The Writer's Garden

Greek Chorus Line

2026-11-06T16:44:48.604-05:00

A Greek chorus line

puppets dance can-cans

bloomer showing skirts

high-kicking with fans

Follies in burlesque

grinding fine the grain

underneath red mill

Moulin Rouge refrain

where music is hot

dancers are stone dead

called for another to

the queen off her head

tragedies wailing

upon the trombone

Jazz funeral mass

Daddy, take it home

take us all back to

homeland security

behind picket fences

for our pickle tea

wanna lay me down

beside Zuiderzee

hemlock needle fleece

cocooned around me

no more I love yous

sacchrine sweet nothings

quicksand promises

attached with no strings

oh give me that home

so long longed for

beyond welcome sign

inside the slammed door

won't you dream weave me

back to my Omi

Plenty-scented table

with a seat for me

her hobbit windmill

wafts Boston brown bread

cedar closeted

with a trundle bed

I don't want to dance

cake walks to the grave

ceaseless requiem

beneath undertow wave

let's ride the Time Warp

in three quarter time

dance monkey sock hop

to a lake dune rhyme

Pink Rain Boot Cinderella

2026-11-06T13:01:18.885-05:00

Wind like paperboy

walking past cemetery

whistles through its teeth

in minor flats off key

quicksilver raindrops

embracing gently

coming down in chains

of chased filigree

a Greek chorus-line

tragedy to sing

to thunder reverb

and zig-zag lightning

Jackson Pollock storm

spatter works of art

using tree debris

for balloon and dart

nature decoupage

wet leaf applique

red, orange, yellow

deciduous bouquet

Typewriter hailstones

fusillade pelting

a shooting gallery

BBs ricocheting

Rattle clacking refuse

playing pick-up sticks

on wrought iron bars

rat-a-tat of clicks

ornate lioned gate

along the sidewalk

decorated in

child's scrawls of chalk

fencing in ruins

decayed yesterday

no one to scold us

they've all gone away

in peum-peum zwings

ring Seussian knells

with the big brass band

on Jing-Tingler bells

in wet through gym shoes

surprised by the rain

never mind the weather

come and play again

This time won't forget

I'll bring the umbrella

to shelter my pink

rain boot Cinderella

don't wait for another

snap up every chance

reach out with both hands

May I have this dance?

waltz like there' no tomorrow

for it may never be

hop the dragon boat

down to Honeah Lee

let us like the storm

enjoy our heyday

far too quickly we

too shall pass away

So come rack and ruin

come the mourning bell

with elements laughing

in child joy we dwell

to all my dear grandchildren Silas, Moses, Lola, Lucian, Henry, Milo, Juno, Ezra, Emmett, Remus, Flora, Maxie and Cash, who don't mind soggy shoes and rain on their face. Dance like there's no tomorrow. Love Omi

Sing a Sangfroid Lullaby

2026-11-05T23:35:09.000-05:00

It's crying out today

Won't you pretty please play?

in mercury rain

of glittering gray

I tell the children

mum won't go away

dad's not gone for good

they'll come back to stay

where did I find this

sangfroid surety

for mine always left

Lonely little me

My chicks deserve peace

so I do not tell

all my longings cast

in a wishing well

laughingly we play

in quicksilver gloam

then tuck you up tight

safe within your home

a purple blanket

woven of twilight

God rest you, dearest

in the balm of night

then comes the goddess

from the land of dawn

sending sun to bed

as stars stretch and yawn

celestial sailor

ferries you to sleep

dropping dream petals

velvet slumber keep

wakens as she goes

lemon cheesecake moon

I will hover near

with the dish and spoon

then cutlery and I

will hum a wee tune

cat sings lullaby

his meowry croon

when all is settled

in kitten curled nest

only then will I

close my eyes to rest

with dusky mist whisps

then I shall wrap me

cuddle closeted

in cedar mem'ry

with love to the cedar closet in the den of the grama-grampa house on Crestwood Lane.

