The all-too-familiar misshapen, twirled blur, 
tipping the glass from side to side; 
clear fluids’ flexibility holding in tact. 
Wobbly, unblemished, waving up ‘n down— 
crashing and jumping within boundary, 
only occasionally sloshing over the edge.

No walls to clatter and crash into abruptly. 
Just space to float, flood and dive freely.
Despite all the madness, joy ensues... 
does all the folly permit all the thrill and delight?


A spark of bright flips a flash into a drop
fresh in the air, escaping the tipping glass;


a flicker quivering through air-born dribble 
before returning to its source,
unblemished and primed to spring out 
with the next rippling wave to come.

The back and fourth and return 
around — the systemic U-turn disorientates, 
confuses and bewilders reality’s repetition;

but the dance of replication improves — 
or at least strays and varies — with time. 
Nevertheless, the wave dodges complete 
duplication, never quite the same,
still always back n’ fourth, side to side, 
up and down, painting a mammoth sphere.

Grin-filled, floating droplets wafting upward, 
climbing closer to puffed clouds, 
peak then fall, dwindling toward down, 
before skimming atop the masses.

Tranquility survives within the 
motion of it all, the swaying whirl 
disarming most unwelcoming grasps. 
The globe gestures around, demanding 
motion while holding feet, trees, and all else, 
but birds, to the rounded ground.

No matter the hurricane, twisting all matter 
apart, it all eventually lands back down.
When land rips apart at the seams, flooding 
sun at, until that moment, unlit earth, it all
 eventually lands back down; 
back n’ fourth, side to side, up and
down and finally, back to its source, 
a familiar, clear bead of drink,
but never again quite the same.

I hold her hands and
look into her eyes as we sway,
swing and sweat across the room

Her dark hair is lifted by the air as
she twirls and twists
about. Her red dress,
dancing below her knees and
clinging to her chest, follows
her every move

Her quarter-inch heels,
recently cleaned, looking mighty crisp,
click and clack across the wooden and
worn flooring

My, she is
gorgeous.

I glance away from her
brown eyes and see
the room spinning
‘round and ‘round

We move so quick,
so fast, so

The room spinning
'round and ‘round
and nothing
seems
together

Her moves don’t seem to
reflect mine
Mine don’t seem to
move her

But
My, she is
gorgeous.

The room spins and time
winks at her and then I
What will come when the dance
is more than a room?

when still nothing seems together
but there is more to be kept as one
There’s her and I
and jobs and geography
and rings and promises
and diapers and bills

Her eyes look to mine and ask
what the future holds
“Us and I don’t know, but
lets talk and see,” I said.

And we move so fast and quick
her hair floating with the air
the doors and windows and paintings
and friends fly by
Everything seems sort of
together

And
My, she is
gorgeous.

Here’s to lookin’ at you, kid,
Those eyes looking at you, kid,
the two of ‘em—those flaming eyes
those deep, thoughtful and irritated eyes
looking at you, kid

looking at you, with confusion, searching
for seclusion and separation from you, kid
Striving to get away from the agony, pain and
distrust of time and commitment and time
and commitment with you, kid

cause those eyes, those eyes, bleeding and
seeing you, kid, don’t know where else to look,
what else to see, but more so, what to see when
those two eyes, around for two decades, those
two beautiful eyes that so easily persuade,
that so easily jade, look at the future, past and present of them and you, kid


those eyes that have locked with yours many times, kid
closed next to you, kid, opened beside you, kid.
So, why do those eyes doubt? What is it they fear about?

Those two eyes looking at you, kid,
don’t you wish they’d see the beauty in the world that you see in them, kid?

