Children bounce when hitting the ground Held together with rubber bands and chewing gum Traumas faced down Buried beneath smiles and trading cards Time dries out the ties that bind Elastic dreams becoming broken seams Wisdom the illusion of age Hard earth waiting to greet you again #vss365 #elastic

Once upon a time hits from this album were overplayed. Listen closer. Martin Barres's guitar is amazing. Ian Anderson wrote lyrics capturing hypocrisy of a system we still live in today. Wonder'ing Aloud is a masterpiece in the simplest of forms. We have not progressed in 50 years. God save us all.

I hardly remember the world before cats had wings I take comfort in the fact that They still think we are fun to have around Hairballs and rodent entrails are always raining down We were once the dominant species before this new regime Nowhere is safe from the little killing machines #vss365 #wings

Really excited to have in hand the latest issue of New Square from the Sancho Panza Literary Society. I am honored that they have included my poem Solitude of Two, which I feel is one of my strongest works to date, amongst so many great authors. #poetry #lovepoems

Happy #internationalcatday! Looking for just the right way to celebrate? Pick up a copy of my book of poems with #cats, Could Have Gotten a Cat. Mostly happy, a few sad, some just plain weird. You won't regret it and neither will the cats you read them to. #catsofbluesky #poetry a.co/d/bEGhk2x

An angel danced on the head of a pin I impaled it Stuck it on my lapel as a charm Turns out I was a djinn Offered me 3 wishes for its freedom But I was Aladdin Sane I wore it till it passed away I don't worry we'll meet again at the pearly gates I know I won't be going there #vss365 #angel #charm

I am really excited to have my poem The Scars Across My Thigh up at Spillwords, along with having my own author page. Check it out. #poetry spillwords.com/the-scars-ac...

I never know the words to say So I hum a pleasant melody Leap from high to low Show octaves range even when I barely know the tune I persist until the frown you wear Breaks like a fleeing storm And sun comes from your smile While rays of joy escape my lips #vss365 #hum

Time soldier Patrol the past Put up walls Keep out #crimson memories Fences make good neighbors Time soldier Dig up graves Make them deeper Botox won’t raise the dead Regrets don’t keep secrets Where were you in 1992 Distant yet always heard Buddha on a train Time soldier Cuts you down again #vss365

I so easily turn a blind eye To a world full of injustice and genocide I hardly notice the destitute Lining streets and alleyways Heads down just like mine But today I shed a tear Watching the bird with the damaged wing Struggling through the grass In search of only shelter and a meal #vss365 #tear

Is it better to have loved and lost? A promise was made and not kept A heart held then tossed away Good intentions don't cushion the fall Nothing mutes the voices saying rise up try again Pain is real bruises deep Stillness protects what remains You do not miss what you never had #vss365 #promise

Having purpose gives my action meaning Meaning leads me to deeper understanding With understanding there is dawning enlightenment So enlightened I am spurred again to action Onward I march to an imagined destination Circling ad infinitum I really need to cut back on the coffee #vss365 #purpose

I wish I’d not been raised a rational mind That I could pull together spiritual traces That guide so many souls I felt it in Glastonbury Upon the Tor At the red spring But with distance it faded away I pray that I will find a way to be at peace But I have no god that I can pray to #vss365 #spiritual

You ask me to smell a flower But my nose tells me nothing I can barely tell its color You want me to touch your dress Caress the smooth taffeta But my hands are numb as all my senses You ask me to bind with your emotions To share your love But I can not for I was made unable to feel #vss365 #taffeta

I stand a prism Feelings enter Impact fragmented Shards of emotion Wild responses Crashing outward Reflected again Ad infinitum Splintered soul #vss365 #prism

I tried to give the kids a sense of #nostalgia Made them watch Harold and Maude And the early works of John Waters But they weren’t my children And I'm told I took it too far When I had them all embalmed Put them in my man cave Played Careful With That Axe, Eugene Over and over and over #vss365

Drive by lovers Keep my heart racing Each one trip around the track Touching by body Never my heart I see you at the pit stop Hope you will leave me a space to park I’ll idle slow Hum gently as you tune me up I’m ready to take it slow Go from hot pavement To a cool country road #vss365 #space