My Poem, My Rules

2026-11-05T22:33:46.000-05:00

name and claim said the preacher man

more holy-speak I didn't understand

doubt he'd hear what I could naming claim

ever the foreign tongued from alien land

but yanno, having said all that

I'll name what I was afraid to see

comprehension wasn't my problem

and what's wrong with church wasn't me

(like I always thought it was)

here's some honesty, long overdue

no more cantors staking their claim

This is my poem and my rules

I'll be the judge of what I name

Are we clear upon all that

on with truth, moving right along

secret handshakes and passwords don't prove

That to some exclusive club you belong

why can't you just spell it out

why the mysterious babbling

The Bible doesn't stutter

We shouldn't need a decoder ring

gaslighting insinuations

some vague thing we're failing to claim

Sinners scalded and finger-pointed out

in weekly round of blame-shame-game

lecturing on what we already do

knowing nothing of our backstory

instead of meeting us where we are

we are co-opted to fit the homily

recklessly reburning our old scars

no thought of how the words cut

rigid pompous self-assured

sucker punch in a bruised gut

tempted to temper these thoughts of mine

with smoothing and soothing I always do

but no amount of sweet paraphrasing

soothes my suffering in the pew

my truth isn't as simple as

the confession of sin

it's about my antecedents'

visited on me time and again

what if I took him up on the chance

my big reveal at the altar call?

wouldn't that raise a few eyebrows

exposing dirty secrets in parent tell-all?

I'm too old now but always knew

that if ever my soul I did bare

if their deeds were made known

doubt anyone at all would care

church is about wearing nice hats

arriving on time and filling up pews

pretending your friends never hurt you

bowing, kneeling and praying on cues

always wrong, never getting it right

bleeding inside while nodding amen

confessing sin you don't even know

auto-flagellating yourself again

boggle bewildered unreachable pain

feeling you're wrong but not knowing how

doing penance like they said I should

no peace of mind then and surely not now

nightmare chasing me all day long

nothing made sense in the bible-i-verse

fraud shame bites like a rabid dog

dogged compliance just made it worse

So that's my truth to name and claim

probably not what he wanted to know

if unburdening it will save my soul

why does grief stalk wherever I go?

if confessing was all I needed to do

am there and do that eternally

don't even require an apology

just a friend to hold space for me.

Wild Iron Horse on the Inner City Plains

2026-11-01T20:32:55.467-05:00

cuttings and mutterings

where railroads roam free

the steam whistle hisses

a boxcar homily

oh give me a home

where friendly caboose

on an urban prairie

run free range and loose

industrial wilderness

trams and passenger trains

wild iron horse herds

graze inner city plains

Wall Street hobos with

newspaper three-piece suits

queue for trains in their

hatchet-man jackboots

sharing a compartment

with wooly old lady

clacking knitting needles

jonesing for her tea

through branch line jungles

past black and white days

embroidering woodland

railing unrambled ways

locomotive shelters

our frozen station wait

leading us back home

through poppy garden gate

Between Chilkat and Chilkoot

2026-11-01T19:11:37.331-05:00

Alaska boat docks

like big people did

in imagination

fished the little kid

boatmen on the wharf

cleaning the night's haul

I fashioned family

of nothing at all

pretending with a

twig pole and barnacle

down upon the bay

my tabernacle

barnacles so named

removal attempts fail

I ditched fishing

made pole into sail

then clacking my stick

when litter boat drowned

frightening the fish

with annoying sound

makes no sense to me

to the men I said

how could I scare them

they're already dead!

(they just wagged their heads and gestured something in Tlingit that looked like "crazy kid.")

admiring their catch

bright sockeye salmon

day-glo red grapefruit

with quicksilver skin

busy working folk

no children around

they couldn't play at

treacherous playground

fish gut slippery planks

steep and stinky too

where else to play when

no one cared or knew

absent parents shoo

6 y/o alone to play

to work at nothing

each went their own way

They said God said to

convert the heathens

many moon miles away

no one told the Indians

no pews nor pulpit

church to missionary

my grandparents warned

it was all imaginary

I guess they expected

God would just provide

when that didn't happen

they changed tune and lied

Now I was burden

plus some arm candy

having a small kid

came in quite handy

they said God absolved

their responsibility

took full advantage of

native hospitality

God-willed vacation

kick back and relax

work was for others

I fell through the cracks

in town with no home

from flophouses to tents

strange place where strangers

worried more than parents

Her homemade heaven

in stumps and acorns

saw a roll top desk

with moss she adorns

driftwood drifter combs

pebble shell beach sand

finds longed-for comfort

like grandfather's hand

where were the people?

