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WHO IS THAT GUY?
Who? That guy?
Yeah!That guy right there!
Why that’s That Guy!
That guy is That Guy!?
Yeah! That Guy!
What do you care?
I hear he’s brilliant at embarrassment
And thinks seriously about silly things
He is abnormally normal
Yet unstrangely strange
That Guy is the very epitome
Of flawless imperfection
A skillfully clumsy fellow
Through and through
Who has made a great many mistakes
And has many more blunders due
​
I hear That Guy
Doesn't know how he got where he is
Or how to go where he’s going
So he lives each day like the last
Doing the best he can without knowing
That Guy has endured the many licks of life
The tickles
The bruises
The ones that still bleed
Laughing and crying he carries on
Wishing for wants without filling his need
​
I hear That Guy is afraid of many fears
Rejection
Failure
And the Grim Reaper too
But he pretends to be
As brave as he can be
Hoping nobody will see through
I hear That Guy
Does his best to look his best
To show the world
That he’s never been better!
But truthfully in reality
He barely holds it all together.
Do you know That Guy?
Who…that guy?
Yeah! That Guy! Right there!
Well of course I do!
That Guy is me!
That Guy is you!
That Guy is everybody
Everywhere!
​
U D S O E E
N I C V R D
Lurking
Lurking
Down below
What lies there
We do not know
Fantastic creatures?
Mythical beasts?
Surely more than nothing
Must be there to see
Deeper
Deeper
Darker still
The stir of something
A sudden thrill
A scuttle forward
A ponder back
A glimpse of brilliance
Surprise attack!
Followed by confusion
Found bewildered
Becoming
Bewitched by it all
Desperate to piece together
Whatever it was you saw
An inkling of an idea
A flash of curiosity
A spark of interest lost
A most mysterious memory
Lurking
Lurking
Down below
What lies there?
We do not know
Except for certain
Something stirred
The imagination
Undiscovered
​
Someday!
Someday!
Someday!
Some days are good
Some days are bad
Some days are a fuzzy haze
Of awful and wonderful
A mixed bag
Nuts!
Either way
Someday
We'll all wish
For more days to be had
​
Bubble Trouble
I hate to burst my bubble...
But when I don't
I find myself in trouble
Unaware of what's really out there
Oblivious to the reality around me
Blinded by the light of bliss
Full of ignorance
Amiss to the utmost possibility...
That where I have privilege
Another may not
That what I see as perfect
May be full of rot
That the truth is a real fickle fucker
Not always so easy to say
And so perhaps I am deceiving myself
To see black and white in a world of gray
Pressing upon walls of prejudice
And layers of fears
Built up unknown in my mind
Over the years
With a squeeze and a prick and a pop
I want to pull on what is certain
And let the curtain drop!
To uncover Oz and look beyond the bubble
To see what I’ve been missing
Caught up in the struggle
All the ugly and scary things
The cruel and unkind
All the beauty
Promise
And creatures most divine
To discover what is out there
Before curiosity is lost
A new outlook
A fresh perspective
A sight to see unbound, unblind
A whole ‘nother world
I would have believed unreal
Until now I see it undenied
Of course...
In the comfort of this new found reality
I have a habit of protecting it
With a new layer of fantasy
Adrift
In moments of clarity and confusion
Of what I think I understand
And what must be a delusion
Once grounded
Now I float further and farther away
What then is one to do?
Prick!
Pop!
KaBOOM!
I say!
Toil with trouble!
Burst your bubble!
If not you, who else will!?
Carve out from within
Give life a listen
From beyond
The stubborn surround sound
Of the echo chamber in your way
That’s the best guess I’ve got
Of what I think I’ve thought
From inside the bubble
I find myself in today
​
Spider Circles
Spider! Spider!
On the ground!
Spinning circles
Round and round!
Lost and searching
No web found
Surviving, stumbling
Danger bound
Starved for anything
Safe and sound
Spider! Spider!
On the ground!
We have more in common
Than I thought till now
Carry on my friend
No harm, no foul
​
By the Glow of Nintendo
There we were
Near the year 1994
Just the three of us
Brothers
On the basement floor
Not a care in the world
Except
Who next got the controller
Playing games
With names like
Mario
Mega Man
And Super Spike World Cup
On a tiny T.V.
