you have to like , live and die with yourself

 We are all alone,

born alone, die alone,

and—in spite of

True Romance magazines —

we shall all someday

look back on our lives

and see that, in spite

of our company, we were

alone the whole way.

I do not say lonely —

at least, not all the

time—but essentially,

and finally, alone. This

is what makes your

self-respect so important,

and I don’t see how you can

respect yourself if you must

look in the hearts and minds

of others for your happiness.

-- Hunter S. Thompson

What every child goes through

 

Unexpected Confessions

 

tea shop conversation

raising unexpected

confessions ~

not something

I wanted to hear over

a cup of earl grey,

probably needed

a shot of whiskey

to wash away

the shock,

pain, taste

Path narrows

 There's a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

History in the Rear view mirror

 Headed West

over the Greasy Grass

Crossing the Little Big Horn

I imagined the ghosts

of a thousand painted horses

parting before me,

and the wind sounded

like the wailing of squaws

for fallen warriors

Black Velvet Elvis

 

Feral kids wandering the streets

 Under the moonlight

the hormonal youth

feel the draw of the final

hopes before the fall,

like moths battering

the porch light.

Feral Kids

wandering the streets,

a stolen beer in hand

Texting their desire

under the stars

Chasing the last

hot moist days of summer

and some lustful siren's call.

Morals are just suggestions

 

My moral self

loudly chastises my lustful self

for thinking about the waitress

and The introvert self

sits in the corner

drinking and plots his escape

there's a book

to be read or written

and its almost

eight o'clock

Room for Rent

 

Every time I come home from work I wonder Why did I rent a room above a 

bar? Sure it was cheap and close to where I work and I thought it might help 

me meet some new people.

It did, Ive met two hookers, who time share the room next door, guy

 growing Mushrooms in his closet and a defrocked priest, writing a novel

 about Aliens in the Vatican.

On the bright side, I met a cute EMT reviving a heroin overdose in the 

stair well one morning.

Missing pieces

 In the Chemo Forest,

A stand of Saline trees,

drips the nectar of hope.

Dementia

Sometimes talking 

to my father,

was like visiting

an old farmhouse.

You know a lot of things

happened there,

but no one is left 

to tell the stories.

YIN and Yang

 A good night's sleep

results in a new ache

in my old body.

But at least no flying Monkeys

Knawing on my flesh

in last night's dreams

Its the business of Politics

 

World leaders

with lizard eyes

Tell lies with smiles,

filling their pockets

with cash

and offering

fairy dust in return

ALONE

 There's a difference

between being lonely

and being alone.

If you can't spend time

alone with yourself,

why should anybody else?

You can't look back

 

The Box of Forgotten Words

In my attic

there is a box

filled with bad poetry .

cliche heavy love poems

written only to get laid.

and unfinished stories.

stillborn or

never developed completely,

Like the experiments

on the island of Dr. Moreau

There are things in there

that must never get loose.

These things must remain

in the box of forgotten words

Suicide

Looking at the sunset

after hearing the news,

A light that burned so bright

amid the turmoil of the dark.

Never what she wanted to be,

or what she could have been

Finally free of the pain

of being simply mortal,

Proof that money

can't buy happiness.