It does feel a bit odd
to see my name today.
I didn’t plan to notice
if they decided to put me away.
Not mine, in real time
A statement to be made.
But seeing it ahead of time,
leaves no moment to be
afraid.
Leavenworth National Cemetary
Leavenworth, KS
Memorial Day, 2013
No peace,
there never has been,
warm fuzzies, with fluff up my nose,
Making me sneeze, spitting it out.
Peace, an absence of anything
With meaning and disagreement,
What platitudes and nonsense,
to think a piece of peace
is peaceful.
So,
they are giving you an award,
for something you didn’t do.
Did you bother to point it out
that none of this was true?
I didn’t think so, since illusion
is often the easiest,
But the lack of truth will follow you…
because it lies above all the rest.
My words bump against walls
displacing what came before
raging into a new form,
discomfort imparted.
But a word is just a thought
in a form of comprehension
understanding not part of the deal.
Words against walls,
just like my back.
“In the End,
we will remember not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends.”
Martin Luther King Jr
“The beauty is that,
through disappointment,
you can gain clarity,
and with clarity
comes
conviction and true originality.”
Conan O’Brien
finding grace
Tilting away,
was it there on your face?
finding grace
wallowing in layers of sand
peaking in and out,
could I trace it on your hand?
finding grace
not knowing where to look
finding grace
answers easily mistook.
Plan B on board
plan A to be ignored.
Plan A stated for all
No Plan B ready for when we fall.
Plan A on record, only upon request.
Plan B never created when it might be best.
Plan A for the top dogs,
Plan C for the beleaguered
Plan D for the masses,
Final grade F.
traffic jam
of synapse collision
arms and legs out of synchronicity
every movement a strand
tangling with the next
to create a snarl
of a learning traffic jam
For a few weeks each year,
there is a pretend atmosphere.
Be generous, and be kind
This short time of giving
creates a falseness in the mind.
Just now for the boasting,
so that one can go a merry way.
“Look at me, what I did”
Appears to be the focus for this day.
Now,
If you can’t do it in routine,
why make big deal of it now?
Why act like every group cares
While those without continue to scrape and bow?
In the future
Do better for each and every day,
because most of it is simple
in allowing another to have a say.
(mom’s nativity set, painted in 1981, Topeka, KS)
A room full of kids
is not like being alone.
You should never think
that you have entered a privacy zone.
Just send the paper on.
That’s why I wrote it all down.
It is not my main concern whether you smile,
or… even if you frown.
A room full of kids,
often being bullied,
with adults playing a game of saving face.
A room full of kids,
Defines exactly what this plan will do,
in language parents can understand,
I believe should apply to you.
one ringy, dingy
two ringy, dingy
I’ll make a silly excuse for you.
One ringy, dingy
I hide behind my screen
so the two ringy, dingies
won’t have a thing to do.
There’s a time at the end of the day,
set aside for this superlative text.
But my ringy, dingy reason
should be accepted like all the rest?
“whatever”
said his math teacher,
when I wrote out my main concerns.
“Whatever”
she said to my child
as if his mother wasn’t worth the turn.
“Hurry up, I’ve got mommy duty,”
states the English teacher then.
What am I, chopped liver?
as they tuned out a child’s chance to win.
Wow, just Wow
my feelings numb, because I just don’t see the care.
As if anyone bothering with me
would only be on a dare.
I’ve learned that numbing over the years
to sheath my spirit in a drape
at home, at school
it’s all the same,
the rent in my heart
continues to gape.
No.
What part of that phrase
can you not understand?
No, I said, no.
You may not give a command.
I have given you reasons,
they are mine to be sure,
but no, just no,
is the action du jour.
Negate
If I negate what you say, I do not have to acknowledge that you have feelings or value.
I then take no responsibility to change the circumstances, when you might be powerless.
Negate.