Here’s to lookin’ at you, kid, and
here’s to the looker, who, now,
hopefully and liberally and energetically
is not only looking at you kid,
but gazing at the world with a grin above the chin
A smile so big, so titanic, so galactic and gargantuan,
it extends to those two eyes,
that are looking at you, kid

We start with the moon
crisp and brisk in the
star studded sky

In the night the day ends
and the imagination begins
Sleep imitates wake as we punish
reality with dream

…Dream: a delusion and trance
A hallucination serving as a deflation and
dehydration of veracity infestation 
Ideas and notions weaving around the unbound
sleep allows us to creep, crawl and wander
our psychology, mythology and possibly
unfortunate urology

Nature calling causes us to end
up falling out of sweet sleep and
dazing dream to return to
rupturingly real reality

And we return to the moon
cursing the dark with light
hiding the night with
glowing, gleaming white
‘cause even in wake, the dark
grants us ambiguity
We see shapes and sounds
and this phantom time runs us into chairs ‘cause
our eyes have so little light to share

But back to the pillow rests our head
where we drown
in dream where monsters and ex’s make
us scream and lovers and friends make us smile
in part reality because dreams disallow denial

We sit back and watch our life in dream—a
movie of our lives without the live as
our subconscious uses sleep as its unbound
playground.
The night carries limitless connectivity linking life
with love, confusion, illusion, intrusion and
seclusion

And we return to the moon
and shake, shiver and shriek
at the notion of hungry howling
werewolves.

Werewolves: oh shit! the devil hides
in these
wicked, wild beasts
We watch and learn stories
of and about these mystical mighty monsters
because apparently the
real night and real world
don’t burden us with enough to fear

Because we fear genuine fear, we
create a new, supernatural fear that
we can disregard and discount ‘cause
we know its invented and pretended

Real: Murder, addiction, rape and hate
Real: Indifference, intolerance, ignorance and belligerence
This is our bona fide world and it’s true in both night and day

Day: When the sun comes out and hides the dark
The sun ignites a spark that drains the night and
its wicked, dark delight
But the moon still shines amongst the sun
,so, in the day we need not

Return to the moon with the smiling man in and
walking on its chalky, or possibly cheese-filled shell
that, unlike the sun, orbits around us like a 24-hour bus
giving us the time for rest and letting us wake
feeling our best

Kids, Kids, Kids!
Step up to the line and play
a new game—one where you weave,
wind and wander around possibilities.

Just try, try, try and see
where you go, go, go..
Grow a tale and chase it for hours in a line
—up, down, but not around the block
Or find yourself the size of a pea and 
climb, climb, climb to the top of a giant
towering, frightful beanstalk…with Jack

Or balance on an over-filled purple balloon—skimp and
scamper around the ground—just keep your feet moving
Or build a life-sized replica of your house using 
a deck of cards—watch as a new home forms
for many kings and queens—and even Jack.

Or take a fresh breath of milk and flip you buttery pancakes with
a screwdriver
Or catch a dolphin on your tongue 
as it flips, flips, flips and whirls 
out of the ocean.

Or clean your hair in a can of paint
—blue, yellow, green or magenta—it matters not
kids, kids, kids.

Just close your squeamish eyes to the perplexed 
world around you—swim across the Mediterranean 
Desert and hike up to the bottom of
the sea.
Trust me! You’ll see, see, see!

Abandoning it
Releasing doubt
Honey dripping out
a shredded jar
Slow and relentless
Impossible
to dismiss it
Heavily wooded dam
clogged, damp mulch
Eventually though,
Relentless turns sympathetic, benign
hygienic, unpolluted jar
a trace of candy-coated tea
Eventually though,
Impossible turns realizable, probable
drops dig through
the musty, moldy paper lumber
It abandoned
relinquished, shunned
Doubt released
discharged, transpired

I hear everything, you know
And oh how I deceive you
with my dials—my numbers

The things that happen from here to
there
define what happens there and here,
you know

Choose your station
—old, tired oldies
—new, tired hits
Meat Loaf and Timberlake

Pick your CD
scratched to skip,
sk-, ski-, ski-, sk-, skip
Celine Dion and Vanilla Ice?

But I hear everything,
you know
I hear the call to your wife and son
The variance in your tones
Adjust my bass and balance
and I’ll hear yours
Your voice gets deeper, you know
The rhythms in your tone go from
narcissistic, pointless hip-hop to smooth, thoughtful jazz
Diddy to Coltrane

That is when she calls.
She gets the sax and melodies
Your wife and son get the hip you

And I hear it all.
I hear the complexities of your lies
the holes in your stories.
I know things you never will--
I can scan to and find an exact frequency.

