HERE

HERE

Beneath the lacquer
the thin layer of shiny
the glossy
the new
and defined by such
Beautiful
and untouched
Kept up

Ready for the mounting
behind windexed glass
on top of polished wood
we are placed
Our chiseled bodies
Our coated faces
Shown off
Replaced

Look not at the grain underneath
Developed years of lines
The etching away of knots
and unusable ugliness
Acknowledge not the sanding away
The shaving of circle into square
Sandblasted and primed
into the newly socially acceptable

Illusion and delusion
Better and best
How we shine
from over there
above the fireplace
on the mantle
Brought out
Dusted off
Misplaced

We are just beneath the surface
desperately wanting to get out
To burn it away, this gloss
To melt it away, this façade
To say something, anything

To voice an opinion
Right or wrong
Good and bad
Different, yet same
To say, “I’m here”
I am here.

TOSS

TOSS

Jenny found a penny

and named it Lenny

and carried it with her everyday

Flipping and skipping

making her prediction

Ultimately escaping

her decision making.

So, she didn’t go far

out of her yard

Inquiring heads

and asking the tails

Impatiently awaiting

for that check in the mail.

It’s a hard, long road

that we travel alone

weathering the turns we take

But decisions are made

and we are forced to play

the hand that is dealt on the way.

So, Jenny asked Lenny

if she should marry Benny

and Lenny said that Benny was okay

But Lenny was a penny

and didn’t know Benny

and Jenny made a mistake some say.

It’s a long, long road

The decisions come hard

and who knows the path we should take

Life has its chances

and Tango dances

we are simply forced to fake.

So, Jenny looked at Lenny

and said, “Hey there, Penny,

I think I’ll store you away,

now is the time

and this is the way,

I think I’ll become an adult today.”

LONE

LONE

Read

and alienate yourself

to the nth degree

Think

and silence yourself

with a paper degree

Learn

and hide yourself

under that P..h..D..

Talk to no one

in the privacy of you

Read to someone

in the corner of a vacant room

Think with the best

dead philosophy

Learn the strokes

Dead painters’ gallery

Admire yourself

along this dead road’s mystery

Alone

You’re not alone

You’re your best company

Sail

to a place that is nowhere

and learn to be yourself

out there

You are educated

above the living

Sing your praises to the dead

Alone.