why so far from home?

just flotsam for friends

Where Too-Young did roam?

best and worst childhood

live somewhere between

Chilkoot and Chillkat

mountain lake serene

Play recordings in reverse

2026-10-30T14:27:21.725-04:00

ballerina twists on

jewel box coil springs

stuck fast by her foot

in chokers and rings

I'm not a dancer

nor puppet on string

I'm an extant being

not an underling

read revelation

to find Genesis

take yellow brick road

for Oz Exodus

just a balloon ride

back to Auntie Em

smiling in Kansas

floating over them

stop tilt-a-whirling

roundabout express

follow the red flags

to make your egress

exit shame cycle

play record in reverse

hearing new message

in upside down verse

dance different tune

slow waltzing revolve

backward on dance floor

spiral to resolve

Where the Insane find Asylum

2026-10-28T16:18:28.305-04:00

A funny little fellow

El Chupacabra

some say he's macabre

I see a candelabra

playing word shell games

showing sides we've never seen

like Beauty and the Beast

Frights become a figurine

drawing fear in caricature

how lovely that would be

paint by number devils

shrunk dimensionality

Proposing a toast, I raise

a glass of Frivoli-Tea

in champagne bubble fizz

our horrors float out to sea

Shall I begin with mine?

imagine a demon dance

now pull the puppet strings

and watch them lose their pants

that's how we do it, folks

in the nightmare parade

just keep on lampooning

till your terror starts to fade.

Now it's your turn to pick

your phobia to minimize

color him panto and watch

him dissolve before your eyes

Blessings from the Hoo Hoo Hotel where all us insane find asylum.

Worshipper at the Ego Altar

2026-10-28T15:18:57.086-04:00

softly, softly the child knelt

secondhand coat and used shoes

ever the repentant

in those hard wooden pews

tear-jerked remorse

wept the girl with no name

dutifully answering

when the altar call came

a shiny pulpit man

denounced wages of sin

in his fancy blue suit

beats his Bible again

so I trembled in fear

at his angry homily

and the vengeful God

with little use for me

yet first finger pointing

all wicked folk do

seems you forgot, friend

four point back to you

the church blame shame game

played the fool so well

their preach without practice

the no show only tell

What happened to Jesus?

in this gospel you teach

reserving for yourself

what you place out of reach

The inn is still filled

at the Entitlement Arms

you think God's fooled by

your snake oil and charms?

Just admit you've no room

in your high ground above

you withhold while claiming

all his mercy and love

but the girl still worships

at your ego altar

absorbing your shame

that you heap upon her

betrayal blindness kept

this trauma bonded slave

no amount of contrition

can the tied soul save

so confessing is moot

don't know wrong from right

if I'm ever a sinner

then I can't see the light

Face First in the Schnauzer's Dish

2026-10-27T14:28:56.000-04:00

Once upon a wasted on

Bacardi Dark and Dry

woke up in Schnauzer's dish

with kibble bits in my eye

sounds like the punchline

of many cruel jokes

it's my awkward truth

being honest here, folks

alternative was friend's bed

my creepy ex crawled in

no idea what happened

that's the way of rum and gin

odd juxtaposition

boozing church youth group event

paradoxical context

but that's how back then went

recession depression

nothing to do, be or go

useless cornfield burnout

not even wild oats to sow

oh the morning rumpus

when they came down to dine

welcome sign reversed to me

self-respect in tatters mine

yes the floor was safer

place to lay my head

where were pointing fingers

when my ex snuck into bed?

and this was not my norm

excelling on half a chance

pressured to be perfect

despite crap circumstance

why did church folk ignore

neglectful parents' abuse

Kicked out, homeless at 16?

so who bought us the booze?

why did no one mention

they were all wasted too

I had nowhere to go

so what's a girl to do?

that was then, this is now

oceans and eons between

can't ever understand

the crazy never seen

from a moral high horse

it's easy to cast blame

yet without vantage point

you might do just the same.

