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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

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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

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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!

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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

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Someday!

Someday!

Someday!

 

Some days are good

Some days are bad

Some days are a fuzzy haze

Of awful and wonderful

A mixed bag

Life is nuts! 

Either way

Someday

We'll all wish for more days to be had

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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 put 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

 

 

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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.”

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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!

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Expectations

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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 expectation

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!

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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?

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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

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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