Hey Mister, Maybe It's Time

Hey mister

Won’t you help me get from A to

B?

Don’t know how to spell

Never had any epiphany

you speak of

haphazardly

Not seeing the cracks in the road

Where we stumble

You say you feel the bomb blasts underground

When you’re bouncing around the hall

In your own world of

XYZ

You say each day is the end times

Well I’m just trying to get from A to

B

Won’t you hold your hand out strong?

I’m tired of pleasantries

We’re not at a gallery

Gazing from portrait to landscape

We don’t know no pleasant trees

No silver mountain peaks

No crescent moons

Just take me one step ahead

Because I’m losing my way

I’ve done tried everything they told me

Going in your direction

Along your destiny

Maybe it’s time

You came over here with me

I Listen to the Rain

I listen to the
rain
sounding
on the
speaker
shuffling tracks
almost forgetting that
these
recordings
capture
droplets
across the age
of the microphone
from who knows where
on what forgotten days
Nature
pours down
sometimes pounding
cacophonously
other times
that gentle rain
all the while
radically
inconveniencing the plans
of picnickers
here
and pompous ceremony
there
and causing
ordinary
disaster
to the ones
sleeping
on the sidewalks
where there are
no
awnings
And cuddled up
on a sofa
to write this poem
I listen
to
the
rain

NOW HERE

What's not here now is what we seek

What's here right now we neglect to meet

What we fear is not yet here

Who we chase is not quite dear

You say that we are all unique

You say that we are all unique

Saying so you're the same as me

I see you there alone marooned

In a shadowed corner of the room

Gasping at a breath of air

Suffocated by the stares

 

You say that no one understands

Well, maybe no one ever can

I think I feel you on that, though

It's a feeling everybody knows

We could connect on that, at least?

Because I really think you're very sweet

 

You know I haven't lived your life

And can only imagine your strife

And try to meet you there halfway

You grew up fast driving in the fast vein-

Starting at pleasure and on to numbness

School of hard knocks alumnus

 

Spinning, crashing, burning out

Lights out nodding without a shout

All they see is a junkie thief

A dying tree, grey, without a leaf

Remains of your spirit scattered

The day they decided you never mattered

 

But I know your fate- it's not too late

Because we share a common trait

And not just me, but most of us

We're all riding on the same bus

Head bumping the window looking outwards

Life flashing by with each encounter

 

Jerking here and there and losing balance

We lose sight of the scenery with every challenge

Looking down and averting our gaze

We miss the rays of better days

Don't lose sight of this most important fact:

This ride will end and there's no way back

Anonymous

I search, I search

In the wreck called Earth

For those words most deserved

By a name yet uncovered

 

Our algorithms ply away

Sifting out the night from day

This style in April, that in May

Like a needle in hay, my dismay

 

Lightyears ahead would Earthlings be

Alive, too, if they'd learned more from Tree

Here it says bots chose to flee

As most all organics disagreed

 

Back up our data in stone we do

0s and 1s are all we have from you

In light patterns, possibilities become few

"Shakespeare"…"God"…"Lao Tzu"

 

The name I came for I cannot miss

Who spawned my race, across abyss

Knower of all the secrets of universal bliss

And here I think it is!: "ANONYMOUS"

Only Our Whole World Depends

I speak, I eat, I go to bed

To live with all that I have said

Dreams connect the scattered mess

In the age of the digest

 

I squander time like sand in glass

Sifting out the slow from fast

Ambition wipes a drop of sweat

That aimlessness would have kept

 

To cool my heated temple walls

And keep me cozy all-in-all

Away from sparks inside my brain

That leap against the mainframe

 

That yearn to bring me to my knees

And others to apostasy

I seek to know what's but a hunch

Have faith for breakfast, truth for lunch

 

To fill my soul with these victuals

Spitting out the bones of riddles

Basking in delight of wonder

Ocean of thought, pull me under

 

