#1598 bedtime

happiness and tiredness go together
the pillow puts my head to sleep in minutes
i am spent, happy
these are the days i wish away
and the days i will wish back one day

#1597 the journal

my journal is a breeding ground for ideas to change the world
poems and projects and proposals for a better world
but now my ink runs dry
not the ink in my pen, but the ink in my head
some young creative part of me is newly dead

yet the starters are everywhere
in my fingernails
in a dusty lamp
in a slow-falling rain

time to don the poets' goggles
and start seeing again

#1596 white noise in politics

if there is enough noise
and it is meaningless enough
loud enough
the noise puts us too sleep
the noise can be bad or lame
as long as it is consistent

#1595 thumbing

he raced like the needle wanted to escape the restrictions of the speedometer
stopped twice in our thirteen hours together
once for fuel
once to piss on his front tire
didn't say a word
I hope he sleeps
or outdrives whatever demons are following him at 140 clicks

#1594 it must be quite a rush

It must be quite a rush

From monkey-bar playgrounds to pub and bar parking lots

They stand tall and lead with their chests

Hoping for someone to look at them wrong

Then hands turn to fists

The same hands that once so tiny, through reflex

Curled around their mothers’ fingers

These hands swing on the ends of arms like speeding wrecking balls

Aiming for human faces

Aiming for blood and bone and flesh

Are these people evil

These same boys and men go home and do kind things

Do errands for their mothers, kiss grandmothers goodbye

They help others, hold others, love others

Still they hunt, at 3pm then at 3 am

It  must be quite a rush

#1593 of the big blades and the bad boys

so you think you can fix him
think you can find the mysterious potential
hiding beneath the dark cloud
think you can do what the others have failed to do?

my mother told me once
better to let the falling knife hit the floor first
that at best, even if you catch, all you have is a knife
at worst, pain and regret

let him fall

#1592 six feet

all I see when I look up from the pedals and the steering wheel
is the hood ornament
a time will sneak up on me
when I see pedestrians and traffic and road signs
hear the radio and passengers and car noise
but today that time is an impossibility
science fiction
the hood ornament moves with me
pulling my eyes toward it

#1591 March surprise

spring arrived weeks ago
but last night, after she went to bed
someone laid a blanket on her
a jumbo white duvet
and despite the plows-
grinding forward or beeping reverse
no one can wake her this morning

#1590 last name

I am a tumbleweed bouncing through the junglescape
alone, out of place, without roots
I am a branch grafted onto someone else's family tree
I am the lone item in a large lost&found bin

My life is a search for Me
a stream of questions without answers
an echo in an empty canyon
I search for the meaning in me, and the Me in meaning

I am closest to home when I am alone
aloneness decreases my loneliness
rids me of the juxtaposition of others' belongingness
makes me feel like a tumbleweed across a flat blowing prairie road

#1589 sunday run

my mind is on a long run down a narrow wooded trail
a carpet of pine needles absorbing its heels
a forest of no one absorbing the sound
how does the trail know where I need to go
my feet delivering mind

my mind is a long run down a narrow wooded trail
the ears hearing the feet, the feet hearing the ears
blood pushing against unseen walls
how often do we hear the workings of our own bodies
the blood delivering the oxygen

my mind is a long run down a narrow wooded trail
the body feeding the soul, the soul appreciating the body
the two sharing a conversation of silence
is this the sunday of my middle life
my mind running down this narrow wooded trail

#1588 all in a name

if your name is Mordechai
you better be wise

if your name is Haroldi Angus Groznak
don't try to be too cool

if your name is Caroline
then you better be kind and true

but my name is Adam
and being her first man is what I will do

if your name is Jack
make sure people in the airport say Hello

if your name is Mark
the kids will giggle when the teacher says Answer the question Mark

if your name is Mark
beware at the archery range, ready to run as fast as you can

but my name is Adam
and I will be her first man

if your name is Carmen
someone will ask if you're a mechanic

if it is Bill
that ask you when you're due

and if your name is Jay
expect a comment if you dress all in blue

but my name is Adam
and I know what I'm meant to do

#1587 a tangent

i know a mathematics prof
paying alimony and living in a plain apartment
he tried to make his life add up to something
the sum of which was nothing

i know a English teacher
who reads into everything by day
and reads her life away at night
no one to remind her to turn out the light

i know a student of the history
wants to re-right it
doesn't want to let it be
but history repeats, only the story grows

i know a man teaches hat wearing kids in a shop
thinks that all problems can be fixed with the right tool
but the loud tools he uses are just to drone out the one problem in his head
he don't believe in your splinters, thinks they're just inside your head

then there's the principals
pals to the end
trying to force their principles
on their little friends

like the math prof hunting for the square root of the problem
we're all trying to add up to something good
something that can't be divided
something that can be multiplied by hope
isolate the unknown
solve for x

#1586 happy thoughts

whoever said the means are worth the end-
must have been a child who didn't know how means these ends would be
we pay people to build us bigger homes
to fit all our plastic electronic belongings

the five digits on our hand grow soft and pretty
as our income passes five digits on line 150
something's incoming alright
something's incoming

we watch the news to feel good about our own pathetic plight
before we turn out our brain along with the light
the news is old, the old is new
listen to my thoughts talking to you

we recycle everyday
cycling yesterday through to today
looking for reasons to forget
and reasons to pray

#1585 traffic

your green ran out
all your caution got throwed to the wind
all the traffic lights are screamin' red
and you're goin'
you're goin'
you're goin crazy

left turn only flashin 'bove your head
even the traffic light know you can't turn right
you outta you right of mind
and you're goin'
you're goin'
you're goin crazy

you buryin' the needle
go so fast that the world slows to crawl
just so as you can watch them all
and you're goin'
you're goin'
you're goin crazy