Brief downpour from a sunny sky Smile flashed then hidden away Love passing in the far lane Existence is just moments Pieced together into memory Briefly lived slices of time Some shared in joy Some buried in solitude Some haunting forever Some desired Some lost Some hidden away #vss365 #moment

I keep a pet #enigma Buy it fine things But it sleeps in a box in the hall When strangers call it answers the door Checks IDs and the reason they called At night it roams Lures people from their homes Dances with them in the moonlight Returning before dawn To try to trip me on the stairs #vss365

Zen master Lursa Deeply in tune Taker of summer heat Keeper of mental cool Guru of weather Joy of lonely hearts Felinus undeterrus In her 18th summer Love me or leave me Pet me or feed me Leave all doors open Take me as you are #vss365 #guru

Fate follows me In #parallel but slightly behind I take to the ocean Fate is not deterred I sail toward the horizon I see the earth is flat I steer for an island on the edge Summer home of a giant cat She spends her free time Casually knocking wayward travelers Off the edge of the world #vss365

I could have been a father to you You welcomed me in Placed me in your art I tried to show you how to be yourself But I drifted away Took our time and made it about myself It's no wonder you turned your back on me Though I still have the pictures you drew Before I pushed you away #vss365 #self

I painted the car in rural Ohio Shaved my hair on the banks of Lake Erie Cut my nails at the Finger Lakes Made a wish and tossed them in #Shed my skin entering Massachusetts Drove till the ocean let me go no further Went to see an old friend She hardly recognized me But still welcomed me in #vss365

Joni Mitchell thunders in my head Not music but a #single set of footfalls Back and forth she paces across A Laurel Canyon home Not a #small women Still I would have thought her light afoot But force crackles with each step As she puts the finishing touches On a song we will all come to know #vss365

I don’t want to be a figure for the masses To be recognized in the crowd A fleeting slice of fame I wish only to be #someone For a person that really needs me A hand held beneath streetlights Together watching The blank faces passing by Intent on striving to be something They can never be #vss365

I dread going on I can’t go back The light is always flashing The flow always pushing Gravity fighting back Pain punching forward I know nothing but to maintain Till pavement turns to gravel Turns to sand turns into sea Your voice forbids me to stop It is the only way #vss365 #stop

Mass had begun Your voice fill the room Others thought it was God I knew you'd connected A microphone to a #speaker You said it was the rapture One by one they began to disappear I searched afterward Footfall echoes the only sound You too were gone I’ve wondered if you knew that would happen #vss365

Sunbeam Cutting through the air As water erodes the rock Fades a path across the carpet Captures the smoke of one last cigarette And always the cat She cares not the day She is timeless Ageless Motion unseen Sunbeam creeps towards me Memories in pursuit Cutting through my heart #vss365 #sunbeam

Lursa is dreaming of new toys. Please help fulfill the dreams of this adorable senior cat by ordering a copy of my poetry book Could Have Gotten a Cat. All proceeds will go toward her happiness and need for play. The link to get your copy today is a.co/d/bEGhk2x

I search the landscape Hunt tools to set me free Sometimes I smiled At images I couldn't control More often I cried A little bit died Now I throw everything in a vat Pour acid upon memories #Dissolve the past Love hate gone together Nothing left but the vacant stare I began existence with #vss365

My three #poetrycommunity starter packs are almost full. But I still have space in the one below. If you're a #poet with a #poetry collection & you're looking for a publisher, just follow the people in the pack, repost it, then ask me for a place & I'll happily include you #booksky #writingcommunity

An abridged excerpt From my chapbook of the same name available on Amazon I lay down to rest after your burial Kept waiting for you to sit upon my head I would curse you then but now it's a memory Sure to become dearer over time Just as I'll embrace the #scars You left across my thigh #vss365

He looked the same to their eyes No doctor or priest noticed As the #pallor of his soul Showed he was fading away He never stopped smiling Worked hard raised his kids Held her hand in life Held her hand at death At his passing they mourned Not knowing his essence Had long before disappeared #vss365