Paneled with plastic wood grain
Equipped with a metal dial
To turn between stations
Showing static
We called bug wrestling
As we tried everything
To get a game working
Blowing down the cartridge
POWER on
and
POWER off finagling
Until after much effort
We found ourselves awestruck
By the glow of Nintendo
Showing us epic worlds
Through an 8-bit window
As a mosaic of sound and music
Beeped and booped
Through our veins
​
With spectacular style
We adventured together
In competitive cooperation
Watching each other win or lose
As the elder taught the younger
Hidden secrets for extra lives
This is how we spent
Our summer afternoons
Keeping boredom away for awhile
Then it happened one day
My two older brothers
Fought over a game
Something about
Roger Clemens Baseball
And somebody swindling swings
One made a threat
The other thought was not true
Until a moment later
There was a cry
And a black eye to boot
​
Chaos and commotion followed
As they both struggled upstairs To be the first to say
Their side of the story
To mom and dad wondering
“What in the world did they!?”
After all was said and done
It may have been
GAME OVER for them
But for me
The youngest brother of three
I took this opportunity
Rarely given
Thinking for a moment
After patiently waiting...
“Well now I guess
It’s my turn to play.”
​
​
Pseudo-haiku
Brain teaser torture
One thunk for fun puzzle prick
Nine by nine logic
Blank stare, square by square
Stuck in a rut... What the fuck!?
Never, never quit!
For the umpteenth time
Searching, Melting mind. For what?
The aha moment!
​
Expectations
​
Now how could one expect
Anything less
Then the absolute
Utmost
Very best
From whatever life has to offer?
Life after all
Is full of potential
To feel incredible and be exceptional
On the occasion
That fortune smiles on the victor
However
Consider this
Hard as it is
That if you invest
In expecting less
You allow room for surprise
By more pleasant returns
And overtime, overall
Gain an appreciation
For more laughing matters
Whenever life burns
Defying expectations
To overcome
Whatever the odds may have been
Thus this
Is not a nod of yes
To strive for mediocrity
Rather
This is thus
To express
That less is more
A
Simple
Humble
Philosophy
Now I hope after all of this
You are not expecting bliss
Or anything else from me!
​
​
GREAT
AGAIN
Make our country great again!
Back to the way it was back then!
Free from tyranny! Free from sin!
Tell me now, do you remember when?
​
That span of greatness, long, long ago…
Our greatest hour, do you know?
What era with this honor do we bestow?
When were we so great and great how so?
Were we at war with each other
Or another nation?
Did we give power to the patriarchy
Or the corporation?
What did we choose, slavery
Or segregation?
To be immigrants fighting natives
Or immigration?
What was being used to stoke our fears?
Communism or terrorism?
Rumors of witches or queers?
Where did we cast our hatred and jeers?
At the monsters among us
Or those forced upon a trail of tears?
​
And how did we acquire
Our great wealth and privilege?
Did we earn our keep
Or murder and pillage?
Take it from our own people
Or another village?
Who was given liberty?
Who was given death?
Who did we leave with nothing left?
Can we truly claim greatness
With every breath?
Or have we become greatly
Oblivious
Blind and
Deaf?
Make our country great again?
Back to where?
Back to when?
Back to reality or to our imagination?
To a greater truth or the greatest fiction?
WE WERE GREAT
I know it to be true
But you must ask yourself
Great for who?
Great for me or great for you?
Or great for some ungrateful fool?
​
What may seem as greatness in its prime
Greater still is a vicious paradigm
Of lies, corruption and every crime
Seek out the glorious past
And this too you will find
But greatness does not dwell
In a time and place
Instead it thrives
In those who give it chase
With courage and perseverance
Patience and grace
Great people overcome
The great folly of the human race.
So go on and make the world
great again!
Strive for greatness everyday
With every action!
Make it
From the heart!
From the soul!
From deep down within!
Tell me now
When will you begin?
​
Contemplation
Yes
No
Maybe so
Indecision of the soul
Where to stop
Where to go
I don’t know
I don’t know
Unless of course…
No
Yes
Guess I guess
A choice among a mind a mess
What is worst
What is best
Self obsessed
Self obsessed
Inside the source…
Could not
Could be
Could possibly
The heart followed
Fulfills the need
Break the chain
Take the key
Escape yourself
Do feel free
To feel free
Embrace this force…
Yes
No
Apropos
End decision
Make it so
Where to stop
Where to go
Now I know
Now I know
