For when you want on out of yourself
I’d say we could switch places,
But I’d be lying out your teeth
To my sweet, innocent faces
If I said that I’d be fine
With all that such erases.
More than that, with hand in hat,
I feel if you go, go far.
Blow by both boring and bizarre.
Blow out that final star.
Go till all else is gone
To find out what you are.
Once you know I think you’ll see
We dearly need you where
You meet your youest self,
Someone deserving of your care.
I hope that you return to you,
I’ll gladly meet you there.

I like to read a book
Like a bear reading a brook
Or a fish eating a hook
Oh, a dog greeting a duck
Not a me reading a book
But a con meeting a shmuck
Yes, a crook cheating a crook
Like a crab reading a cook
I live reading a book.

The Sea sailed in on silver dreams
To see the little boy who seemed
To be a fish who flew upstream
And lost his gills but not his way
Before he found a place to stay
In one Mountain’s rainy day.

Boulder was the name he sold
As his but was better known as Bold
However many times he told
His buggy buddies they were wrong
They’d say in turn, “Too long! Too long!
And Boulder’s good but Bold belongs!”

He’s the only son the Sea has had,
Nine thousand daughters and one lad,
And it’s safe to say the Sea was glad,
Then dreams gave way, the Sea receded
Back to deeps where it was needed,
Leaving land lovingly seeded.

Yes, Bold knew just what to do,
He tended to his garden true,
Astounding Mountain with what grew –
Giant squids and octopus,
Coral, kelp and crabby nests,
Pearls and fishy flashiness.

Bold’s buddies watered and fed salt
From Mountain’s private golden vault
To ocean darlings without halt
Until this hale and hearty crop
Felt the waves and windy chop
And dropped into the Mountain top.

Old Mountain then dipped to the shore
Full of worlds and wanting more
Into the roaring Sea he poured,
And Bold and buddies alone again
With nothing but a day of rain
Went and made their own Sea then.

Illustration by SP.

Fragile is rather more agile than strong.
That’s not to say they can’t get along,
Nor that strength is wrong.
Strong is stuck in its ideal range.
Fragile can break and change.

When you wonder what to do,
Look yourself right in the eyes,
Yes, cross-eyed is always wise
When looking for an answer.
If there might be the slimmest chance or
Glimmer of an easy out
Take instead the roundabout
Route around to what you should.
Better is not always good,
Babble on down backest roads,
Ramble on with backwards loads
Until somewhere is somewhere.
Fortune seeks the unfair.
Most of all you must ignore
Whatever nonsense I implore
When you wonder what to do.

This much is true:
You must wonder.
You must do.
The order’s up to you.

The April fools of April first
Should know that it could be much worse.
They’re lucky fools, I have to say.
I’m rather foolish every day.

Swim slow along a lively river smile
From first drop of joy to deep sea of soul
Dive in the madly loving happy wilds.

Let luck loose you as an unlikely isle
To duckish dozens squacking in a row
Swim slow along a lively river smile.

Drop in the always falling forward trials,
Dip in the dimples, ripples, rapids, go!
Dive in the madly loving happy wilds.

More red than blue with every lazy mile,
A laziness that swallows mountains whole,
Swim slow along a lively river smile.

This is your time to be kind crocodile,
Find perfect loggish froggy floating flow,
Dive in the madly loving happy wilds.

Learn of a river smile, go ask a child,
Turn to the water if you’re who you’d know,
Swim slow along a lively river smile
Dive in the madly loving happy wilds.

Someone once had all the answers
Right before all else occurred.
Now most of what we seem to know
Is nonsensically absurd.
If we might forget we know
All that we can put in words
Then those little laughing answers
Might again be fully heard.

Kindness or mindless?
You must know kind this
Way to remind us
That we are we!
You and me!
Humankindness!

Otherwise it’s mindless –
A sort of other person blindness
That may lead to acting spineless,
Leaving others all behind us
While we still end up in last.

I find kindness finest.

Signed – Us?

There was a little girl
With the cutest golden curls
Who knew she’d rule the world.

There was a scowling owl,
A grumpy, dour fowl
Convinced he’d save us all.

But she only ever thought it,
No matter how she fought it
She distraughtly never got it.

Sure people could do better,
He wrote us all a letter
That can’t have read much deader.

When I say fought, I do mean wars
That tore up many foreign shores
And haunted many doors.

“Dear disgusting little things,
Listen to one with wings
And enjoy the peace I bring!”

Her armies burned more than they kept,
The people lost and wailed and wept,
She scarred every spot she stepped.

“You must change yourself
To a rootless flower on a shelf
If you would live in health.”

It was not because of small nor girl,
Nor cute, golden, nor curls
That she never ruled the world.

It was not ’cause he was wrong
Or his letter was too long
That folks refused to go along.

No, she never ruled,
And he didn’t end the cruel,
But don’t drop to ridicule.

Whatever may be meant,
Whether kind or cruel intent,
We don’t like being bent.