Coming On

Buckle up and balaclava 

like a hurricane is coming 

While the billionaires are sunning

The refugees are running.

Buckle up and take a ride

The billionaires are coming

For your pensions

And they'll get them.

The summer falls like shadows

On your face as August

Casts its plays on us...

Buckle up and balaclava.

Winter's coming on. 

Reaching For The Black Keys

And so the sun sinks into nowhere clouds

Spilling like mascara in a daydream

Where the shooting stars slip in.

And where are we really if not

Reaching for the black keys?

Horizontal on a patchwork rug, my memories slip like that snowprint Christmas Day.

And the meteors fall, showering in

I look for them, but all I'm doing is

Reaching for the black keys. 

And so the breath falls from those I hold dear

I wish I could bottle breath, like lemonade

Saturday feels like light years away

When I try to grasp it, I always end up

Reaching for the black keys.

Hard Seltzer

Clear like my mind

before I had you

Bubbly like a euphemism

you don't need to 

disguise with words:

Fizzy.

Cold.

Clear my schedule

there's a new kid in town

Cool, like the 

refrigerated beverage

you set out to be.

Consumed.

Drunk.

Seaside Town

In swept the tide

And all the

tell-tale lies 

Told by the waves 

Felt like kisses.

In the background

was their seaside town.

Old Slot shut down

But they could

hear the clatter

With a coin to an ear

Of a future

They could hope to own

In that seaside town.

When the boats stopped

anchors of the stoic

Clung to hope

Like anything.

Chasing the ghost,

Refusing to drown

In that seaside town.

Out swept the tide 

But it swept back in

With syringes, cans 

And just about anything.

And I suppose they were

Meant to go down

With their seaside town. 

Disappearing Much

Are you still ok with me

Are you still on my side?

I sometimes watch the rain

Fall off your face

And think you must be

Disappearing much.

Sometimes I go to bed late

Like some symptom

Of two decades since

You liked me once

Like some sideways crutch

Disappearing much.

Do you still believe in things

That we will go through

Twenty years from now?

You tolerate me, such...

You'll push me in a wheelchair

Disappearing much.

Grey Years

We just go on and on

Like repeats of things

From 1990 to 94.

We just go on and on

Those were those years

Where years repeat

Don't wish for those years

We live in, we go in. 

Tiredness

I can see the tiredness hiding behind

A smile that I was born to see 

that I'll take solace from if I go blind

And the mirrors say, "It's time for cards."

I draw from my disconfigured mind:

Your eyes say otherwise.

Dancing as the dreams come in

Reflections stand as moments in time

Neither of us will ever see again.

I close my eyes and count to ten 

If I'm in luck, I'll roll another three of them. 

I feel the tiredness creeping in. 

Reflection

I recall my first trip to your home

Bluebirds patted the barriers

That the past kept in

And strange songs fell from me.

Remember when the cherry blossom 

Got swept up in some six a.m. flotsam

And we smiled and I saw leaves fall

In the reflection of your eyes?

We are so small beneath forever drones

But they can't reach the stars

Let your dreams take hold

While life goes backwards, 

like a backwoods stream -

You're not moving in reverse.

Leaves go green without warning

In the reflection in your eyes.

Ready To Roll

You never hear 

the bluebirds quiet,

Like the moment

before you succumb.

And you never

feel a daybreak rush

like that when your

heart yearns for one.

You never miss 

a love like your 

first night alone.

And you never feel 

the wind brush your soul 

like the morning and

it dawns: you're armed 

and ready to roll.

Lark Porter

Don't dismiss the lark porter

He only flies by your door

Because he holds your love

As red carnations turn, they must

Then turn to rust, lark porter.

Don't reminisce, lark porter

She only glides by your door

Because she's so lonely.

And pink chrysanthemums must

Turn to dust, lark porter.