Tag: life

Outfit

Finding myself
Wearing some ridiculous
Lampshade to subdue the light
I cannot easily disguise

I wonder
If a love like that exists

I’ve seen that man
You know the one
Crying outside your window

Shouting “Take me back!”
Drenched from the rain

Always wishing one day he’d
Be asking for you until the
Moment that he did

Dreading what could come
With him and would come
If you let him in

Where was the charming
Poetic boy
Full of fire and indifference

Outside dripping with life
A chance taken for feelings
Granted on the inside

A scratch

Both parts succumbing
Never contending
Correspondent to the rare
Combination

A poetic knight
Shining disarming
A gamut for life
Cooked up in a soup
Made of ginger and dreams
One that I have been sipping on

A quiet observation
Coming and going
Looking out the panes of glass
Heart throbbing

Grasping at a future
Full of memories
Written once and for all
In a newspaper that will
Again be delivered
On the morning
Of a second birth

Fresh and ready
For intimacy

© GÄ

Vestige

It’s like I forgot how to be alive
Was I ever listening?
I heard the echoes of my pets
Trying to catch my attention 
While I was so busy living life
I missed it
I’ve been missing it
If I keep missing it
Soon it will be over

Old songs ringing in my ears
That I composed some years ago
I can still find them in my hands
Resting at the ends of my fingertips

It was like living that life
Gave me something to write
Something to sing about
Capturing the whole world ahead 
Until today after I lived it
Even though I’m still alive
If I haven’t forgotten how to be

All the plans that I made all
Successfully played out
Somehow hanging on by a thread
Through a lot of it and happily

So I can compare the difference
Which one does it make here
To realize what most people 
Aren’t figuring out
Life is going away
If we don’t live it

Somehow I am instantly
Overnight running out of time
What I cared about is gone
Feeling it even more 
When we realize 
The whole picture is blank
Only remnants of
What is left

Of a life you 
Planned to live
Leftover memories
In the walls
Footprints on the floor
Looking for you 
No more 

Do something
It’s all vanishing

© GÄ

Shilly Shally

If it wasn’t this
It would be something else
My condolences
For all the things
He should’ve said
Or wanted to
But didn’t still
If it wasn’t this
It would be something else
Maybe boys
Don’t always grow up
To be men
Maybe love is just
A thing we feel
When people are gone
If it wasn’t this
It would be something else
And the rest of us
Watch the sun go down
On our favorite shoes
And the pictures on the walls
That tell the story too
Hard to tell
Let the future tell it
For us cause
If it wasn’t this
It would be something else
And that’s all there
Is to it

© GÄ

Happen

Divers if dreams
Could be more than one thing
Child riding by on a dog
Three wise men barefoot
Wanting to show up to
Offer comfort or a hug
Sing along like a hymn
In the heart I play a record
And I sit beside you
The lyrics and sheet music
Are black on black
I need a flashlight
To see the images
To read the words that
You don’t know
I can’t even catch the melody
Without the vinyl playing
And so I stand up
To place the needle again
And we are listening
The music is magic
To our ears and the
Words come alive

Joined by a friend who
Wants her ear pierced
We learn she should wait
To see the placement of the
Bar strategically so we
Do not stretch the space
Between I have learned
In this moment
Sometimes it is better to
Wait to make sure
A thing fits
Arriving at the studio
The piercers are ready
One is drawing a mustache
On the other with a marker
The same they use to
Point out the spot to pierce

I am reminded here too
That laughter is the best medicine
And life is to be lived
Perhaps not over analyzed
Because if we have not lived it
We too have nothing to plan
Or look back on

So we just make it happen

© GÄ

Behalf

He stopped playing the piano
But he hadn’t forgotten how to
He stopped riding his bicycle
But he still knew where it was
He forgot to meditate
But he remembered how to return
The path had changed
In the care of his keep
He was busy with life
And the challenges of it all
But he recalled the days
When doing all of these things

Meant something

To be the linchpin
Of ourselves holding the edifice
Together so as not to crumble
Explode or fall apart

Yellow leaves turned up
After the solstice was strolling past
Muddy tiles to witness inner strengths
Washed over and over to reveal
Connection and a use for time
Sliding down the fault of
Memories we attempt to get away from
Churning through the vast nature
If ostensibility is to overwhelm
To congregate in the belly of burden

When to bite and when to chew
Basic principles that should
Involuntarily teach us that
Enough is enough and that
We did all we can do

It’s a beautiful thing
Not to be through with our bodies
But to wake up in said vessels
Alive and renewed
All of our arms and legs
Working and if even only a few limbs
There’s still life in you yet
Old man