Your wife knows—she’ll
never tell you this, though.
The screeches of your insincere guitar
pain her too much for confrontation.
And like her, I let you choose the music.
And oh how you deceive yourself.
If you listened to what I hear,
And stopped hiding in what you tell me to play,
maybe you’d listen too.
Maybe your taste in music would be a bit
more classy,
homely.

And oh how you deceive.

eether we stay or go;
ither we sleep or we wake;
eether we sing or we listen to music;
ither we live or we die;
eether we can fight or surrender;
ither we live in ourselves or we pretend to be otherwise;
eether we be nice or we thrive in cruelty;
ither write and read the right or read and write the wrong;
eether we fly like a fly, or be stung by a bee 
ither we have two, and we keep one
or we have two, and we give one to you so you can have one too;
eether we see the sea, or we drown in it;
ither we go there, with their one that they’re letting us borrow, or we steal  what’s theirs and go nowhere;
eether we see life as a hole or we see life as whole;
ither we fear or we love;
eether we allow the colors of the world to dye us, or we die due to diversity 
ither we can be blown away by the wind, or we can wind around it
eether we live by our friends, or we say bye to them
ither we smile or cry;
eether we love or we don’t.
Both;
Eether/ither: either.

eether we stay or go;
ither we sleep or we wake;
eether we sing or we listen to music;
ither we live or we die;
eether we can fight or surrender;
ither we live in ourselves or we pretend to be otherwise;
eether we be nice or we thrive in cruelty;
ither write and read the right or read and write the wrong;
eether we fly like a fly, or be stung by a bee 
ither we have two, and we keep one
or we have two, and we give one to you so you can have one too;
eether we see the sea, or we drown in it;
ither we go there, with their one that they’re letting us borrow, or we steal  what’s theirs and go nowhere;
eether we see life as a hole or we see life as whole;
ither we fear or we love;
eether we allow the colors of the world to dye us, or we die due to diversity 
ither we can be blown away by the wind, or we can wind around it
eether we live by our friends, or we say bye to them
ither we smile or cry;
eether we love or we don’t.
Both;
Eether/ither: either.

Don’t walk without noticing; 
don’t run without song; 
don’t wipe tears away; 
don’t hide frowns; 
don’t create smiles; 
don’t ignore those you hate; 
don’t embrace those you love too much; 
don’t embrace love?; 
don’t embrace it too much; 
don’t always look with your eyes open; 
don’t always sleep with your eyes closed; 
don’t sleep with my eyes closed?; 
don’t close your eyes—you must dream; 
don’t make enemies; 
don’t forget them; 
don’t just have friends, but make them; 
hear with an open mind; 
ignore with an even more open mind; 
don’t ignore questions; don’t ask them all the time; 
but... ?; 
don’t ask them all the time; 
don’t be ignorant; 
but ignorance is bliss; 
don’t be ignorant; 
don’t accept bliss; 
don’t try to know all; 
don’t forget your mistakes; 
don’t attempt to supersede anything—you will fail; 
can I supersede failure?; 
don’t supersede anything—you will fail; 
always know where you’ve gone wrong; 
always remember not to forget; 
don’t forget to forget what you remember though; 
huh?; 
forget it; 
don’t drive without breaks; 
don’t speed without the gas; 
don’t stop for anything; obey the laws; 
what if the laws are unfair— oppressive?; 
don’t allow them to be; 
make laws fair; supersede the injustice; 
but what if I fail?; 
supersede failure—you will have success; 
but…?; 
don’t ask questions all the time; 
but you said…; 
I said hear with an open mind; 
but my mind is…; 
you’re trying to know all—don’t; 
don’t tie your shoes with two bows; 
don’t wear your sandals without laces; 
don’t kid yourself; 
be idealistic; 
isn’t idealism a form of kidding yourself?; 
don’t ask questions all the time; 
but you said  don’t ignore questions?; 
hear with an open mind—accept you don’t know all—that’s what I said.