lacking hindsight vision

how to translate to you

you just had to be there

it was all we all knew

I'd seen a lot by then

Black to Shambala light

but what the hell, said I

cooped up in rural blight

so judge me if you wish

her dog and parents sure did

but careful what you wish on

this explanation defiant kid

pathetic metaphor

How often dog's dish found me

faceplanted by family

unjust poetic irony

Yanked pillory to post

Whizzing through the roundabout

like a shame-drunk sailor

puking up guilt and self-doubt

so maybe just for once

my drunk fail was a choice

bitching out reality

hella way to find your voice

Melodrama Drag Queen

2026-10-24T17:16:42.000-04:00

trauma shame triggered

how are you today?

one simple question

don't know what to say

answer honestly?

how dare you admit

way too sensitive

just get over it

don't be Deb downer

Melodrama drag queen

zip your pain up tight

don't be heard or seen

no one wants your truth

just convenient lie

wannabe preacher

sneers "but did you die?"

arrogant posturing

what did I expect?

demand but didn't

earn or give respect

you sermonize me

of minimizing

You're a fine one to preach

the Exaggerate King

you wanna talk courage?

bravely telling truth

I've died little deaths

daily since my youth

bled in many ways

by a 1000 cuts

honest conversation?

doubt you have the guts

we don't say, do we

how the killer was you

snuffing out my light

with darkness you do

all you did was moan

finger pointing blame

in your "Woe is Me"

pity party game

that's how you distract

notice from your harm

be attention's center

keep that spotlight warm

same weary tune sung

about and by you

ignore what you did

as you always do

you envy sunshine

but your fake's outshown

seen clearly behind

the red flags you've flown

where does that leave me?

proverbial free bird

no longer encaged

or haven't you heard?

singing she exited

the gilded wire door

four words opened it

"I don't care anymore."

shout all you want

holler, cry or swoon

have fits of vapors

howl at the blue moon

I am gone, said she.

as she flew away

I've found my voice

I shall sing today.

Love bomb Limerence

2026-10-22T09:36:32.320-04:00

love bomb limerence

vicious circle game

devalued discard

always ends the same

around mulberry bush

Pocketful of pox

looping rosy ring

puppet in the box

coiled up so tight

crumpled under lid

tensed for button push

blind, deaf, mute and hid

stored untreasured

animation suspends

kept frozen on ice

bad case of the bends

in love or obsessed?

self-imposed deity

longing to belong

no reciprocity

you were the cat's paw

they stole what you earned

all the hot chestnuts

while you got burned

you were just the bait

dangling on a hook

gone a cat-phishing

drowning in the brook

my advice to you

choose yourself today

get the hell out of Dodge

run to, not away

The tie that binds is

trauma bonded knit

crocheted to keep you

mummified in it

swim out of the net

to see more clearly

in rear view mirror

cardboard family

high tail out of there

without backward glance

find your own meow

while you got a chance

Ragtime Ranthem

2026-10-20T16:29:02.059-04:00

insane pain, brain drain

Solipsist Soliloquy

their ragtime ranthem

serio-tragi-comedy

parents born under

the narcissist sign

trauma Zodiac

bespoke abuse mine

scar tissue face from

arrogant acid spray

my gas mask taken

and given away

must rescue others

while they watch me drown

bite my bleeding tongue

choking the tears down

deafening silence

after slamming door

can find my way out

but can't breathe anymore

how to wash them out

of my broken mind

like blood-stained dress

no cleansing I find

I cry to heaven

operator please

give me comforting

balm for my soul's ease

if my cry falls on

more hard-hearted ears

I'll run to lake's rest

where all sorrow clears

Liquid Platinum and Lightning Lake

2026-10-17T23:54:51.479-04:00

gold dune sand blowout

inscribed with staircase

resting on log bench

pausing frantic chase

wind biting down but

in a friendly way

like my two lap cats

nipping just to play

autumn forest shades

juicy apple red

lemon mandarin

in plum wine is wed

pebble jeweled sands

winking at themselves

precious treasure trove

for gem mining elves

upon monkey bars

climbs the lake-eyed boy

up and down he goes

in self-contained joy

comes the hurried wave

lunging at the beach

then running away

always out of reach

ever moody lake

with too much to do

were it me, I'd be

tempestuous too

sun upon the seas

casts her fractal rays

liquid platinum

lightning color days

big lake dwells within

every little stone

with a piece of beach

you're never alone

here's a pretty one

I found yesterday

I shall treasure this

liquid platinum day

Swing like you're five and it's your birthday!