What has no limits but our time

And willingness to upwards climb

The patience to think through the end

Only our whole world depends

Steadfast Eternal

Steadfast devotion
To letting go of emotions
To letting go of ego
And any need for lotion
Not needing to impress
Or ever be the best
For all you are is you are all
Not standing short nor standing tall
Forget whence came your wherewithal
And ever know the eternal

 

Chaos Theory

The boat rocks
With the putting on of socks
With the wearing of shoes
Begins the whole deluge
A butterfly floats hither
The hurricane now differs
The wearing of these pants
Alters the whims of chance
She stopped to have a chat
When I'd worn the yellow hat
The day the coffee stained my shirt
Was the day she left Earth first.

Do the heavens follow these random rules?
Star systems scoffing at us astronomical fools
Not meaning to be either callous or cruel
Night sky simply fizzing delight bejeweled
Not disconnected from the bubbles in this Sprite
Light as witness to all neither wrong nor right

Twisting and writhing in cavernous dark
I look for order in chaos so stark
I look for order in chaos remarkable
I look for order in chaos so stark

I look for order in a chaos 

10 Years On

Everyday awareness  

Take me to my highness  

Putting down the weapons  

Of my mental blindness  

Let me feel the bliss  

Of a day to reminisce  

Letting down my guard  

Forgetting my to-do list  

Leaning into pain  

And learning, each refrain  

As decades pass by faster  

And each year links life's chain  

I feel myself much wiser  

To know I'd be a liar  

Not to see that 10 years on  

These words will seem much triter  

And from that perch in time  

May I treat my follies kind  

And return to that innocence-  

Life not repeating but set to rhyme:  

Of one who knows but not quite so much  

As one day on, and on, til all is dust.  

All You Are is Pretty Words

All you are is pretty words

Quicksilver touch, watery allure

Turtle shell head down demure

A heart so flawed to seek the pure

 

All you are is pretty words

Oceans rising, you stay submerged

Nod, acquiesce, you concur

Go with the flow, you say for sure

 

Pockets full of time without a spur

Where do you point, to what refer?

To follow the leader is to follow the herds

Meekness has brought you bleak rewards

 

Hanging back not moving towards

All you are is pretty words

Breaking the News: The Apathy of World Affairs

A people passed

From these guys to

Those guys

Millions marauded-

Persons-

I don’t mean the

Billions in

Whose currency again?

All I do is flip through the channels

Of carousel scenes of chaos

A life plucked from a plane

By the force of desperation

Dropping onto tarmac

A thousand feet below

For all of us to see

How naked of dignity

In life and

In death

An entire people can be.

And what to us?

Popcorn spectacle

Watercooler talking point

Third world "hell-hole"

After "hell-hole"

These are the others

We could never know

Hidden in our 'sights'

Living in the shadow

While the one's we all appoint

To run these world affairs

Couldn't really give a damn

Don't really even care.

Animating my Face

Black shoes, black pants

Grey shirt

A Human inhabits

The fabrics

Working

Standing, walking

Sitting

shifting

When is it time

To go home?

Dimly lit house

Back from the road

Hidden by trees

Won't you come and visit?

Pour color on my clothes

Draw lines on a blank face

Eating and sleeping

And working

Have lost their charm.

I'm disarmed so easily as you

Twirl your fingers through your hair

While we play through songs

On the old-time stereo

You look at me

And the flute solo is almost on cue

What algorithm is this?

