Tag Archives: Chicago

Complicated Maneuvers

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There it is

Spilled my coffee again

In a rush

To make it out

Into the thin

Brittle cold air

Of a New York morning

I reset myself

I should give them some forewarning

Grab some paper towel

I’m already 10 minutes late

If the G is on time that is

My mind begins to race

Such a simple morning

Now turns into complicated maneuvers

I watch the bright white paper towels

Turn to a more rusted out brown

Take a sip of my coffee

Then set it down

In the trash and out the door

I hear the train horn

I run down the stairs

In the old turnstile

With the attendant half asleep

Make the train

Only by a couple of feet

Satisfied Corruption

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Satisfied corruption

Don’t take someones word

On automatic assumption

Humanity will rise and fall

Some will tell the truth

Others a false call

Will ring on every persons ears

The willing or unable

Confident or full of fear

It is this small eruption

Will ill will

Built in conjunction

When you are on the receiving end

Beaten down

Will and resilience must not bend

It will happen on a Monday

Or Today

Or any day

For the needs of the liar

Will surely set

Your belly on fire

Certain Quiet

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A Sunday morning in the city
The guys and girls
Sleeping in
From Saturday night
Getting pretty
The overachievers getting up
Getting to church
The streets have a certain quiet
A feeling of recovery
While the artists
Are up early
Catching great views
Hanging out window cells
And shooting
Music videos

Merchandise Mart

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The buildings here are really beautiful
This is merchandise mart
The speaker blares out
Doors closing
Back in Chicago
Somehow my perception of the city
Changes as I grow old
The same conversations
Over the same topic
Just new faces
Said in new ways
The brown line seems so quiet
Around this time
A Saturday in January
This is a brown line train to kimball
It seems there is always the smell of chocolate on this stop
Dried salt stains and sand on top
It’s the same city
I am different now

Tokens of Life

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What is the cost of a dream

Not the capital or the initial investment

More importantly the hours laboring and spent

Rather than being well rested

What is the emotional cost

Is it two tokens

If I could somehow come up with a value

Two tokens of life

If it all works out do you get those back and more

Are you delivered from seeing your time

Wasted in hopes of achieving

Rather than just ending poor

And broken

What is the average

Per day

If not achieved is it wasted

Thrown away

Can I accept this

Failure is only owned when you label it

Give it a name and recognize it

But I refuse to do so

Call it reckless

But this is how it goes

I must continue on this path

Continue to let go

To see anything through

Through and renewed

To see what these life tokens can do

Continual Postage

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Continual postage

Send me on my way

Held back

Deferred another day

What can send me out

Into the world

Hurled out with no precise measure

Regardless of challenges or pleasures

This will be my postage

Paid upon sending

I have paid it due

For once my stamp is applied

I must see myself through

Morning Exercise

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The purpose behind

The green outside

In a winter morning

Simple prose upon warming

Keep inspiration flowing

The more you make

It’s yields keep growing

So at 9:20 AM

Hoping for a new set

Of inspiration

Looking for new adventures of writing

Looking low

Hoping the ideas are not hiding

I let my fingers and mind go

And this is what it has to behold

Unfettered Risk

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The risk of the situation

At hand

Money, life, time, love

Put on the line

Inhibitions to the wind

But sometimes I way awake

In the early hours of the morning

Wondering

Restrained

Breathing

As the light turn out to on

From black to the palest of blues

Have I done the right thing

For me

For you

One can only hold their breathe so long

Before the body reacts

I have to get some sleep

Find a way to relax

But somehow I have grown to love this life

Uncertainty abounding

There is something romantic

Not knowing where the next paycheck is found

So I close my eyes and count to 10

And I slowly fall asleep again

Creation with No Expectation

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I don’t wish for much this year

Just good luck to take for next year

Going to need it as I look down the line

Can see a lot atop the mountain in Christmastime

I have peaked from a valley

Not to be underwhelmed with what lays ahead

Sometimes I see more mountains

That lay out over the riverbed

But one foot in front of the other keeps me going

Keeps us going

I try to make sense of this journey sometimes

Is it a worthless novel ride

With no beginning and no finish

Peoples salacious appetites

To consume what is finished

No care for time, matter, or commitment

So crude and raw

Yet the creative process draws on this all

Creation with no expectation

Give in hopes of smiles in exchange

So this year I ask not for riches or gifts

Rather that one of these songs we wrote

Can lie amongst the greatest hits

Three Letter Prose

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Building rows

Of three letter prose

Steady up

And steady grows

Sunday Mornings wane lightly

Just enough momentum

To get flying

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

In the midst of a mild winter

Growing up

But not growing old

This is how the week

Slowly lulls me back

Ready to begin

Again