Poems with cats! The poetry book you know you need! Some light or silly, a few serious, these poems will put a smile on your face and faces of the cats you read them to. Want to get away from the doom and gloom of the news and the state of the world? This is the book for you. #poetry a.co/d/bEGhk2x

I will mourn what is lost Celebrate what is found Cry for the departed Love that which is realized I will write you an elegy Forever hold you a place in my heart While looking forward to find love again Allow an ending to also be a start #vss365 #elegy

Thrilled to have 4 poems up at The Lothlorien Poetry Journal and to know there is a home for some of my weirder stuff. Zombies and Demons and Bears, Oh My! @lothlorienpoetryj.bsky.social

You are stories I can hear but will never know Joys sealed in the past Hurts carried forever forward A sense of vellichor Pages I can touch but never turn Puppy eyes and a wistful smile Cringe of terror in the night You are a book I will never finish A tale I have just begun #vss365 #vellichor

Wrap your arms around me As the porch wraps this old house Join me on rocking chairs Allow me to sit Underneath your roof That still remembers how To shelter from the rain Till the garden beside me Bring back the joy To lives thought barren A #selcouth rebirth Now that we have each other #vss365

You bring me to you As the birds sing Beckoning their next lover Repetitious song Just slight alterations in tone Sweet words Drowning me in desire You hold me down Now a different tone As the mockingbird Fires off its call Beats in my head Echolalia control Drowning me in fear #vss365 #echolalia

When we met Tabula rasa Karma of the innocent No original sin Your hand in mine Time for all time Nirvana misunderstood We loved We were consumed We no longer stir Karma of the damned Nirvana realized #vss365 #karma #nirvana

When I was young We had a cat that touched Every surface in our house With its hind end I laughed Loved that cat My parents were detached Turned a blind eye I'm grown now All my lovers treat me the same Yet I stay I only know to love them As they touch every part of me In the same way #vss365 #end

I may not have love I still have empathy I understand that a beginning for me Was for you an end That my sigh of relief Left you gasping for air I still care I hope you can rediscover your essence In the dying embers of the fire That no longer burns #vss365 #beginning

Gnarled hands No longer smooth on my skin Matters not You only touch me When the #nightmare comes Lightly brushing my arm Flakes of dead skin rise into the air Snow in the globe That is our existence I roll over You think how you loved me once Sleep returns We both search for the lost dream #vss365

My dreams of you are always chaste Silenced are the noises That during the waking hours Fills our heads We sit upon the grass Watch strangers pass We look beyond the horizon We look into each others eyes We smile, hold hands Are filled with wonder Exchange innocent kisses #vss365 #dream #noise

They were Joy and Harmony A perfect pair Side by side Hanging at the Dairy Queen Always smiling Though somehow incomplete Then they met Destiny Became 3 of a perfect pair One day in front of everyone They turned to mist and disappeared Ice cream is always sweeter At that Dairy Queen #vss365 #joy

I talk of my previous #life As if it wasn’t really me Creating distance from the mistakes A way to bury pain That my younger self Was an experiment that failed But I know I am still the same My glasses are just darker now Filtering out what is too bright Letting in only what I want to remain #vss365

Curse you prompt person Todays word is #death? It’s Monday and I hope To see the sun today Flood waters need to recede This isn't where my head needs to be Been watching news of America? Is that the source of your #grief? We need relief May tomorrows word be happy Or upbeat kindness or peace #vss365

I tried to write about grief But froze over keys Fingers twitched No words came No way to express pain Light faded Feelings consumed Remained unexplained Nothing but trite cliches A cat murmurs at my feet I reach down Her tongue touches With the roughness she tries To wash it all away #vss365 #grief

My sweet elder kitty Lursa hates the storms. She hides in the closet at the slightest rumble. So last night I read her some poems from this book and she is now feeling safe and secure. She is acting empowered. She is conjuring spirits and taking control. True story. a.co/d/bEGhk2x

All my time spent Jamming quarters in an arcade slot Pushing buttons Holding you up Keeping you warm and safe Ignoring my own pain My body wearing down It’s okay I thought As long as you are content Till one day I woke Stopped playing Left the smoke filled room Let the missiles through #vss365 #time