Musings

The vengeance of a too small hat

Making your head look big

And you look childish

The transience of a Ralphs coupon

Printed on the back of a receipt

So easily discarded

The penitence of a death row inmate

So sad and hopeless

Yet earnest

The patience of a writer

Behind on his deadline

Writing poems instead

The virulence of a politician

Casting blame

Demanding power

The annoyance of a barking dog

Sharp, piercing bursts of sound

Cutting through the air

The pollutants of this text

Implanted, now in your mind

Inextricably

A Waking Dawn

Night now thunders the lost dawn's wake.
The skies resist the light's embrace
As sapphire clouds of troubled times
Climb silver curtains of dew enshrined.

They face the sunlight in the air,
Fight to shatter beams whose arms ensnare.
The shrouds release the film of self
And so their form begins to melt.

In solemn tears that kiss the land
The dark retreats, his shield disbands.
The spears of light pierce far and wide
In jagged beams that pierce his side.

Thus he falls to terror's rise.
The day declares his swift demise,
And in the shadow's last embrace
Dawn now thunders the long night's wake.

what if there are only two types of graffiti;
your name and rebellious art?

what if my picture of silence
resembles two surgical gloves
approaching a heart?

Awakening

We'll map our future by tracing the path our veins take
From our hearts to our hands and back again.

Hold my hand until the creases on our palms align
Where the future, past and present, like our fingers intertwine.

And our bodies burn and drip like candle wax onto each other's skin
Like melting clocks, we share this one eternal night.

a moment

I am met at the crossroads
By a moment I do not know--
Taken aback, at last,
This is the reason for my travels.

I gaze into the invisible horizon.
My mind reaches further than my sight
Imagining the continuation
Of each road.

This one is the one that I shall travel.
It is not easy, for it leads into my soul.
Into darkness and shame and anguish,
But it is not... at least not.

I believe
The greatest action a person can aspire to
Is to look at truth and accept it

I believe
This is a thing many spend their lives
Fleeing from

I Wish You Could See What I See

I once saw a blind man who wandered to the sea.
He climbed mountains, he crossed deserts,
He walked where none could see.

Days he spent in solitude, nights he spent alone,
Stars could never be his guide
To lead him safely home.

Strange things happened in his wake, wherever he would dwell,
Strange things men are loathe to say,
Once they bid the man farewell.

I came upon his path one day,
Or perhaps he came to me,
One autumn-shaded evening,
As we gazed upon the sea.

He turned to me and held my gaze the way only blind men can.
He took my hand with gnarled grasp
And softly he began.

His tale was deeper than the seas he swam
Older than the mounts he crossed,
Darker than the world he lives,
And bleaker than the price of loss.

I cannot know how long I stood when his tale had reached its end
I did not see him walk away,
Nor even comprehend.

But once departed I still heard the final words he spoke,
They echoed faintly in my ears
Even as I woke.

When he left he whispered as his face remained serene:
"And now you see what I see
When I close my eyes and dream."

Wilderness Song

The roads may overgrow with ivy,
Weeds push up through unkept concrete,
Thistles wind and bind our heartstrings,
Just know, I love you wildly

When lions roar beneath our breastbones
And wildebeests roam, no want for home,
Claws will clash to self-preserve
Still know, I love you wildly

When waters dry and winds would parch us
When storms arise and threat to drown us
When our own hearts would but deceive us
Do trust, I love you wildly

As years trod on through desert wasteland
Feet, mind, and heart reach dull complacence
When wounded sleep would overtake us
Recall, I love you wildly

Star Power

I want to pressurize Grace McConnell

You heard me right, I said pressurize

Visit our pink blog at http://jujamist.blogspot.com

And don't blame Einstein for the atom bomb

Blame MacArthur for preaching us stagnant

And this city for letting apathy run rampant

Visualize the change you want, and then become bored of it

Throw a hissey fit

Watch movies on your laptop until you brain turns to

Another distraction and time filling noisemaker

Subtle blade and incipient life taker

Ignore the hard questions - sell all your possessions

Go ahead, waste your life, I dare you

Is there really an alternative?

To A Friend

Meaning runs riot in a center-less world
I've lost the rhythm of my mind
I see so many others in directionless blurs
Seeking solace we never can find

Dear child of darkness in manifold thought
Trapped in sight and reverberating sound
No knowledge that by the same fears we are caught
Alone our struggle abounds

Up and down and all around
But in the silence I can't hear the sound
Of the gentle pleas you scream aloud
In the tremors of the vacuum's shroud

Alone with the sound of your beating heart
Though the crowd pulses against the walls
We can find the finish if you let me start
Even if we start with a crawl

So stand tall dear child against the roar
We don't have to be alone
We'll make an end where never before
Have they felt the blood of this war

Love & the 80's

I want to be the Molly Ringwald
to the John Hughes inside you

and inspire you to death.

The Silent Hour

I have been up reading

for hours, maybe.

I find myself awake

at a time

that is considered

neither early morning

nor late night,

but merely

the time

of hollow stillness

and giant

clock sounds.

I look up from my book

and from the window

see rain-

fall

like paint drippings;

turning the grey asphalt

gold.

I also, am in the midst

of a rain;

a time

when the ground chokes

with everything

it has been needing.

I need

living water.

I need

a cup

that overflows.

I need

this rain

to pour down

and drown

what needs drowning.

Lament for the puppets

You dribble destinies like tears from your fingertips,
Holding hostage the feeble minds of ten million sleeping souls,
You offer for ransom your brothers and the truth
For the sake of a catchy phrase that will grab their attention,
Their emotion, their decisions.

