#370 stemming problems

flowers on a table falsify the feeling

and cheer acts like a main-street false-front.

the difference between changing and hiding

subtle but profound.

flowers won't undo stress

or tension or hurtful words.

not even a big colourful easter bouquet.

#369 living room and life

a living room over full of furniture and scattered dishes

a to-do list that is lapping me

a fridge-front full of magnets lists and appointment cards

i stare at it all

rise

to throw out a a chair

#368 oh march

the seasons battle

winter refuses hibernation

and spring scrambles to the top

a child's game, king-of-the-castle

dirty roads

patches of green and yellow and brown and white

#367 fort walls and fridge-tops

when couch cushions are fort walls

and the pots cupboard is a secret planet

the fridge-top a mystery

and father's billfold sacred

his shaving, beyond entertainment, a reverent idol
when does that time end

#366 sermon

they file in each week

sunday best

and leave with stiff weekly laughs and smiles

go home and fight and argue and ignore for seven days

then return

to leave their guilt under the high-ceiling

for a bigger guiltier expert to deal with

#365 lego

sitting on the living room floor

he builds homes and skyscrapers and stores

entire cities

filled with nice, happy people

people who smile and say "How are you taoday?"

and wait for a response

sitting behind his adult desk

he deals with politics and policies and permits

beauracracy

obstacle-setters, and profit-skimmers

people who say whatever fits the moment

and require a ® every time you write the word

#364 looking up from a window in a valley

oceans call, but mountains insist

and i am drawn, but not stuck

in this mountain valley, i am a vireo's egg in its nest

while the slow metronomic beat of the ocean

forever a mental recording, plays at will

like the sound of rocks receding into water between waves

oceans and mountains

safety and risk

conflict and balance

#363 wet luggage

i laughed the day they pulled her body from the flattened truck

and before the laugh turned to tears

guilt filled me from hair follicle to dark toenail

her body was sitting somewhere to be prepared for viewing

and i was laughing

rushing, hitchhiking to see her corpse

my luggage in the bed of a new pick-up

and the owner stopped to auto-wash his pride and joy

my brain was off and when it turned on

oh sh*t

i jump out to rescue my luggage

that's when the laughter overtook me

the soaking camouflaged my tears

i re-entered the truck

and my ride laughed

and so i laughed

and so guilt took up residence in my body

for years

now i see there is laughter in slaughter

there must be

Happiness fights everyday in this world

formidable opponents

Guilt, Jealousy, Overambition

and Laughter helps her

by hiding in slaughter

#362 "new inheritors"

we failed

our biggest contribution was technology

faster and smaller

but spiritual

we ran backwards

and dropped you in a void, a vacuum

this was not our intention

we've performed miracles

travel the globe in hours

send waves of information even faster

built answers to everything at the touch of a button

but miracle is an old word now

like cholera or modem or family-table

and our old silly gods

replaced by Google and Laptop and cell phone

and if you don't worship them

you're considered old-fashion, out-of-date, silly

i think we've done enough with Technology

i hope you move on to bigger and better

#361 me vs. morning me

i sit, breathe

breakfast at a table free of clutter

first time in years

and i swear

this starts a new habit

(as i've sworn in the past)

the alarm is a catastrophe, shattering my sleeping world

hurled into the world of the wake

responsibilities and deadlines and duties

i find the snooze button

and swim toward the warm world of sleep

i'll get up early tomorrow

#360 surroundings

sunlight plays still on the walls that contain me

boring browns and oppressive objects occupy the room and the soul

everywhere i look i see undone to-do list items

i was excited about life and i will be again someday

but not today

not today

#359 my yellow runners

blood flows through, worries flow out

total miles grow bigger, personal problems grow smaller

laps around street blocks, help overcome mental blocks

i untie the laces

feeling unsuffocated

return to phone and forms and files

i smile

i breathe...

ready

#358 overcast

unwelcome rains change plans

outdoors to in, walking to driving

but people need rain

not just to water food

but there is something about a rain

nourishing souls after drought

rolling from waterproof bodies

into thirsty ground

leaving something behind beyond dampness and cold

taking with it

negative fixations and a miasma of memory

Earth turns the stagnant into something digestible

#357 outside the ktunaxa casino

spirits lie outside the grave picket fence

unadmitted for perceived sin

forced to the outside

by those that brought them to it

#356 file 63 of 472

a day wasted

penance for earlier procrastination

today, cleaning and organizing seem full of fun and temptation

my mind wanders from the task at hand to the dust-bunnies under the bed down the hall

i plod, i type, i gripe and complain

and i swear never again

#355 minor thoughts

today's song fills its listener with minor chords and wrist-slittingly introspective lyrics

i don't know how the song will end or if there's another on my playlist

but the guitar's sad strings are attached to more than my vocal chords

i don't know how long i can be this alive, this aware

it hurts

soon i'll follow society

turn up the tv or turn on the computer

mute my soul and click my mind OFF

we've overslept, achieved nothing

and what's worst, types the poet from his self-righteous laptop

what's worst

we are content

#354 take two

i sit on the stairs

undisturbed

for two minutes

an unnoticed observer

absorbing voices and footsteps and silences

adult feeling like a child in a cupboard

i need these moments

to gain energy

before rejoining the action of the house

adding my voice and my footsteps

for footsteps and voices will pass unnoticed

when I refill my role

#353 watching the oven door

rickety ladders and i climb apple trees

ladders greyed by wind and rain and time
tiptoeing from an upper rung

i roll the stem into my thumb

separating apple from tree

adding to my sobey's bag

i walk up the hill

the porch enters me into the kitchen

mum exclaims at my loot

locates her paring knife and two big bowls

adds salt and water for the pie parts

the empty one for jelly ingredients

an hour later

i perform my other part of pie-making

choo-choo fork tracks

allowing heat to escape in the oven

then she spits on them with butter

an old family trick

deep-dish pies enter the oven

and i smile

old enough to enter the woods alone

young enough to stare through a translucent door at an oven light

wishing time would bring me fresh pie just a bit faster

#352 "I hope you're not lonely"