2026-10-17T22:49:17.298-04:00

little girl in pink posy dress

small shoes on the wrong feet

in crooked birthday girl badge

she is so unutterably sweet

I bought the dress for the child

with eyes the color of Lake Michigan

wears it now to make me smile

and I have fallen in love again

"Omi come play!" she shouts to me

less an invite more a command

which I shall never disobey

holding chipped nail polish hand

the pink cupcake frosting grin

lasts as long scattered crumbs

as elder Omi knows that when

a thing called "big" she becomes

but for now, let's just enjoy

much delight in sticky face

for grownup comes all too soon

let's inhabit this time and place

Dragging feet in primordial sand

we swing together companionably

while brother and cousins clamber about

my primrose haired maiden and me

She asks of great Omi and Opi

who walked with me on the same beach

I try to show them as I saw back then

when I had them safe within my reach

My liminal spaces danced through time

Colossus straddling them and me

connect the dot posterity

empty and overflowing memory

each moment fluid and frozen

unholdable as the child's shadow

wind guttering birthday candles

gone before I even saw it go

I dwell too much in endings

I want to snatch and clutch

and hold back the passages

of children and waves and such

it's trite yet true nonetheless

nothing lasts forever, the old folks say

people grow up and then go away

but that's too much adult today

Carpe diem, enjoy while you can

live in middles, seize the day

but even while I'm swinging high

I feel it inexorably slipping away

like post-partum with CPTSD

trauma screams in nightmares nightly

I can't ever let it go for

it holds me ever so tightly

How can I just make my peace

with all that I'll never understand

that in the midst of this life

falls the relentless hourglass sand

I think this poem is about

when to cling and when to free

how and when and what to hold

learning how to let it be

I can hold space for mine

though I can't hold back time

for the children on the swing

and the rambling kids who climb

May you always swing like you're five, my golden girl. Love from Omi now the Omis back then.

Choking on exhaust from funeral hearse

2026-10-16T21:53:56.438-04:00

iron burn irony

could always be worse

choking on exhaust

from funeral hearse

sad predicament

should I say or go

choice was luxury

I was not to know

leave but never go

speaking with no say

adulting as a kid

giving them their way

So I find myself

word searching today

no way to express

no clue what to say

I can only write

by trauma gaslight

spelling out in scars

have you got a light?

souls remember

every nasty word

that the ear was told

it had never heard

alive yet deadened

to all but the pain

baffled litany

from the circus train

rise above and beyond

Forgive and forget

be the bigger person

just get over it

but I ain't a god

ain't even much good

I can not unhear

as they said I should

I can't get over

I can't see the top

nor just let it go

too heavy to drop

If I go around

I'll simply revolve

ending on start space

and what will that solve?

can't tunnel under

it's buried in sand

when i tried to dig

I busted up my hand

what's too deep for depth

neither short nor tall

full and yet empty

too big to be small?

could fall over it

and you can fall in

you might drown in it

though nothing's within

translate this riddle

If you'd know my plight

untying one knot just

knots others too tight

I am back to front

inside wrong-side out

twist pretzel puzzled

with too much self-doubt

So I keep versing

what I can't explain

anything to help me

break this ball and chain

Riddle answer: A hole. And also childhood trauma. Both of which are where I find myself much of the time.

From me to her and back again

2026-10-15T16:46:59.859-04:00

Writing love letters

to her who was when

little girl replies

to now me, again

Dear child, I'm sending

x's and o's back then

addressed to your fort

in dune hemlock glen

I receive a note

from long ago miss

kid scrawl envelope

sealed with a kiss

wintergreen ink on

berry stained fingers

mint scented memory

in cortex lingers

I wish I could go

back in reality

to beach combing me

by Michigan's sea

what's real anyway?

and what's memory?

is it something to sip

like Insani-Tea?

bespoke misery?

I'll pass on that drink

already drunk on

gin and printer's ink

Let's dwell for a time

in warm mica sand

my far away child

will you hold my hand?

we'll jot our love notes

along the lakeshore

in backward glance through

the wide open door

Dredging dirges rung by the reckoning bell

2026-10-15T15:45:21.365-04:00

quilling in reverse

of deep septic pain

handdrawn scars tattooed

with indelible stain

there's an ache droning

like a killer bee

igno-ranting insults

drilling deep in me

be careful passing

judgement on my verse

if you think that's bad

my real life was worse

no lowest low in

my trauma bleed brain

spelling out spook house

just might find me sane

so I'll keep taking

bucket to the well

dredging dirges rung

by reckoning bell

putrid and ugly

no sheltering womb

tailor made fright night

colder than a tomb

so buckle up if

you're riding along

no happy lyrics

to requiem song

loud and discordant

keened harshly off key

got to keep screaming

to find harmony

thank you for holding

space and time with me

carrying the banner

in solidarity

With love from young me to now me.

