The abundant contradiction
Flows unknowingly
Flowingly
From the words of misguided souls
In words we see
The eternity
Of fluid
Lies
From the lips of
Cold settled
Hearts
Contradictions abound
While the wind that moves
Through our lips
Make the sound
Empire spirit
In the New York City skyline
All the way down 10th
And the wooded skyline
A spirit that resides
In my heart
Well past the moments
When from the city
Which I depart
Holding up my head
Teaching me where my feet go
And what direction I am led
For one only leaves the city
To achieve a higher calling
For the empire spirit goes past
When memories don’t last
A sympathetic facade
For the problems I don’t understand
In worlds unlike my own
My experiences limited
To the places I’ve gone
My external demeanor
With attention acute
As with a scientific procedure
I procure emotions
Detect shared moments
And respond in kind
With no tired hounds
Under my eyes
With time
The faces seem strange
Yet odd
With a distant and cold
Sympathetic facade
Is there space on the bus
Moving in one straight line
In space and time
All along
While the bell rings
From the yellow line
All the way down the roads
As the old chains creek and pull
The linear bus and its passengers
Freewheeling
At last
Notorious jurisdiction
Makes it heard
A new infliction
Point and moment
Sight unseen
This is what the new world means
Stall exhibition
No prohibition
Problems made
With no resolve
We have to grow
And evolve
Stalling out
Over the holidays
For the world can say
What a great nothing
What a moment to cease
All of that just to
Keep the peace
Red lights at stops
At this stop in the year
The south shore train
Draws near
Blinking in red and white
Double wide loads
As the snow blows
Between the signs
Calling a slowdown
A new year bustles with possibilities
Here
Build wane
Up in the clouds
Near where the rain
Turns to snow
In the waning hours
Of letting go
Up in the lit stars
Among the wires
It looks the same
As when the build falls flat
And the feelings wane
Clean up my face
In a heartbeat
In its place
A tidy smile
For all feelings
All emotions
Rolled off
Like the waves in the ocean
Helping hands
Lift my upper lip
To keep the swagger up
To have a clean fit
Along the southern shores
Of Lake Michigan
Where the steel mills billow
Black soot into the opaque blue sky
Lies a city
About 40 miles wide
And more
Here along the southern shores
Of a fresh water ocean
Where men and women walk
Along a magnificent mile
City streets
Of Chicago style
A Cup of Songwriting 