#1207 worker's prayer

after a full day
work and run and play hard
early up and late to bed
i am a hot chocolate in a pond skater's belly
a cold beer on a laborer's forehead
a plate of stew in front of a woodcutter
i am tired
i am useful
i am happy

#1206 round and round

her music box occasionally drags
but not tonight
tonight the dizzying ballerina
dances her into stories from a wold with unfamiliar rules
in the morning she'll remember flashes and snippets
but not the part when life changes
forever

#1205 shoulder check

90% of accidents happen within a kilometer of the driver's home that's what happened to both of them they were getting ready to turn the key in the ignition their engine never startedthey never left the driveway where would they have gone? the store? a visit? another country? a simple but important highway cruise we'll never know and only now can i cross the driveway and sometimes not think of them

#1204 look past the hood ornament

sometimes you need to drive away to let your old life fade away in the rearview with or without knowing where you're driving to leave Comfort Street behind and head to Unknown Avenue the people in the rearview are angry and crying but you must trust that someday they'll understand do not let their words and tears turn off your engine you need to ride maybe you'll be back, maybe not but you need to ride

#1203 an observation

smartboards and elmos and lcd projectors technology that can be faster and smarter than any of us but sometimes smartboards make us dumber i think of teachers who teach with sticks and rocks because sticks and rocks is what they have i think of them and wonder with all this technology and funding and space and equipment why are my students not all geniuses

#1202 lungs alive and dying

close the door but smoke crawls through empty space between doors and frames i revert to the fetal on the tile floor defeated but smoke does what it does rising around me filling the space until it has no choice but to surround me i forced this reality almost arranged the carbon and oxygen particles my self atom by adam

#1201 bedside lamp

ghosts from my family tree
visit me at peculiar times
uninvited but welcome
haunting the mundane
casseroles and wallabees
friends past the grave
affecting choices and tears
grief comes with age
like white hair and baldness
turn out the bedside lamp
and keep my eyes open
to fall asleep

#1200 combine with sweat

inspiration is a beast to be suplexed to the clouds
a slimy slippery eel to catch with your bare teeth
a holographic butterfly to be trapped in a jar
inspiration is an invisible calf to be hog-tied
a bullet to be ridden barefoot like a surfboard
a lake to be hugged

#1199 40th birthday gift

i picture riding the highway on a motorbike
and i forgot that i'm aging
the wind strips strips the white from my hair
and the pudge from my middle
and the knowledge that i'm growing stuck in my ways
the alertness and concentration
forcing me to live in the moment
at stops, i carry my helmet in with me
yes, to show them all
but also as a weapon
a sword and/or a shield
against reality
for no matter how much throttle i give
reality is never far behind me

#1198 in a day's state

1am in bed, sleeping
2am sleeping
3am sleeping
4am still sleeping
5am sleeping
6am alarm sounds, turn it off, keep sleeping
7am feet to floor
8am breakfast done
9am phone rings, world changes
10am denial
11am anger
12pm sadness
1pm more anger and denial
2pm my whole soul and being want to go back to 5am, still sleeping
3pm crying pours out of me, like under-the-kitchen-sink bucket compost pours into the yard bin 
4pm anger that crying hurt a little and didn't help at all
5pm lunch
6pm angry words at my favourite picture on... our walls
7pm i put the fracterd picture, the mangled frame, the shards of glass in the garbage can uner the kitchen sink. beside the compost
8pm walking, angry that the world is so... normal, uninterrupted
9pm ignoring phone calls
10pm internet surfing
11pm not sleeping
12am not sleeping

#1197 a cheesy love poem

she loves cheese
old and stinky
reduced or overpriced
she loves cheese
she's got her favourites
but she's not picky
she loves cheese
on toast on cracker
alone on a platter
she loves cheese
better than chocolate
better than flower
and that smile that invades her face
with the appearance of some smelly gorganzola
that's the smile i'm in love with
that's the smile i'd miss more than any all-inclusive exotic destination trip

#1196 womb2tomb

i cry
usually inside and alone
too scared to let the humans see water roll down from behind my eyes
i cry
when i think of family
burned in a jar, or placed six feet and a world afar
i cry
when i see fathers cry at funerals
when life never sees the world outside the womb
i cry
for light bulbs and chocolate cake
for potato peelers and scrabble boards

#1195 EADGBE

jesus is a mediocre cover song
doing justice to the truth of the original
while adding his own flavour
what more can he be
in a world filled with suicide and wing-plucked flies
he sings the lyrics and means the
hiding closed eyes behind his kobain hair
what more can i expect
in this world of humanity and its own breed of insanity
he plays his heart
to sleazy bar quarter filled with patrons
who'd rather dump their own choruses the bartender
than listen to this jesus character

how many people can you save with six strings and some truth?