You offer perspective and information, or so you claim,
But your perspective is skewed, your information chosen
And discarded on a whim, and your claims irrelevant.

You feed on mass hysteria, strengthened by shifting moods and trends,
You waver between whatever extreme is popular at the moment.

You tear open old wounds and wash them with cheap wine
That burns and stings but will never heal.

You fabricate empathy for villains and disdain for heroes,
You wake peaceful giants and then blame them for the havoc they cause.

You burn bridges like children play with matches,
With no concern for the damage you may create,
And then you build ten steps on a stairway to the stars
With no hope of ever seeing it complete.

You contemplate and speculate,
You satiate and devastate,
You abbreviate and aggregate,
And for reasons you've devised for your own selfish reasons
You lead the world you've blinded down your winding paths
To a dead end.

ropes and branches

we are two trees

that grew up

beside one another

close enough

to string a hammock

between

us

there is only

the rest

and sway

of easy cotton

the sun lying down

on the top layer

of our skin

and

relief

that lets loose

into our palms

like heavy fruit

off the newborn branch

we are weightless

when the ropes

are tied

Oceans Inside Me

I'm a thunderstorm trapped in a bottle,
A ship christened with tears instead of champagne,
I'm the fury of the sea heard in a seashell,
Driftwood, aimless in the current of time.

You Have To Go (I Know)

Your leaving

has me feeling

like cake-soup;

the wrong blend

of right ingredients.

What if

I can't

stomach

this?

The crimson glow of fading hope

The sea ignores the movement of your tides
The moon turns the pages of your chanted lullaby
Give the sky back her crimson, mesmerizing face
My heart is none of her concern
What you have stolen from her
She demands that you return
She has given everything and it was not enough.

Take only what I offer you
Nothing more and nothing less
Take the red wine nectar from my veins
And the syncopated rhythm from my chest.

In morning you are her red light upon my neck
In evening you're a moonbeam asleep upon my bed
Give me hope but leave me empty, unfulfilled
My heart is none of your concern
What you have taken from me
I can't demand that you return
I have given everything and it was not enough.

You took only what I offered you
Nothing more and nothing less
My red wine nectar flows through your veins
And my heart changed the rhythm in your chest.

I would be the satellite around your sun
But even if you gave me everything
I fear it would not be enough.

Missing You

I remember when you left, it was raining that day
I remember, cause I wished the clouds would go away
The birds were still singing, I remember it well
There were tears in my eyes when you said your last farewell

There were so many questions I wanted to ask
So many reasons to call you back
I watched helpless as you left, my heart in your hands,
You said I would come to but I still don't understand

When I close my eyes I still see you
Though what I see is untrue
It's ok, I know how my memory lies
I've changed you to everything you never were
Just so I could miss you tonight

I know when I left you it was a sun-shiny day
I know, cause I wished the clouds had stayed
Your lies had unraveled, you knew I'd depart
I couldn't shed a tear though you'd broken my heart

I left without answers, there were none to be had
I had given everything, and couldn't even be mad
My tears were used up, my sympathies fled,
So many feelings still left unsaid

When I close my eyes I still see you
Though what I see is untrue
It's ok, I know how my memory lies
I've changed you to everything you never were
Just so I could miss you tonight

Benediction

Benediction

My skin tingles with the vibrations of your lips when you speak
Your tongue pries my lips apart like you're searching deep inside me
For the words I can't seem to formulate.

The confetti of my heart's debris lies like freckles on my face
Like the ruins of a universe destroyed by the words
That should never have touched your ears,
Cursing the destiny that only let our fates collide
For a split second in a twisted, dizzy cosmic prank.

You have a way of making me honest
When I ought to be ambiguous
And candidly sincere when society's cunning deception
Would complicate things less.

My intellect forms a parade of relentless facts, unyielding and cold
But I've been bewitched and ambushed by emotion
I'm a casualty of the chasm depths I dug with my own fingernails
All pretense lost, I'm as hollow as Jesus' tomb and as scarred as his flesh
And the way I was, my previous disaster of a life
Is split down the side -- you were the blade slicing through the facade,
So I lie bleeding naked while you kiss the saline misery away
And remove the treacherous deceit I had engraved on my own veins.

So you'll leave me to heal under ebony skies
Devoid of stars and satellites
And I'll compose stories for the constellations
Formed by the flecks of gold I saw in your eyes
This will be a wordless goodbye -- it's better this way --
No promises, no guilt, no regret, no shame,
And we'll give a silent benediction from lip to lip and tongue to tongue.

Double Dactyl

Rickety, nitpicky,

Double-dactylical

Lines are a pain but I'll

Give them a try.

Nonsense begins them,

Two stanzas, strict rhythm:

Easy, if I could just

End with a rhyme.

Seattle Smokers

You can't walk down a street in Seattle

with a cigarette in your mouth

and expect to have a pack left

by the time you get home.

-

It doesn’t happen like that.

-

Your cigarette

while a hazard light to non-smokers,

is a candle in a dark cave of tension

to the rest

-

and they will ask you

if you can spare one

-

they will ask you

if you’ve got a light

-

“Can I get one off you, man?”

-

It’s been a hard night.

They pat their pockets—

all out.

Run their hands through their hair—

They’ve got the craving

That you obviously understand.

They form one hand

into a gentle claw;

ready to grasp panic-relief.

-

By the time you reach your destination

you’ve talked to more strangers

and smoked fewer cigarettes

that you ever wanted to

on a dark city street.

-

The unwritten code

that if you smoke, you understand

and if you understand, you commiserate

and if you commiserate, you share

and share

and share

-

after all,

they’d give you one, too

if they had it.

-