there is a place

a place on the mountain

and in the centre, is a cabin

unknown by society

used by fortunate hunters

stay here says the cabin

there is rot and decay and disrepair

and a familiar, warm, reverent sense of home

and i'm tempted

live in the moment

earn my next meal by hand

use the night air as a duvet over my sleeping bag

leave paleness and society's brain-chatter in the valley below

but i keep moving

#351 march 14th

a translucent sheet covers all

above, a blue ceiling

blue blue

and the sun warm on the head

melts the sheet for the day

today, tv is not allowed

indoors is forbidden

walk, bike, run

play

#350 paint by numbers

the room sat empty

then primer attacked nostrils

new colour, new hue, new light

brushes rollers and dropsheets veil for now...

barking canine duo?

atomic #79 around the proximal phalange of a fourth digit?

3am feedings too?

walls and spirits collect and reflect sunshine

the colours fit

not puritan, as intended

but just right

just right

#349 always fresh

the two couples in the corner

four cold paper cups

having a one-of-a-kind conversation

again

this time its horses and technology

"ol John Weysmith, he knew his horses."

"yuh."

a pause, formerly filled by drags, before modern legislation

"reminds me of that there donkey. on the youtube. killed the," leans to other guy, "fuckin' cougar. a donkey!"

two foamer hats, angled high, and lots of plaid

and wrinles and make-up

sitting together in a true canadian postcard moment

#348 beyond face value

we save it

waste it

kill it

watch it pass by

savour it

maximize it

live it

we pass it by

it's on our side and against us

it's ahead of us and behind us

more than tics or tocs on clocks

more than breaths in a life

it's time:

grab it by the scrotum and make the most of it

#347 focus

digital ones make old-fashion clicks

snapping the present

to adjust the future and change the past and its memories

zoom, airbrush, modify light

make the truth what you want

a lie

#346 do the due

what motivates like a deadline?

we say we hate them

but do we really?

self-imposed deadlines

kudos to people who can do them

for me that's like decorative chocolate

deadlines don't make me do my best

but they make me do

#345 take two twice a day

Monday, he moved to a condo

paid for his 1st groceries and rent:

confident and going on 23

Today, he strips in a chapel

wearing a 2nd-hand iPod and a smile:

paranoid and gone off meds

#344 THE END

i believed you

but you added

Honestly. and i saw unfaithful

sheets heard polygamouswhispers smelled deceitful pheromones

#343 two lovers at an old kitchen table

two bodies roll and push and pull and fall exhausted

fast-forward 60 years

they sit in familiar silence

one thinks about the last siege of grandchildren, smiling

the other thinks of that night

and how good life is

and how simple

#342 respecting age

inside wrinkles, grey hairs and stooped backs live children and stories and lessons we used to respect before youth formed a dictatorship

#341 home alone

no voices, no laughter

no hum of the heater, or draft from opening doors

no feet on the stairs, or bums on the couch

no singing, no guitar

like a skier on a triggered slab of snow in an avalanche

i know this moment of peace will end

and below is tumultuous darkness

and i hope they find me

#340 unfollowing an ugly choice

defy your spirit

broken glass and gauze

defile and define your self

smoke and drown ignore the compass

redefine your self

whispers and blue skies

re-find your spirit

wispy clouds and spectrums in the sky

#339 what's in a name

"Can we play a round-robin," asked Dan

but Robin protested to standing alone at center

Mohammed is the most popular name on Earth,

let's take a break, how 'bout a little Less-hommed

I usually refuse to read this at open mic's

and on behalf of all shy Mikes

#338 deadlines

with barn-size plans and a free clock

no commitments and no demands

i prepare to start

but first i'll take a rest

and then it's bedtime

and i say i needed a rest,

i'll start tomorrow

and then i sleep in

and putter and eat and relax

and before i know

bedtime's here again

then i sleep in again

by now, i'm down about how the weekend treated me

i mope

and then, i do all the necessaries

and go back to bed

and as my weekend finishes i think,

i'll get up extra early tomorrow

#337 the old place

the sound of the train calls to the empty house and its dust-filled stories

where once a table was the hub, now its creaks bash the silence

the stairs that once carried little ones and big ones to breakfasts and bathrooms and more

now sag and droop from loneliness

the swingset stands, rust creeping up its legs, past the high grass that chokes its memories of laughter and insignificant tears

#336 the everyday

the hum of the the highway

melts into the soundtrack of my everyday

along with fridge's hum

and the inhale and exhale of my circulatory system

and her

the voice, the actions, the presence

the love

#335 corduroy duvet

there is a bed

a simple bed

where i end each day

interlocking with my familiar seraph like the tongue-and-groove beneath

and the stress and the peeves and the annoyances and the undone to-do list

dissolve

into my pillow

where they morph into sleep's mind-stories

interrupted only breaths at a time

long enough to see who's beside me and to smile at no one

and to drift back