New Sport

One foot after the other,
Step by step by painful step,
By backbreaking, heart-aching step.

My heart beats a thousand times a minute,
My mind speeds at a thousand miles per hour,
And you run even faster through it,
‘Cause I can never catch you.
But that won’t stop my trying.

Lady Luck

Black Jack never was my game
That’s sadly clear to see
It’s why dealer calls me “24”
Whenever she looks at me.

Hit me hit me
There, I bust
Chips leaving just like loves long lost
And still I hold my chair
Waiting for Lady Luck to sit nearby
And greet me with success.
Instead the empty chair is taken
By new love
I’ll know it later
And for now just watch her smile,
Meet it with my own.

Hit me hit me
Lucky Lady kiss me
There I’m at 21
Again again
With you I win
For I surely cannot lose
And arm in arm
I realize how you’ve always been there
While Lady Luck holds her lovers close

Now sudden realization dawns:
Luck has got nothing to do with it

Devil's Hill

Beacon beacon, burning bright,
Guide my winding path tonight.
Point me onwards to my home,
With glow recalling fires of Rome.
Haunting lights to kill my steps
While Hell’s light bursts beneath your depths.
It’s always been there, staring me down,
Burning reds of the Devil’s frown.
I watch it again and fill with fear,
While it stands as it has year after year.
And now from Devil’s Hill a cry,
As purged in fire, happiness dies

Windows

What if mirrors are only panes of glass
Windows into other worlds,
Only offering backwards imitations
Of our lives
By chance
When’er we happen to glance?

Would all those people,
Oh-so-vain,
Check their reflection
Again and again?
Wisdom dictates they not do so
For fear they fall in love and go
Through the glass
Like air
Then water
Air again
(The lake, just a film)
To be with a creature,
So beautiful,
That they could pass as a twin
Of those who gaze.

I might look more,
But not to follow the trail
Blazed by Narcissus,
Instead to guard,
Make sure my clone-
Reflection-
Does not leave,
Run away in fright,
To join the shadow
Of that other Lost Boy,
And also to watch
To see if I can
Catch it in the act
Of changing
Into one of the many
Me’s.

What if there are no mirrors,
Only looking glasses
That point to other realms?
I suggest you let them be,
Not calling forth reflections,
Under pretense of observation
In the vein of those great explorers.
Don’t give the reflections
Excuse to be vain.

Clown

I remember once
When I wore somebody else’s face,
It was bought in a store
And hid me in plain view.
I remember how nobody knew me
And nobody saw me.
Would you have recognized me for who I am?
Or was?

I had a dream once
That my face was a mask
That I made for myself
And fashioned in plain view.
I remember how I woke up
And looked in the mirror
And didn’t know if I was dreaming
Or not.

Re-runs, Reviews, Return

If they are the challengers of the unknown,
What does that make us?
It makes us alone.

For living in fear we all wear a mask;
A ball and a chain,
Shut in a cask.

Stubborn and cautious we put up our walls,
Keep love to yourself
Or else you may fall.

You the teacher and I apprentice,
And I the coward
Avoiding my wish.

If there is a lyricist yet we dare not sing,
What does that make us?
Star crossed somethings

Feelings leak out and threaten to erupt
Don’t welcome be back yet
I’m still waking up

Kevorkian

When caught up in “He said, She said”
Just eliminate the words
And you’re left with He and She
Which is quite enough to kill with.
All you need is love
And oxygen, water, and food
None of which is abundant enough
To be had by all.
I long for death but I can’t do it myself
Love lost, or misplaced, is assistance enough.

A man in a van
Once drove up and down my street
Helping people who were hurting
Stay off their feet.