Time

The clock ticks

Even as we sleep

Time can’t be kept

It can’t hear us weep

We are all doing time

Life…

It’s more than a sentence

More like serving paragraphs

Inside chapters

To a world we’ll

Eventually leave behind

Sometimes I wonder

Will I be worth history?

And then I remember

When I almost was…

Except I would have left

No page to turn

Wouldn’t even have made

Much of an ash if it burned

Then all the tomorrows

I couldn’t afford, but still borrowed…

When it’s really my time

I hope I’ll have paid it all back

Because the gold I was bestowed

Each morning

 and the smiles throughout the day

somehow

 made the midnight struggles

slip away

and they still do

and there goes the part where I try not to cry

I’m still here with time

And an open suitcase

Full of reasons to be unpacked.

The clock can keep ticking

the moments can leave

I think I'll stay

In That Empty Space

I listened as your footsteps left my life

Their faraway sound could be the

Beat to my ballad

I still hear it sometimes

With a pace as slow as my heart

If it were years ago

It would probably race

To chase you

But now is where I am

And you’re not here now

The stars too distant to read

But I swear they spelled good-bye

Now here I am

Fallen from love

To a world that never felt me coming

And I’m learning as I hear and see

I am discovering who I am

Each highway a possibility

Everyday is a beginning

With less and less familiarity

Sometimes those footsteps come back

Just to leave again

I hope one day they stay away

But for now, the echoes

Reside in that empty space.

I live when they leave

Sometimes for two nights or more

To get wasted

Until sobriety carries them

 back on its wagon

Time to fill up on all things not you

And leave a “no vacancy”

Honesty

You offered me your love

In every way but true

Tales after tails

Which one belonged to you?

I asked you for the truth

You wrapped it in bubble gum so thick

And left it on the night stand

No, it never did stick

You spoke of rainbows

And worlds where shadows don’t exist

You tried to place yourself there

But your voice never left the mist

I told you to keep your rich words

And images that I could not hold

I asked you for honesty

Suddenly you explode

Signs were meant

 to show me the way

but I got lost in the maze

your stories got longer each day

You’re someone else’s problem now

You’re half a man, still incomplete

Have you ever caught a glimpse of your reflection?

While you splash in the waters of deceit

I guess winters must be warm

With thick layers of quilted lies

Of all the snowmen in the world

You were certainly no prize

Ah, but I guess the shame

it is all on me

You just keep stepping in bullshit

I’ll be dancing with reality

One of Those Smiles

She has one of those smiles

That could bring mid January to life

And leave the sun so smitten

It would forget

 that it had some other place to be

suddenly finding itself

Shyly knocking on her door,

 hoping for a date

just to see that grin once more

She makes the wind wish it were

 funny instead of  a clumsy joke

her happiness

is nature’s main artery

vital to all things bouncing and blooming

and without her laughter

there would be no May

only lost purpose in a struggled swim

constant laps through April’s sorrow.

The moment life met her, it stopped being grim

The car radio singing your life to you

As you road trip it shot-gun

With no place to be

Other than far in front of what you’ve left behind

And right beside what you will always carry

The light…Resting on a thought

As the sun slowly hunkers down.

To be eye to eye, soul to soul

Your spirit once again a child

Just for a moment you were graced

With the presence of her smile

The blemishes in your sky erased.

Her glee could make the miles glide

Like broken-in tennis shoes on new pavement

Going places without a deliberate place to be

Just for the sake of free

And you’ll finally feel the essence of existence

When her smile leaves your name

wrapped in a golden hello

All that is not love, in that instant disappears

And with the warmest hug,

she lightens those heavy years

She taught you happiness.

Do You Remember?

Do you remember how love felt?

Does love recall touching you?

Can you offer peace to my puzzled soul

And tell me are memories still true?

Or are they like the sky

Elusive, and ever changing back to blue?

Do you remember the places we walked

Before we both walked away?

Now I’m not suggesting

I want to exchange rings with yesterday

Though it would sure be sweet

If now and then it came back to play

Sometimes I think if I closed my eyes

I would once again be certain to find you.

I bet if happiness danced into my life

It would fit perfectly in your size shoe

As it did when we waltzed before, where the footprints 

of each step remain as constant as crazy glue

You quieted my city mind

hushed the noise like a strong, swift country breeze

and left me calm, and open to be taken everywhere

surrounded with contentment, and green October trees

bracing for the Fall.

Your love was my heart’s sentry, I felt so safe and so at ease

Do you remember?

I hope I never do

Because I can’t ever recall

All that I’ve never forgotten…