1/6/11
I travel on a highway West and East,
Amid a blurry wash of scenery.
Each day I stare through space in dreamlike peace,
But on this morning, it occurred to me,
Beyond the miles of watercolor trees,
And steel and stone divides on either side,
Beyond my limited periphery,
Are countless people living out their lives.
The houses where they fear and love and grow,
Communities in which they all reside,
The dramas they play out, much like my own,
All vanish from this earth as I rush by.
I see the exit ramps. I know they lead,
To passions great and small, from death to birth,
But, as I bisect this humanity,
They simply vanish from the universe.
I wonder if I stopped along my route,
And visited in some such nameless place-
Some other world beyond my own pursuits,
Would my existence, likewise, be erased?
1/5/11
Like an old sweater hung on a hook by the door,
That you've owned several years and will keep countless more.
One that's threadbare and worn, but still wanted and warm,
Colors faded and changed, yet it's fibers endure.
Varied memories you carry in fond retrospect,
Have been sewn 'neath the cloak of this garment's protect.
All the comfort and rest long received by this dress,
Has dyed into its cloth, soulful stains, deep and pure.
As the decades pass by, I should still hope that I,
Have retained the same manner of long useful life.
Through the stretching and strife, let me be not unlike,
This old sweater, defending, soft, steadfast, and sure.
1/4/11
In life, too often we will pass our days
By waiting for the day to finally end.
We wish each minute quickly wilts away
In daydream of the fonder times we'll spend.
But on this day, I have not one regret,
For hastening decaying beats of time.
I'm glad this day is done. let me forget,
Each ebb that led me to this bitter rhyme.
1/3/11
She spied him sitting on the train,
He caught her prying eyes and smiled,
Her stop passed by but still she stayed,
He lingered too. They talked a while.
They courted on for several months,
Sometimes they fought, but most was bliss.
They shared a hundred setting suns,
And marked each sunrise with a kiss.
He finally asked to share her life,
They took their vows. and joining hands
Set down their path as man and wife,
And carried out their fondest plans.
And as years passed, their love remained,
And grew with each new passing day,
He caught her staring on the train,
Chagrined she turned and looked away.
1/2/11
A simple fleeting act of carelessness,
While standing with my hands too close to flame,
Despite a few small marks of permanence,
Which bear a signature in folly's name,
There was received no lasting, crippling blow,
Among the seared and scalded injuries,
No loss of limb did lapping flash bestow,
But blistered, wrinkled, swollen misery.
And as the heat and pain slowly abates,
And deadened cells form into plates of mail
While younger, brethren-flesh remediates,
The patient, wounded, guardsman, flesh prevails.
As withered skin begins to fall away,
I think on all the many things it touched.
As old life is supplanted, and replaced,
I ponder passing textures smooth and rough,
That this old skin transmitted to my soul,
The tactile teachings that it did impart,
The moments it met with a hand to hold,
And told romantic tales to head and heart.
The countless things it helped me to create,
The many things it held which I hold dear,
The times it clenched in fitful balls of hate,
The moments it absorbed a fallen tear.
For this, i make a vow in old skin's name,
For memories shared, i hereby promise this,
I'll keep my new skin farther from the flame,
And always guard it well from idleness.
1/1/11
This year begins as all years must,
And as time carries on, I trust,
That it shall heal wounds come before,
While introducing several more.
But still I hope for better days,
And rise resilient and amazed,
That after all I did and saw,
This day brings innocence and faith.
