A Time And A Place

There is a time when you need to be
Returning, repentant and still,
For times were when you went cold like the sea
And drowned everything in a swill.

There is a place where you need to be
To fix all the damage you'd done
To bodies and minds and hearts couldn't see
Impaired by the blindness of fun.

The time here is now, the place now is here,
It's all you have got, and yourself to fear.

Letting Go To Hold On

You lay upon that ledge of death and grabbed
My hand, I begged you not to let it go,
But saw the razor edge of breath that stabbed
And thus released your fettered soul. I know
I was a fool, distracted by a cloud
That wept above your ledge to frame this scene
In hills of sorrow, graying, heavy browed
Through winds of comfort blowing in between.
But now I understand my fall was best
Toward this grand abyss of life, was shown
You earned your lofty ledge of death, so rest;
And I shall climb to one that is my own.
I see now that the tears of that cloud
Were rains of mercy we were both allowed.

Under The Influence

We can designate a driver
If we know we're going to speed
In the clutches of a spirit
Or the overdrive of weed,
But there is an old intoxicant
The heart can feed the brain
That can taint our blood without a trace
And make us go insane.
And the only way to keep that drug
From getting in our veins
Is to bring respect, humanity
And patience to our lanes.
Anger injures, anger maims,
Anger kills, anger burns
Like a coal from hell behind the wheel
Negotiating turns.

You say no to drugs, to alcohol
And even shun your phone
As you rev up all four thousand pounds
Of metal that you own.

Now it's time we take a pledge,
Bring our decency along,
Show some spine and wage restraint
Against the influences strong
Of the deadliest impulses
That can ornament the wrong.
Let's not cast the melody of life

Into a funeral song,
But defuse this bomb, locate those wires

And cut them off at seethe,

To return where life begins, and learn
To breathe. And let breathe.

Swiping Away My Tears

I have no tears left to shed for you,

No sympathetic words slide off my tongue,

The salty streams of sympathy you're due

Evaporate on Yusuf's setting sun

Upon which I recline in heedless glee

And never long for water once, so tell

Me how a heart as drunk as mine may see

The sorrow in a face that's been to hell.

It is ironic when my heart inclines 

Toward you in a stand-up comic's pokes,

And that if all my empathy defines,

Do understand: it's hard to weep at jokes.

I have no tears left to shed for you;

For now, a mastercard will have to do.