Going where only Amygdala knows

2026-10-13T15:29:40.746-04:00

the girl then recalled

parents looming large

quietly sinister

corrosively in charge

clown parade balloons

high on pride's LSD

punch drunk delusions

of Grandiosi-Tea

sarcasm IV drips

from mean emojis

garish caricatures

impossible to please

love was a blanket

held out then yanked away

knit to bind not warm

cat with mouse did play

never any words

explain way back when

no exit out of

her misery then

and then is still now

a spiraling she goes

blinded by betrayal

only Amygdala knows

I'd love to pen a

hopeful word or two

yet pie crust promises

simply will not do

airy and airless

broken by a breeze

pointless platitude

said with careless ease

bandaged over bleed

just to stem the flow

of mother nature tears

wound dressed just for show

feather pen laments

reticulating pain

drawing scars as flowers

in healing refrain

no other way out

must pick up my pen

no more to do but

verse and verse again

Call off my black dog

2026-10-12T23:39:34.293-04:00

wind chiming vespers

angelic melody

composed by the breeze

four part harmony

innocent or evil

it sounds of coffin bells

terrifying tinkling

buried alive foretells

for my soul wonders

by much darkness known

is devil percussion

calling to its own?

when I found the switch

on technicolor TV

I saw what I missed

in black and white naivete

It made me question

all I ever thought

all their fabricated

nonsense that I bought

trust wears a double edge

with deadly overbite

if given too freely

to them with no right

mercy and respect

likewise cut two ways

didn't understand that

in my gaslit haze

I've been driven mad

angry and insane

by demon tinnitus

hammering my brain

in my mind's mire

dwells snarling hell hound

baying for my blood

invisibly all around

call off my black dog

I cried in choking yelp

to Boadicea

from whence cometh help

the raison d'etre

why I clack this rhyme

hope avenging angel

makes it here on time

thus explains wind chimes

ringing Morse CQD

alerting goddess to

child drifting out to sea

sewer water muck

murky memory

flotsam and jetsam

rank polluted sea

not my mother lake

named Michigan

nor Elysian fields

I go to again

the lake is my friend

yet I've dates to keep

miles to go before

I lay me down to sleep

and regardless if

the lake's friend or foe

I've much to do 'ere

to dark night I go

I think perhaps that might be salvation in itself. Reading the celestial GPS and seeing my destiny or calling written in the stars.

Amen.

Saffron in the Town of Brown

2026-10-10T20:16:20.000-04:00

In a youthful oasis

we once played a game

gave each other a color

friends with forgotten name

Singapore Sunset Saffron

was a shade assigned to me

once upon a way back

in sweet land of poverty

tempest washed up and

foundered flotsam me

just miles yet worlds from

my dear driftwood sea

nothing much to do but

loiter by the liquor store

nowhere nothing wasteland

too far from the lakeshore

ghosted empty windows

where hope died on trees

framed in asphalt cracks

live amnesiac memories

I see it always fall

all dead leaf hues of brown

no spring green nor autumn red

the graveyard called our town

not a city nor village

just the isolated farm

too close for comfort

too apart to keep warm

no employers employ

never any claim to fame

built to be abandoned

with already extinct name

I tried to share my saffron

pink and purple twilight

Singapore sunset-ness

Outshone by rural blight

don't get me wrong, I

got bleaker shades too

peach bellini cocktails

with chaser black and blue

the brown was not in them

who in decaying dwelt

just their misfortune

got a shitty hand dealt

I strove to assimilate

with denizens of the daze

but I'm ever outlander

unfamiliar with their ways

bouncing in and out again

ping-ponged post to pillory

the transient can kicked

down homeless soliloquy

so inevitably

my rolled stone rolled on

leaving no moss behind

to mar the brown landscape

with golden evergreen mind

Trauma Bond Seance

2026-10-08T14:16:03.304-04:00

trauma bond seance

summoning the dead

nightly roll call ritual

with all its black dread

you thought this dirge was

just for Halloween

but it's real recall

of horror I've seen

I grant you it fits

the funereal theme

my zombie led life

quite the spooky meme

I don't choose to go

down their road to hell

it's me been summoned

by their mourning bell

deatheaters' drink

doom beyond the pale

while we toast the joy

mine's a pint of ale

can I please go back

to moonlit fairy tea

with Raggedy Ann

Andy boy and me?