© GÄ

Jellyfish

He bent over and heard a phone
Ring in his throat, oh well
Seems natural in the digital age
He said as he pulled his socks on
To prepare for the day ahead
Just keep thinking about how
We’re not dead until we’re dead
So they can keep throwing
Opportunities at you and then
Rip them away it’s just a game
To the big wigs but for the little people
Down here in tiny town it’s everything
We’re all just pretending that we
Have enough to get by feeling like
We’re doing something paying our part
Catching up at the end of the month
Adding to the money pie and still
Can’t help but think it doesn’t matter
Until your chalk full of lead or
Formaldehyde full of dead so we
Just keep moving and living along
Even if it means we encounter
Foot songs of grief dirges of bereft
With nothing left but tears and torn
Blankets our teeth crumbling out
Eventually if you’re not up for maintaining
That’s the end of the route
So the maintainers put their capes on
Pay their nickels at the end of the month
Throw money into programs of
Insurance that never pay off
Of course we don’t want them to
And then look for the crown at the
End of the year! You did it! You survived!
Here here! Applause! Let’s all cheer!
Barely able to stand up
You’ve been sharing your cup
With the world and the gold is
Still empty in your bucket
But you’ll resiliently say
Chuck it up to another
Shrimp on the barbie
We made it thus far; you’re a star!
You can keep going, you know it
I wonder what it’s like
To be a jellyfish

© GÄ

Candlelight

Dressed to impress
Let the mood soften this
Candlelight lit by the darkness
Ups and downs keep us
Spinning round knit to the
Unknown words on the tongue
Never heard or text before
Emotional suggestions of
Whole heart palpitations
Coming out from every pore
No way to really stop it the…
Want to be the complete self
In the moment but also look back
And realize how much of
It is high volume light vibration
The relief comes in waves
Whatever direction from nothingness
More passion when sharing the
Exact story saying the truth
So much more full than
Half moon coming in full sun
It’s certainly more memorable
That way even when the
Glowing is dimming

© GÄ

One

Just going through the motions
Sometimes that’s all you need
Maybe we do it and don’t know it
When he was particularly aware of it
He felt strange realizing that he
Was always doing it naturally before
But now it felt forced necessarily
Waiting for the light to change
Sometimes just running through it
Do we follow every rule and fail
Or are these simply guidelines
Oak trees and moss continue on
Creeping in rain like patterns
Mystical fens flowing on trees
And the random birds chirping
In the air relief from the cold hard
Winter that was approaching briefly
Before it arrived we all stood around
A fire and laughed about the
Doldrums of the past year
A Native American song was
Shaking the background and
He recalled how to be strong
Again but it was for himself this time
He was out of practice because
He was always doing it for others
Going through the motions
Reiterating structure
Humming in the us factor
Problematically difficult
When he was humming again
For one yet both sides of him
Stood ready for two of what becomes

© GÄ

Choice

Grab a random hat
On your way out the door
Can we be happy in the momentary
Bliss of anythingness

Untreasured acceptance of
Being someone’s number one
Proud to be there for them
And one day wake up startlingly
To their absence without any
Why for explanation; gone

Choices were made for you
Who we become is exactly that
Even before we are exiting the womb
Of transitive existence
Thoughts on who you are to become
What great things you will do
Born into the disability
To disappoint the expectations
Of the choices designed for you

As he contemplated the coldness
Of it all there was more than
An empty reminder beating
At the core of his agenda

This is your opportunity to jump
This is how you choose
Not for someone else
But for you

A tale told of folks long ago
Saying,
‘You can choose the life you want.’
In many ways we do
And in many ways he did
Of the available options
To his character

Where was the warning?
That there will be many opposing forces
When will the playbook arrive
Condoning the unrelenting
Unrequested actions happening
Upon us as we eschew them into
Gifts for our benefit
Twisting scripts

One mentor said,
‘You will have everything you need,
to get through the life you will lead.’
And believing he was capable
He made the choice to believe

Another guide said,
‘It’s going to be really good.’
And in his head that was enough
To look forward to
To get him out of bed

Again choices would be made
And how frigid could we all stand it
How many nicks at our chins
Could we take
How many knocks at the door
Till we break
How many smiles would be left
For us to fake

Is there a number for that?

As the light dressed the day
And the night went to sleep
He stood up from his slumber
Of counting tie dyed sheep
In the movie theater of his mind
And chose to breathe again
Another day involuntarily

Contemplating the fantasy
Of the life he’d one day leave
To begin the choice of such a life
He’d yet conceived

© GÄ

Mechanics

He was more than just a piston
Brain control seeping in trying to
Creep into his mind what’s the reward
To be eighty years old and prove
“I too can be a hard nose!”
(He exclaimed)
Whoopee.

Life is so condensed fitting
Our parts into smaller and smaller
Shapes and sizes to accommodate
Our lives into finite dimensions we
Float away and around
What brings us back on track?

In the order of all belongings
Tallying before we lay
Beneath the red marbled stone
That reminds everyone who we were
Do they drink tea in our absence?

What is it to be nineteen again
Learning the world before we knew
Anything grasping at love like
We were running out of air
And knowing almost nothing
Except for how to get from
Here to there
Oh and…
How to make out with a pear
I remember having no clue about
How to pick one out the Bosc is
A true delight in which one should
Have a romantic affair
Lips curled around
Delicious juices filling his mouth

But that was college and now
The ground is thirsty again for
Knowledge and experience
Getting out….

He was doing the work to remember
A recompense for painting instead of work

Raised in a jerkwater town
Moving away was like holding ground
In a place where culture was hidden
Until he lifted the lid one thousand
Four hundred and ninety-two miles away

And the incense was different
The smell of the future unlimited to his
Slippery imagination

A train car is running only a foot away
What’s under the hood?

© GÄ