Judge

I can only judge

By

What I’m shown

So please

Show me truth

Or

Be the best at lying!

Do your job well

So

I’ll have

Something to smile about!

Like a pig

Being lead to slaughter

Lead me with

Your best deception

Your finest performance

I do require a skilled liar

A skilled deceiver  

By this point

In my life

Because many

Have come before you

With

Tasty desserts of deceit

Lies of such

Mesmerizing beauty

Any truth at all

Was impossible to see!  

So today

Cut me down fast

With your finest words 

Like the sickle slicing

Grain in the fields

Or

The butcher draining

Blood from the lambs   

So

I’ll never know

What is really before me

Sing your lies and lullabies

Tale me your fairytales

Sale me your pipedreams

Show me your alibis

And

I will look blindly

Smiling at the Trojan horse

Before me

While your army

Of

True intentions

Waits quietly inside!

From my book, When The Cedars Shade Your Grave     

Lincoln

Your Eye

When

Something’s in your eye

You want nothing more

Than to pluck it out

And

Yes

To pluck out debris

From one’s eye

Can be

Quite painful

To dig into one’s self

Can be unbearable

But in order to move forward

We must pluck out the painful

And

Fill our souls with hope

That the pain never returns

Pull the knives

From

Your back

Or

There’s no use

In moving on at all!

It’s these hard learned lessons

In life

That shape us

And

At the same time

Show us who we really are

As people

So

Remember

To forgive is powerful

To not remember

The reasons why

You had to forgive

Is foolish

So continue on

With open eyes

And

See all that’s before you

Not

Just what’s presented

From my book, When The Cedars Shade Your Grave

Tornadoes

To live through

A tornado

Is a terrifying thing

Indeed!

Over the years

I was told tornados sound

Like a freight train

Rolling down the tracks

Straight for you!

So

When I realized

What was coming for

My family and I

It made it

That much more

Terrifying

Than anything

I could have ever imagined!

For

The hand of death was close

And

Only moving closer

A violent deafening mown

With

An underlying sound

Of

Trees snapping

Power lines

Whipping wildly in the wind

Rain and darkness

A blinding wall of power

Inching closer

And

Closer

But

What I remember most

From that time

So long ago

Was holding

My child in my arm

My wife by the hand

And fleeing

Into the howling shadows

Of the night

Then

The next morning

Pumping gas barefoot

No shirt

40 degrees

In the drizzling rain

But

Being thankful

We all were alive!

From my book, When The Cedars Shade Your Grave

Smog Sucks

Bars

Monarch Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly

Maiden of beauty

Queen of flight

Your wings are

The color

Of

Tangerines

Dressed with spotted

Black dots

That smear together

As one

When you fly and flutter

About!

You seem like you

Maybe floating on

Something beautiful

Like the music of

Melody Gardot

Or possibly

Madeleine Peyroux?

Someone’s amazing music

Has to be lifting

Your wings upwards?

Floating on notes

And

Melodies

You have to be!

Your journey

To me

From

Across the sea

Is

One I hold dear

When I gaze upon you

Saying hello

Here and there

There and here

Throughout my day

Moving about

In my world

Braking the sunlight

Into

Segments of flashes

Like the end of a movie

On an old-style projector

When you and your kind

Swarm the sky above me

Oh

What a sight to see!

From my book, When The Cedars Shade Your Grave

The Man Without A Nose

A man

Came into work

The other day

Who had

No Nose

Just a big gaping hole

Where it once was!

It was hollow

To look into

Empty to gaze upon

A moon crater

A Grand Canyon

Scaled down to size   

My coworker

Was totally freaked out

By the sight of this

The man told us

He had cancer

And

The doctors had

Cut away half his face

A facelift

Of

Lifesaving slices!

He said  

He now

Was going through

Radiation treatments

Chemotherapy

The thought

Came to me

As it does every time

I run across

Yet

Another example

Of

Modern medicine

Who needs horror stories

When we have examples

Of

Saving lives like this?

Doctors keeping people alive

With half of their face

Missing

Is not some amazing feat!

What’s amazing

Is the folks that have

Not had their bodies

Cut on

And

Are not taking

Radiation baths

Believing somehow

The ones who are

Are better off than

Surrendering to death!

Yes

Cancer is the gnashing teeth

Of

Humanity

Yet

People tremble

At the thought of death!

With all of the steadfast beliefs

Of

Better tomorrows

On the other side

Or

Coming back

As something else

To live again

People are still willing to boil

Themselves down

With nuclear exposure

To not go on

To the next world!

Reality is strange

Sometimes

And

Is bursting at the seams

With an undeniable truth 

When self-preservation

Is involved

From my book, When The Cedars Shade Your Grave

Mugshots

On My Watch

What is truly important

In this life?

We all

Should ask ourselves

This question

Each day

Yet

It seems for most of us

This question

Is seldom asked

And

Sometimes

Not asked at all!

For all of us

Our moments

Our opportunities

To do

What we really want

To do

Be who we really want

To be

Are running out!

Yes

Time ticks fast

Weather you waste it

Or

Not!

I see it

Day after day

In the faces

Of

People I encounter

Who have grown old

And

Impatient!

They become

Angry at the casher

Because they had to

Wait two minutes longer

Than they believed

They needed to!

I can only think

By

Their behavior

They know

The end is near

And

They have most likely

Wasted their time

In this world!

They have not done

The things they really

Wanted to do

In this life!

They have not taken

A chance on a dream!

At some point

They should have asked

Themselves

What was truly important

To them?

I see it in the rich too

All the money in the world

And

Never truly happy!

Money means little

In the end!

I’ve done

Countless labor jobs

The owners come out

To inspect the progress

It’s almost

Always the same

Wedding rings

Turned upside-down

On their finger

Afraid to showoff

Their sparkling diamond

To

The dirty laborer

Me!

I can only think

All that wealth

Has done nothing

But

Buy you fear of your

Fellow human being!

They want so badly

To be remembered as a pillar

In the community

Not realizing they are

Remembered more

By the people

They walked on

To become wealthy

The people that sold

Their best years to them

For minimum wage

Used up their bodies

To put food on

Their family’s table

All while the Pharaoh

Counts his gold!

From my book, When The Cedars Shade Your Grave