Rain drips through this canopy
Feeding my insanity locked within
My own head without want of others
Words, my mind bleeds thoughts

That repeat on an endless loop
Caught within my cranium of invention
That hides from attention I don't seek,
I'm blind to your appearance or appraisal

Who was I before I dreamt up all this
Madness or is that even true lost with
The unrelenting tide my head awash
With fear and endless torture

Just a bit of gratitude I need,
As love, to plant this awesome seed.
Never giving up on my gifts and dreams,
Under all or any worse extremes.
Alas these days are all too short,
Reality bites like it's a sport.
Yet, the future's yours to write.

If I were asked what would I miss,
if missing was to be,
I'd take the time to sit a while
with countless cups of tea.

I'd pull an extra saucer out,
another cup for you,
and we would linger on the porch
at least an hour or two.

Then we would rise to walk the lane
where berries greet the gate.
Perhaps we'd stop to gather them,
perhaps our stroll could wait.

While gazing at the endless sky,
I'd hear the sun suggest
that shadows dally over fields,
and Earth should pause to rest.

Analgesia

We reel them in with Ritalin,
(Big Pharma pockets the profit)
Prozac and Amphetamine –
it gets so hard to come off it.

Increasing dependency doses,
the playground exchange of bright sweets;
damned by a dual diagnosis,
the endless prescription repeats.

A bullet-proof vest to manage stress
is obligatory in these quarters:
it’s the weight you can’t get off your chest
when there are statins in the waters.

danielle is a weak sycophant
but to drumpf, an impertinent ant
by her separatous stunt
shes a traitorous cunt
or a punt yankee-doodlous plant

If I knew then what I know now
With the know-how of what’s what
And calm thoughts, no why nots
The road’s lowest lows and highest highs
Would be closed off with a bright sign
That reads ‘turn back, threats ahead
The gym’s there, go before bed!’
Well, I did what I did and paid the price
Hospital beds and sleepless nights.
From slums frequented to fun that’s rented,
Like the price I was high but then fell.
But the highs were a lie and although I survived
The fall below where I dwelled, is hell.

Aforementioned event interestingly enough
coincides with Martin Luther King Junior day.

The late reverend American minister and activist,
now and forever more immortalized in the promised land
despite his work among the living left incomplete,
this day eclipsed by commencement
of the forty seventh president of the United States.

The Gogetter
Was born on the twentieth
Of November 2024.
She took the name
For her poems
Because it gave her strength
And purpose.

Bruce gave her that name
In passing,
Only a small mention,
But it struck her
That he had hit on something.

It gave her
A sense of movement
And progress
And the knowledge
That she could get things done.

That name
Has become integral
In her healing
And what she does
In that process.

My first class destination was a dream come true
A chance to imagine how to make my life new

As the plane reaches its flying height
I began to slowly to relieve my fright

The special treatment my ticket will provide
Allows my mind to freely glide

My first class ticket was such a delight
A trip above the stars so bright

Beside me my loving wife
My permanent partner in life

Our anniversary trip so many miles away
Gives me time to think and pray

I ask her in the morning if she slept well,
as I almost always do, unless we fought
the night before. Then I am silent.

She lays waste to my anger
by offering me a cup of coffee
while we stand together in our back yard
on a mild summer morning.

I wonder without speaking,
if a pair of birds splashing in our fountain
might be a gesture of forgiveness too.