Sounds

I imagine
gray strands
when I'm feeling too young

tight asses
when feeling old

highs
to your lows
I proclaim

the joint manifesto
considers important
one
with due emphasis
undue

officially
to be
I declare

in a solemn
emphatic
final word

lean to the side
say something
a wry look
or smile none the more

emphasis with a following

success or failure apparently brought by chance
luck
that is

stolen
from screen
yes

wands and unicorns
could do no better
even if fucking hard
and serious

acquire defines like crap
but change it up to achieve
and you get
reach or attain by effort

when really
I think they are the same
and only differ in the viewer

I stand dead
as much as alive
and less so of both the more I waffle

which is only a vehicle for syrup
or if more minded
   a fail to make up one's mind
I say better to eat always
no matter

at all times
on all occasions
as a last resort
and evermore
never this

close at hand
being indicated
mentioned

a thick sweet liquid
often used
derived

I lay hold
a public declaration
but only whispered

a platform
I stand
strong
on the arms of termites that hold hands
to keep rotten wood whole

the many really can hold
the worm ridden truth
together and in force

when on its own
so little
and does even less good

I imagine gray strands
when I am feeling too young
and I toss my inexperience like salt
on this overdone meal

and yet since I am consistent
even when wrong
this salt seasons the unseasoned
into an edible bit
of life

tight
and loose
all at once
and forever more

night
day
good
yes

Sleep Sleep Away

Tired, but too busy
to ever really sleep sleep away.

Pretending and stacking
comfortable pillows
till it all but might as well be.

That is where I live
almost there but never
really in it.

Tired, but never caught
caught up in it
or caught up for it.

Like a spiral
that knows not where it started
or is going,

I circle,
never really repeating,
never that good at what I am
to say I'd seen this,
but always in view
of how little the progress has put between this
and that me.

Tired, but unlike rocks
no lack of legs
to blame,

just my skin
and the stuff within
fearing all out.

Why, why so many clouds
between me and my sun,
why.

Tired, I'll find rest
but still now wait
for the more
we all wait for,

the more that is until there isn't,
and the small hope someone
will tell stories of something
you've done
to set their start
out beyond yours.

Sleep
sleep away.

Before Regret

Smart and as careful as I am,
today, I am also too far
strung thin
to carry any respect for my own skin.
Let alone the feelings of others,
so I lean hard on my closed mouth
hoping to make sleep
before regret.

Lies

Tell me lies
they make me feel better
about the truth.

How rare it is,
like gold
or diamonds.

Something to hold
and wear out of the house,
proudly,
on rare occasions.

Tell me lies
there is so little
other good
to go 'round
now.

Call it fiction,
or whatever,
if lies cull the wrong smells
in your mind.

But tell me only
a few good things
and I won't ask
for any
supporting pictures,

just tell me good
tell me sweet good lies
sweet lies.

A Balance

for all my years,
young years and more,
I thought

thought long
and that all peace
was a balance,

and not just that,
but an equal balance
all rounded and well.

Not the this
that really holds the pots
and lids together today
and has always
kept with all their weight
in water
from boiling over.

Real quiet,
or maybe it is just waiting,
is now just taking some life over death
in favor of what should be.

that is what keeps the masses
from strangling each other
so long
as no anyone
cannot make everyone happy

so long as someone loses
is it better to hold
hold us down
by our throats so we never get the upper grasp
that we'd abuse all the same
if for nothing more than getting even

everywhere we free
so much payback flows forth
how far does the betrayal run
and could it all be solved by just a major acting out
or would we end all freedoms by letting all bonds fall

dreams are dreams
and always

realities are real
and always fall a bit short
but live themselves out

dreams seem at best
slowly woven in
despite all my pleasure
in making them

like the real balance
that holds boulders
tight to the sides of mountains

stability
over gravity
in all we are
is sadly all we sometimes
are

ready to fall
at any moment

Whole Worlds

whole worlds
live in my dirty toes
and I clean them out
every day I can remember

and I mean clear them out

the sun so rare
and I don't care
I know we are all trying
but sometimes it just comes across as so little
I can't even invent a complement

hands and paws just really are not
interchangeable

close enough to sometimes understand
in the way you can glimpse what might be the details
in dark fields and under trees at a great distance durring sunset
but all you really see is the amazing colors beyond

that is how little I can know
and how much awe I can have
at almost the same time

and that is how
how flawed we can all be
in the right wrong moment

Less Lost

All that
begins
is just
closer to death

Me here stalling
am immortal
dreams of so much yet to be
no realities of such and lost

I think we are all the hunt
or call it the search
or the becoming

but so many
once there, or worse once
far enough to see the next valley,
fall upon swords

knowing this is all the better it will be
all the better
it will
wills to be

So many days
from the dream
and so close
to the darkness at the end of the tunnel

Me here
I'll stay dreaming
little done
but less lost