Home Town

I build bridges
to burn them down
Pennsylvania Dutch country
isn't all rolling hills
corn fields
cow pastures
it's also an escape from
City streets
and what seems like endless
travel
We take pictures of old barns
and I regress in to old feelings
like your name still tattooed on my soul
is mine still inked on yours

South Central Penn

Quiet little towns
Round a bouts in the square
Corn growing in rows
Tight two lane roads
Twisting turning
Racing over rounded hilltops
I smile at that burnt memory
We pass groups of cows
Praying for rain to wash down the cud
I see roads of youth
You smile at my countryside

Sun Burn Sanity

I see brittle bones broken
Bones used to fly
Tones of Texas oil tycoons
Ten gallon hats
Six shooters
We try that flight path
I can't cactus
Buffalo
Your black gold
Bought you squeeky clean souls
I sidewind like that
Sand bound serpent
Praying for prey

Globe Trotting

You say rainbow
I say green grass
We laugh and fall
Rolling down summer hill
Tumbling like Jack and Jill
And we all sing ahh ahh
You love my brain
And I love your love
And we all sing I don't give a damn
We all sing to new starts
To new stories
To plans in plans
And to escaping emotional scams

Prominence

We wake early and claim
the rising sun as our own
Illy wants to see the city
the way I do on my dawn walks
She puts her delicate hand in mine
and we leave the brownstone for
the city street
watching others hurry to catch buses
and subway trains
bustling in and out with cups
of bitter coffee
She wants to see the world that I see
to paint with my eyes
I kiss her cheek while we wait
for the signal
to push our way across Broad St.
I show her the rats running
their races
She wants to understand me
she believes in me
We sit in the park and she
sketches
birds in trees
a city morning like none I've ever known

Ship Wreck / Island Life

I see out at sea
Atlantic Ocean
Your ship is going down
flames creeping up the mast
too far for me to swim out
to save you
you waited to long to come home
drifted from my shore
I've lost you to the sea
lost you to rock and roll
lost you to my old age
we can dream different futures
and lead separate lives
two islands in the sea

Post-It Poem

Brain burns weird fantasies
burns them off like fog
burnt off by the new dawn
Caffeine makes B12 race
faster to my brain
race faster like a high speed
police pursuit
Running out of road
running out of room
this comes to an abrupt
stop

Wired Weird

I am a cyclone
a whirlwind
a twister
sweeping people up into my life
chaos
taking them along for the ride
roller coaster bumper cars
then inevitably some flying debris
cracks a skull
or puts out an eye
breaks a heart
and I drop them on a schoolhouse
rock
and whirl
spin
run away
to the next
carving trails
rearming arrows
writing steamrollers on brick walls

You Can Hardly Stand It

Late spring laughter
sprinkles through the park
we walk beneath green leaf canopies
and talk future plans
we talk childhood dreams
we talk Pennsylvanian folklore
I am German completely in my blood
She is Russian and headstrong
laughter
there are some places here that
make you forget the city
is surrounding you
We laugh outdoors and
talk about future lives
the paths that brought us together
forever entwined now
by a little growing life
spending days covered in books
typing out words
collecting memories
to push
other
memories out of my head
late spring laughter
we run for cover
from an early evening rain storm

Can You Say

The sunlight pokes its way
between the cracks in my eyelashes
I uncurl her sleeping form from mine
and stand there in the morning light
to look at her
She is epic
the type of woman that men write songs about
or sell their souls to the devil for
for some reason she chose me
I stand there in awe
her eyes flutter open
and she locks my gaze
she smiles and stretches
funny the path life puts before us
the places it goes
and how second best can sometimes
be all you need

Midas Touch

The world is upside down
This year has so far been
riddled with disasters
natural and man made
outbreaks of infection
random
destruction
but in the middle of a
world falling down
My life has taken off
good news following good news
chances at success
a new purpose handed to me
So now everything shines
streets seem more inviting
cars sparkle in the sun
my walks along these city landscapes
have a new meaning
I grip my pen a little tighter
as I meditate on change

3:45 PM Daydream

Fire engine and rocket red
I dream a dream
In my well made bed
So why the fuck can't
I get you out of my head
Or stop hearing those
Words I wish you'd said

Wishes Do Come True

Through the roof
Knowing that in a few months
I will hold a tiny life
In my arms
A life I helped create
Whose blood will be my blood
Whose genes will be my genes
A life I will be responsible for
A little mind to guide and grow
A new purpose for me
Through the roof
Knowing
My life is a little more complete

Random 87

You are the air beneath
the wings of a monster
a vacuum sucking the last breath from
dying peoples lungs
I am Superman
or another random costume super hero
here to save the day
but shun the glory and hide
beneath my secret identity
priding ourselves with our minds
locked in a battle of wits
blow for blow I see pieces of me
and bits of you fall away
scattered like dust
I am the Sun on a warm spring morning
you are the dew that soaks my feet

Leaving Los Angeles

The first class flight attendant
(She corrected me when I called her stewardess)
tends to the every need
of the man in front of me
Flying into the Sun
East
Illy sleeps with her head
on my shoulder
I scribble in this book
and try to flesh out
more
of a story I am writing
Across the aisle Danny laughs
at a magazine article and points a picture out to Tom
I look out a reinforced window
at a land of clouds and blue sky
the domain of birds
If only we could sprout wings
I think
If only we could fly
The flight attendant brings me
a martini with two olives
I kiss Illy's forehead
she sighs and nestles her head deeper
into the crook of my neck
A new future before me now
new plans
opportunity knocking at my door
rap rap rap
time to answer the call
Philadelphia I'm coming home

Hot As Hell

The desert is a dusty beast
It groans and shifts its dusty back
I am the deadliest weapon in the world
armed with words
I slice and dice
drill holes in the center of the moon
defy gravity
wage war with Angels
plant thermonuclear devices in
my poetry
to blow your mind sky high
sinking suns into each other
I laugh at the aftermath
standing on a dune
looking at an oasis
we all slide to the center