#1194 'til the end

friends that border on family
are the friends who walk in your house when you're not home
and have a snack

the ones who visit without reason or forewarning phone calls
the ones who arrive early to your parties to help with set up
and to avoid awkward first arrivals

the ones who sometimes know you better than you
the ones you love to hear laugh
the ones who matter

#1193 rising smoke and falling snow

the smoke rises from the chimneys
traveling straight, to get to a place in heaven
traveling slow, to procrastinate leaving this heavenly place

snowflakes fall in the opposite direction
at the same speed for the same but opposite reasons

and the mountains keeps the town safe and nestled

#1192 a question ringing in my ears

all the degree-seekers
the ones with extra time
the ones who want to fix the world
or earn the prestige
study how to improve life for the ones at the the wrong end of the bell curve
the ones who get donged
instead of dinged and rewarded
and bored of the reward

do they help

#1191 look up, what do you see?

sorry bob, but the answer ain't been blowin in the big breeze
the answer is in the concrete, in the question
answer?
question.
the answer is in your man walkin down the road
in your white dove sailin
in your cannon balls flyin

sorry bob, but we can see the answer, we can touch the answer
the answer is in the things and people we see each day
the answer is in the mountains
in the people
in the turned heads

we know the answer
now we must act
we must choose times to ignore policy and safety and due diligence
the answer is more kindness for people and for life
kindness, respect, sanctity

the answer does not blow around us all mystical-like
the answer is this moment
between the last tic and the next toc of our second-hand
and every moment after

#1190 the sanctity of time

do not let a recorded voice tell me my call is important
do not interrupt the whole school to call one student for a forgotten lunch
do not make your motto customers are #1 in a store with line-ups and closed tills
do not ask me to a meeting that takes more than an hour and expect me to care or to remember or to like it

do not let fear alone stop you
i know there are other areas of sanctity
laughing, relaxinging, eating
and many more

#1189 one spark

big pit, big fire
small pit, small fire
make the ring large and supply endless wood
make the ring small and reasonable, beside a bundle of wood
you don't control the size of the fire, the fire-builder does
but you do influence it
and no matter how big
or small
all fires start with one spark

#1188 let's toc time

the second hand is a soldier who freezes for a break between each marching step
but the more i watch the soldier, the longer his breaks
if only i could ignore him
but even when i look away, my head twitches to his metronomic beat
my teeth bite my tongue
to
the
slow
rhy-
thm
and when the bell rings, i rush to another room
to go watch a soldier on another wall

#1187 for that boy

for that boy who looks like he wishes he knew how to hold his backpack
for that boy who is more of "the new kid" than the dozen new kids who have arrived since
new jeans won't fix your problem
the death of your meanest bully won't fix your problem
you've learned more from your life than any science or english teacher can impart
keep sitting in corners and back rows
bide your time
but do something great
this world needs your contribution

#1186 juno

who is saturn's sister
-you know
who is the wife of jupiter
-you know
who is the goddess of marriage
-you know
but i don't
-you know
i don't know, you know
-yes, you know

#1185 but i get both

i'd trade sexy
     for jogging pants and a bleached hoodie
i'd trade all the sultry smiles
     for the one that hijacks her face when she catches me staring
i'd trade hundred-dollar-plate dinners
     for saturday morning beans on toast for two
i'd trade all-inclusive destination hotel rooms
     for spooning ourselves to sleep
i'd trade all the members of a great mariachi band
     for singing one silly camp song together

#1184 no earlybirds please

sure, one dollar
she accepts the loonie
dropping it with a clink into her change belt
saying goodbye to her her mother's big breadmaker
saying a little goodbye to her mother
before moving down to the young couple
testing her mother's ironboard
as though they were in the produce section
and the ironboard were a pineapple

#1183 like cinderella and rumpelstiltskin

god is a fairy tale hero
i used to believe
he sat on a chair in the cloud
an undentefilled chalice in his hand
but now i believe in people and life and good
doing right
not because of the almighty boss ready to strike us down or love us without condition
but because right is right

#1182 all in the style

the difference between a fiddle and a violin
the first makes you stand up and dance
the second makes you lie down and relax
the world needs both
which are you
fast and fun and furious
soft slow and intense
do you make people go and move
or stop, and think

#1181 before today

goodbye yesterday
thanks for the smiles
and i forgive you my frowns
goodbye for yesterday
i'll miss you and remember you
you'll live, a legend behind my forehead
i wouldn't be me today without you
you are my oldest and my newest friend
we shared a hospital room for our birth day
and we share all our birthdays
farewell old friend
today will not forget you
and tomorrow cannot be you

#1180 wind warning

the wind is blowing where it never blows
and she's warning, but warning too late
relocating construction tarps and light lawn furniture
the storm is fun until a tree falls, followed by another
both frightening your ears
you push fear aside
but somewhere inside
you wish the warning came earlier