Significant

My little puzzle
kills me
and barely makes the world blink

how's that for feeling significant

so much work to wake
and do the right thing
and then mean little

My puzzle
still baffling
so nearly complete
but sacrifice has drawn me away from the final conclusion

kept me alive perhaps
or do we not die with nothing left to do

Crumble

Small stones
rounded by floods
and countless changes in the currents

we crumble
from our first loss
to our last conquest

What sense
have I
of what it means
to have permanence
and of how little it matters
beyond each moment

When is the last time I was just watching the sky
just being and not trying to

killing creativity for a clean canvass
trying to find that inspiration
that only falls farther away
the more you know or try

Looking at stones in a river
and seeing time
wisdom and permanence
and not seeing that it just happened
through nothing more than a twist of earth
that made water run this way
rather than another

but also seeing that like the stones
I am worn
dulled
diluted
and consolidated
by a deluge all its own

Somewhere between the overstated
and unspoken
are the moments that allow me to live

Forever searching
hoping to turn over a new
sharp edge

What We Have Left

Give me the world
within.

Where the puppeteers
can't send strings.

Where paychecks aren't needed for the rent,
or heat,
or sustenance.

Where for moments
I can live long and free.

The imagination
that keeps souls alive
through the worst torture
and slow death that is us all now.

Give me the world
within.

The world two thirds through a good movie,
or song,
where nothing else is.

Give me these grains
no one can take,
or decide how I need spend.

Give me the awe that is not for sale.
Give the life found in first kisses.

The joy unexpected
found sometimes in just a walk around the block.

Where the power of the world order
can never come and stand over
and direct my next impulse.