POETRY

from CRAVE 2: Forbidden Secrets

I remember your smell from before I knew you.
The taste of our first kiss was something I recalled, like a distant memory.
When you touch me it’s as if I’m awake for the first time
free to live all the dreams I have collected,
like finding a special stone by the river
or seeing the Sun escape from behind a cloud to illuminate your smile.
I know you now like I’ve known you before, so many times forevermore.
A different song, a different dance, but always you.
Each time I paint myself across the open expanse of your heart
and each time…

POETRY

I haven’t slept for days…

My thoughts are soft swirls of purple haze.
In the middle, a minotaur, minding a maze.
Within a labyrinth of many ways,
I rage at the mirror that reflects my gaze.

Tired torpedoes fall silently still
As attacks become naps of necessity’s thrill.
Energy arrives late, completely unfrilled;
I’ve been here before, I’m perfectly skilled.

What can be mustered when bottles run dry?
Playing with catch-up, there’s some in my eye.
I relish the chance to once again fly,
Swooping and soaring through barbequed sky.

In slumber, I’m met with endless defeat
Even to silence, I…

BOOKS

Because Print is Better Than Digital

I’ve never been a bookworm. No one would have ever accused me of that. Prolific in other arenas, perhaps, but not in the realm of reading. I always preferred writing and I liked my own stories because they were immersive. I did read, of course, just not as voraciously, say, as my wife. One day when we were in the garage, I asked her — as I peered through a great many see-through, mega-sized, plastic storage containers — if we had any books from Shakespeare. …

HUMOR | SATIRE

If you give a poet a pot pen
he’ll always want to smoke from it.
Then he finishes oh so quickly,
oh, what a bother.

Luke, I’m your Father!
…to the Chopper!!

And then there were none
Left on the dance floor.

If this were a radio show, like you know, one of those cool ones all out in the middle of nowhere desert land, a lone cactus standing guard silhouetted against the Moon kind of places, I would call this The Show you need to tune into. There’s FM radio, there’s AM radio, then there’s this weird aluminum foil…

LIFE | EMOTIONS

You can hear the game on the t.v. and know that someone scored when the crowd cheers.

I can hear that the t.v. has been turned up past 45 so that no one can hear when you go to get another beer what you are actually doing. I can hear the sear of the meat on the burgers like I can hear the lies you tell yourself every night you look at your kids before tucking them into bed. I can hear the story you rehearse just in case you get caught.

You can see all the guys gathered ‘round…

POETRY

Obligated to hear my fall again into Oblivion
The echo of the abyss chews like Teeth
Swallowing me whole — without a Smile
Or a second glance.

Do I exist?
I think
therefore
am I special?

Do not mistake my kindness for weakness
for beneath my oft calm waters there reside beasts
that even the Leviathans fear.

I taught the first gods how to rule.
I am kind because I’ve died every death.
I do not wish to die with you today in unkindness.

— agod

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster…for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

― Friedrich W. Nietzsche

When we have the choice between good and evil, we…