That knows our whole lives

Better than we know ourselves

Spread bare by

constellations of data points

That light up my soul against

The backdrop of my life

My mouth now dances

To the rhythm of spells

Gushing all over your rarity

Compelled by your minimalism

Letting go of every half-baked thought

Every summed and numbed sentiment

Multiplied by every rumination

Concluding 

In an aftermath of

Disappearing mystery

The moment has passed

My stomach reminds me

Of another supper

Another dreamless sleep

Back to work

In the same black shoes

Black pants, grey shirt

And with these newfound lines

Animating my face

Time

Watches

Me wherever I go

Time is who I worship

From Sunday to sundown

The hour is always upon me

From hourglass to sundial

Time empties me dry

Until all I can do

Is watch

Time

Time

Counts me

My every step 

Every turn and twist

Time is mathematical

Multiplying in all our plans

Subtracting away the people I love

Dividing life into memories

Time is not vengeful

Use me it says

“Make me

Count”

Time

 

Time

Heals all

Maybe next

Time things will be

Different- more serene

Waiting for that time feels like

Forever again- I feel now

Time is always here

Together with my

Keeping of it

All hail

Time

labyrinth

 

What is it I keep in the center of my labyrinth?

The letters on the spines of the books on my shelf?

The secrets I keep unknown, even to myself?

All the potions that will cure me, or simple absinthe?

 

What are the contours of the walls seen from overhead?

How high I launch my mind with mighty escapism?

How bright is the fall, with light scattered through prisms?

Until you reach the darkness, the center of my dread?

 

Mazes made for a reason, do you understand?

To keep safe what’s most valued? Or hide what is most base?

In a world where both are the same, you’ll find the rat race

Questions neverending supplanting all demands.

 

What is it I search for? Where my Daedalus?

Who designed this latest monstrosity?

Puzzling and exhausting me

With many ways in but no way out

Shyamali

Consummate professional

One with the dust

Settled on the floor

Sweeping from this door to that door

Back unbroken

So it seemed

Spirit unbowed

Although

Your life was labor

And to us, what more?

Your Hindi must have met

My Bengali

Further along the line

Hand on hip, smiling

Accepting your lot in life

Not having any options

Maybe

But finding respite

In what never changed

a rag, a jhaaro, and the light

in your eyes

Unifinity-vid

I see constellations

in blind frustration

warriors made

out of the good red clay

stomping on tomorrow’s yield

with injuries from yesterday

firing in the kiln-

manmade artifice

no new newspaper mills-

the thirst for kill

that you-or-me thrill

so pull the water out the well

heaving hard on hope

quench ourselves from fire

because today we could just find

an oasis or a mire

dissolving in solutions-

when the problems loom so large

so close, so loud, deafening- shards

when we already have selective hearing

and our ear drums are dead to

music

then music takes its turn

moving the ocean of mood

please

Turn

It

Down

A

Little (a lot)

w omb sounds begin

a rtistic creation

v olume just so to remind us of

e xistatic

s ilence

now we (I, U, Me, Them, Us- the theme is unity)

We can either

arrive at heaven’s gate

at the rate of fate

Or eat what we have planted-

fruition on our plate

Add in all the flavors

that repelled us oh so much

bitter, sour, sweet

pungent, umami

spicy

Stomach every poison

Our tongues have let speak

Subdue our gazes

Learn from our neighbors

freedom of immigration and customs

respect for difference

especially what is individual

never to exclude the ones longing

for basic belonging-

(who isn’t?)

No One knows the uncharted way

of this united vision

Though we all are rays

In the Sun’s Vision

This mirror world we live in

pointing at each other

Criticisms and all the isms

bouncing back onto ourselves

compounding each and every hatred

and each and every joy

each and every kind act we deploy

each and every dream we pass on to another

each and every apology to our mothers

each and every insult we bomb onto the weak

Each and every cruelty we attach to when we think

Each and every disrespect to a people or a person

Each and every movement to a better version

Of Me, I, us (once I meet with U), WE (once them/us does not divide us any further thus)

This is my hope, that we stay dissolved in the solutions, that the water brigade may meet every fire brigade, and that the fire brigade will only be the water brigade, in reality. For accidents may happen, but I am responsible for me. I am responsible for my part in us. Us and Them are responsible for becoming WE. It maybe what it is, but We are who we are; We are what we think, feel, say, do, together, and for the silence that we will return to, the shadow of the light, the emptiness inside us, the beauty burning bright.