Crazy Donna

You must go to Joey’s and get the clams

With her short hair and her deep eyes

Italian blood

But you know that story about Joey

She sighs

If he gets cheap and doesn’t give you the fresh

Flour bread

Let him know

Crazy Donna from Cookie Box

Said

“He’s dead!”

We spent the morning chatting

In the gym

On the stationary bike

She was straight out of

The godfather

Or Sopranos

I was so much intrigued

Her stories had my mind fatigued

These stories that loom on these streets

You must take time to listen

To stories of the pre-madonna

and the truely gritty

All float above the belts

Of mouths

In New York City

Karaoke Warfare

Between me and you

I want to know

Who can sing the blues

No care for stories or background

Just the way your voice sounds

So sweet is the irony

For

Back when the blues were constructed

Even now as the legends are being inducted

To the halls of fame

There story was never boring

Never quite lame

The story of these greats

Could make you pause

Even wait

To hear the next lyric

The next verse

To know what adverse

Conditions these men and women faced

We can not reduce this music

To technicalities and perfection

It has been hard born

Since the moment of its inception

I see the value in entertainment

But its straining my understanding

Of what music is

So I fall back to some classic blues

Stories from long ago

And I remember

That music is the sound

That makes life

Enjoyable

Life of Stone

There is light at the end of the tunnel

A reason to push through

There is hope you can make out

When you given it your all

Ready to fall down

Whether it is the truth

Or fiction

Belief in this

Is a religion

What you manifest

Comes true

To give up

Or to follow through

When the darkest hour is upon you

Close your eyes and imagine

There are millions of grains of sand

Laying on beaches throughout the land

Who have been broken

Destroyed

Yet live on

The life of the stone

From a huge boulder

To the smallest pebble on the beach

The lesson these stones teach

To carry on

Live on

Believe there is something better

You will find your beach

Your place in life

Stay true

Be you

Scholastic Skies

Scholastic Skies

Stare over Brooklyn

Built with math and arithmatic

Particular attention

To each inch and yard

Stretched in the air

So pretty

Built with human hands

This is

New York City

Ignoring the Morning

Reckless texting

Walking talking

Ignoring the morning

No meaning in evening

The mental metal

Push fingers racing

Waited and wasted

No time spent elated

Eye’s ignore the skies

The beauty they hold

Lies

 

 

Submission to Lake Michigan

The Lake Effect

Has everyone upset

Blowing snow in

Blowing streets closed

Blowing cities into submission

All along the Lake Michigan

Outer belt

No winter before have we ever felt

This

cold

Liquid Lights

Chicago

 

 

 

 

 

–

Liquid Lights

–

The polar vortex winter

What the heck is that

Where hot and cold intersect

Casting a spinner on the midwest

Over Chicago, Gary, and South Bend

The rust belt on lake Michigan’s end

A vortex

Sets 4 feet of snow on the deck

I am amazed at the violence this

Storm creates

Thrashing cars on highways

Like liquid lights on the road

It is unlike any winter I have known

Where the volatile winds blow

The crushing cold

Oh the cold

It seems unbearable

Stopping pumping engines in its tracks

Planes left running

On snow filled tarmacs

A smack

Of this winter vortex

Sets us spinning

Holding on to wheels

Less like driving

More like swimming

I hope to see the end

We just pull up a chair and watch

The true entertainer

The dropping thermometer

Watching it fall

Way below what I have ever known

Freezing finger tips instantly

With a frigid blast

I can only hope

This vortex

Is my first and my last

Cellophane Pictures

birds in flight

 

 

 

 

 

Cellophane Pictures

–

Cellophane pictures

Cell phones

Talking

Bitter feelings

Emerge

Conceding nothing

Taking everything

Consumer products

Produced with ideals

Placement perfect

A mechanical seal

Touching fingers nimble

A relevant symbol

Memories commemorated

Can be used and heard

With these

Cellophane pictures

Intentional Unique Consistency

Consistency is key

To uniquely creating

Intentionally

Commitment          to one

Undone with time

Consistency

Sets me free

Or holds on to me

It is consistent

That I will be