The firmament's polluted
from more than one good blast
my foibles firmly rooted
in the fallout of the past

I felt like ore that someone mined
then dropped into a smelter
too dense I guess, and unrefined
to seek sufficient shelter

my veins exposed completely
to be neatly stripped away
then drained most indiscreetly
leaving emptiness today

which makes it truly hard to feel
remorse for lost production
a ghost that haunts the twisted steel
remaining post-destruction.

Indulge

Are you thankful for food
because it fills up your gut
or for those that attend to be fed
a banquet gets chewed
and you're satisfied but
you hunger for hugging instead.

Stolid

And so it goes…
as interest peaks
it also slows

it’s just a fact
that which speaks
will soon retract.

Why get cross?
Return critiques
are no big loss.

Making Bucks

Beneath fluorescent flicker
we banter and we bicker
supporting our survival
through slavery's revival.

Enguard

Unless you learn to deny you'll die
a bit more every dusk
but if you boldly dare to care
you may wind up a husk

for people are so fake and take
until there's nothing left
that wearing your own mask's a task
at which you must be deft.

Moral

The churches are where
the people repair
to pray for some type of salvation
but once it`s begun
there`s nowhere to run
to escape the intense tribulation
if any survive
there`s a chance they can thrive
by finding a new habitation
away from the lies
that caused the demise
of a decadent civilization.

Impression

The slightest sliver of a moon
has clipped the clouds nearby
a giant rosy-barbed harpoon
impales the twilit sky
to cause a wound inopportune
and soon the day will die
while wondering if it left any kind of mark
before, at last, succumbing to the dark.

Substantive

I'm lost within the words
that frame asylum in my mind
away from hapless herds
that are gelatinously spined,

I tumble through the lexicon
of terms akin to 'free'
as marginals impinge upon
a poorly plotted plea--

the subject has to find a way
beyond the structured norm
to still relay what it must say
but never quite conform.