back to the garden

and the printers ink

I'm sick of drowning

spiraling down the sink

back to the post light

Narnian reverie

snowy dune woodland

steam train odyssey

let's get this over

let's walk by the lake

sitting shiva nights

no seance but a wake

Beer Tent Revival

2026-10-05T19:54:15.026-04:00

sweet saintly church hymns

hurting in my head

whisky sour melody

on hypocrisy fed

paradox puzzle

swimmer's ear pain

oxymoron blonde

logically insane

little shrimp spiral

down his paisley tie

Fibonacci fugue

I did prophesy

when dicing with death

watch for sneak attack

what you shit on me

bites your anus, Jack

never thought I'd say

did you, daddy dear

what had to be said

you needed to hear

Such a good punter

buying lies they sold

Till I was bankrupt

now my soul's grown cold

Sick of pew filling

preacher talks the talk

gospel double speak

while I walk the walk

you the Messiah

who can't even crawl

beer tent revival

hucksters lead them all

cheap sham theatrics

the quack charlatan

no revelation, just

a Bible salesman

peddling religion

from wagon you do

promising healing in

snake oil and voodoo

spare me your twisted

punch drunk politics

blind evangelism

half-baked lunatics

get out of my dessert

you don't belong here

this is for mothers

and fathers held dear

If that's blasphemy

then I'll take that chance

do-si-do along

time for me to dance

now I'm spitting out

doom you drank on me

pass the Listerine

to flush Insani-Tea

life's a conch shell

and color in the lines

Bubble Gum Pink Soap

2026-09-30T01:20:56.772-04:00

the bubble gum soap

to scrub printer's ink

in the press washroom

with the granite sink

soap of neon pink

cleanses grime away

who will whiten my

black and blues today?

soul's donkey gray

darker shade of pain

written big and bold

in indelible stain

This Eeyore-ing rain

scoring grooves in faces

weeping down like salt

tales told in the traces

whittling deep and wide

subterranean lows

can't go much deeper

it's low as it goes

elevator mic drop

plummets through the floor

steam locomotive

gate crashes the door

amid the debris

the push pushes past

chokey smoke roiling

chaos halts at last

Notice I said halt

not stop, end nor ceased

slow-motion station

lulls the ceaseless beast

I wish for pink stuff

to wash him away

but this juggernaut

is with me to stay.

But that pink soap didn't work very well either, so I turn to my poems from whence comes some peace.

Lisping in way-back rhyme

2026-09-30T00:20:27.650-04:00

Dune of many steps

runs down to the lake

out to horizon

underneath the wake

chromatic scale hues

twinkle in the sand

fairy microcosm

I held in my hand

to find my true north

I look to my lake

spirituality

awoken, wide awake

Mandela spinning

slideshow carousel

at Formica table

known and loved so well

Here's an old photo

but it's new to me

a fat gawky kid

at home by the sea

silly weird haircut

where long tresses fell

sacrificed to a

god jealous as hell

look at the picture

pretend it's not me

examine closer

now what do I see

just a little girl

unposed candid peek

not photogenic

nor a circus freak

hard to unsee self

without eye of mind

past mental images

so cruel and unkind

I saw different

I saw inside out

Still can't envision

what I was about

wonder what she saw

squint-eyed in the sun

blinded by the night

that made the tears run

In elemental swim

building forts in sand

chatters to herself

in this long-ago land

two missing front teeth

jack-o-lantern smile

chubby cheek chipmunk,

lisp with me awhile?

natter with grandkids

but her I can't reach

funny little sand crab

playing on my beach

I could leave a note

scrawled along the lake

I should warn my girl

of pain and heartbreak

I'll leave her happy

stick writing in sand

grains of tomorrow

falling through her hand

my hand.