Have to go to the store
Make the list in order of need
I know you want stuff
But we are no friend to greed
Prices have went up
Must recalculate desire
See, that's Jesus
Rescuing you from the mire
Nope, don't you do it
The clearance aisle is NOT for you
Yes, but maybe what I need
Is in the "other shoe"
Crap! My calculator reset
Shame awaits me at checkout
Take courage, little one
Jesus never rewards fear and doubt
I wished I weren't alone
I'm so tired of carrying this pack
Years of sorrow and grief
Too acquainted with want and lack
I wonder what it's like
To enter a store as a child
With no thought of...anything
Just purchasing what your heart desires
If I could have anything I wanted
I would restore souls marked by trauma
So that communities could feast
Without incident of trouble or drama
...and be free
Written by Trudy Schrader on 02-02-2026
Freedom provides the option
To thrive while unrestrained
By individual circumstances
By the self-serving demands of others
By our own compelling pain
Freedom provides an opening
For truth to roam free
Sometimes hurting, sometimes humbling, sometimes healing
Sometimes returning to its owner
A long-lost key
Freedom provides an opportunity
To test the boundaries of our souls
To examine the framework of our egos
To recalculate the sum of expenses
That renders us whole
In the whirlwind of time, who said that seconds are decreed?
That your steps must align with others’ concrete success indeed,
That arrival is an unyielding mandate, and deviation a defect?
You see them climbing the spires of their creation without regret.
In iron and glass they carve their legacy, while you remain silent,
A shadow frozen in the ruins of dreams that never grew vibrant,
With hands weary from the burden of unfinished things,
You whisper to life's algorithm: "Recalculate, don't leave me behind!"
But time is no engineer, nor a gentle, loving architect,
It's just the scaffold beneath your feet, moving only when you dare to fly.
Did the monolith mourn it didn’t rise with the first light?
Or did the river curse its flow for not sculpting the world in a single moment?
You’re not behind; you’re just a separate code unfolding,
A unique sequence evolving and flying at its own rhythm,
In a story never meant to synchronize,
But to follow its own course, unchained by time and space.
How faithfully my calories I count.
Believe me, I have counted them
since age fifteen. Oh, the amount
of food for decades I had!
But after each new decade - CRAP!
Metabolism slows down. Things get bad.
I recalculate calories or exercise more.
Otherwise, I fatten. THAT I deplore!
Oct. 6, 2020
For John Lawless' The Crap Shoot #2 Poetry Contest
Britain sets sail to find a deal.
A lengthy voyage now starts.
The captain plots the way ahead
with complex EU charts
from the Maritime Directive
in all its ninety parts.
Oh what a frightful sea to sail
to reach the land called Brexit Deal.
They cast off in a steady breeze;
the crew are well rehearsed.
But soon a storm is getting up
and brings a mighty gust.
The mainsail now has been ripped free
and flaps around the mast.
Oh what a frightful sea to sail
to reach the land called Brexit Deal.
And then with further buffeting
the rudder starts to fail.
A calm follows; they do repairs.
Now fixed they can set sail.
The ship and crew ready to go
but now stuck in a lull.
Oh what a frightful sea to sail
to reach the land called Brexit Deal.
Next day there comes a steady breeze
which clears them from doldrums.
And now they start to speed along
as then a trade wind comes.
With these changes the captain must
recalculate the sums.
Oh what a frightful sea to sail
to reach the land called Brexit Deal.
Revolutionary mindful ascending
Opens up the consciousness through manifesting dimensions
That placates every form of time
Warps the imagination within the mind
Creating living colours that bombard our eyes
Synchronicity then defines how to read the signs
Through a paradigm equation that is luminescently lit
Like a neon sign pointing the way to this
Stimulating our creativity through bliss
Mindful possessions just fade and recede then twist
Into a spiritual realm in which we can exist
Devoid of the illusory toxicity
We recalculate what it is to be living
In a multiverse of new beginnings
Where everything is transcending everything we know
Bestowing knowledge that is ancient, that is old
That we have forgotten or simply left behind
We all walk around consciously blind
We need this revolutionary ascension to remind us
Why it is we are here and what it means to exist
In a world full of distractions such as this.
We are aesthetic in our congregation-
promotionally enthusiastic to see the next outing,
our outcroppings stupendously aligned to the demotion of the great race's need for participating eloquence,
Einstinien men and women we are...
Holding key facts at stake for the live's of those who cannot agree with us,
sending the signals,
eluding the cops, and of course...
never forgetting the fallen.
They are speaking wildly,
we have their farce continued,
they are breaking at the rims of the galaxies,
we are just catching them!
So adorn to adorn-
recalculate, and so go home to be born,
extrapolate every digitization before ending the alimony and diving to your depths-
because what's first came next.
the flowers droop
but refuse to die
from the heat
like tanned fields
subsumed in the struggle
to survive to keep
the flow of transpiration
like the trodden
blades of grass
pushing upward
through the hole of sidewalks
to capture
the cosmic energy source
that fuels them onward
towards the victory
they seek
to be free
like we seek to be
as we continue
to travel the Jubilee road
riddled with imposing holes
and nullifying roadblocks
that cause us to stop
by the roadside
once and a while---
droop and recalculate
our sojourning strategies
to get us to the journey’s end:
in the land
of my father’s pride
for which in war—
he and his father died—
protecting the home of the brave
and the land of the free
which has thus far prohibited me
from true freedom, justice and liberty.
My skin prickles, hair on my arm
flag-raised.
Quite peculiar, actually, someone
or something, is watching me.
I recalculate my senses, dusting off
pre-conceived notions of paranoia.
Across the room, a dull thud garners
my attention. Searching, I discover a
doorstop has simply tipped over, quite
impossible, I conjecture!
I pick it up and feel a distinct burning!
it's hot to the touch!
Dropping the fiery doorstop, I hear an
otherwordly chuckle emanate from
somewhere above me, reloading my
sense of apprehension.
Not to be ill-prepared, I crouch in a
defensive position, peering this way and
that, ready to defend who knows what.
I turn to evacuate the premises,
and come face to face with a grinning
disembodied head!
Punching my way through the
phosphorous face,
I escape!
Wakening
From
My
Dream
02/15/14
© All Rights Reserved
He is a Hero
(06/08/2011)
Defamed leaders, one thing we can’t resist
Remember, that One ever suspected communist,
Another One hid behind father’s name,
Next One, took his seat for granted,
And this One, trying too hard to fame
But those were nothing wrong, we had read
Never born clean politicians were, I believe it
Or they were, until they captured in tricky mist
Why hating him so much?
Look at yourselves and your bluntly words
Keep saying name of God, to got us touched
Please! We already know your chords
Atleast he led us to roar in the past, to set the trend
Now, you can’t even fulfill your promises
What? Would’ve never thought back then?
Run a country none like dealing romance crisis
Please show us more hypocrisy
So you can add more sugar to your so called democracy
Despite of his corruption adjudication,
He fought well for this country
Now tell me, which politician hasn’t tasted that seduction?
I believe if you recalculate,
His efforts will overly climb his mistakes
No need all the debates,
He deserves to be called hero, that’s it!
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