Do you recall yesterday,
Or even last month’s sway?
How we drifted worlds apart—
When I thought we shared one heart.
You were my symphony,
My dreams of family.
But it wasn’t meant to be,
A future I failed to see.
You veiled the truth from me,
With smiley emojis, carefree.
Crazy stickers, light disguise—
All masking a shadowed goodbye.
Knocking on doors, people to meet,
house after house, street after street,
keeping going, day after day,
whatever polls or trolls might say,
there's not much time for resting feet.
Car park selfies, the meet and greet,
sharing stickers and printed sheets,
no time to waste, there’s no delay,
knocking on doors.
Sunshine, showers, rinse then repeat,
change is never an easy feat,
when the future is all in play,
but we’ll turn corners, come what may,
walking, talking, to win this seat,
knocking on doors.
You can acknowledge the emptiness at the core of your being
or go crazy when the world goes crazy.
The numbers of us overwhelm,
an impending tsunami,
my hopeful eulogy about our responsibilities to each other,
2 jobs 2 hobbies,
the biomass in the crosswalks,
fears that rend and own us,
the Muslim-Judeo-Christian condition.
Your soul is immortal,
it exists outside of politics and poker. Just kidding.
Forgotten, forgiven and foregone.
A man’s ego needs no encouragement.
“I’m gonna be huge when I’m dead,” John said
last time we spoke.
Life is fine!
tough
the reward for our colossal imperfections
a back and forth game
the rivers and selfies of an empire
daily low intensity warfare
Good
a gift
not a curse
new, so let go
a veil, thin if one doesn’t believe in mystery
like all things that are forever changing but always remain the same
thriving after five nights of steady rain
enjoying the passage of time
or will be good
but a dream
okey doke, short, a lazy-eyed tiger
The teacher store sold stickers
Which I often did employ
On students’ compositions
To add just a little joy.
A smiley face, a yellow star
Or glowing words of praise
Were the tools I used to soften
All the errors of their ways.
But now that I’m retired
I’m still stickering, although
It is now done with my grandchild
And she loves her stickers so!
She has quite a huge collection
So she’s free to use her mind
To create artistic scenes
With all the stickers she can find.
Her grandpa and her nana (me!)
Join her, but please don’t mock
For we stick with her for hours
Never feeling sticker shock!
Some teachers once used stickers
To reward a super grade.
Originally, star-shaped ones
Were all the ones they made.
My grandson's potty-training, too,
Involved those stick-on stars,
Which also were exchangeable
For varied Hot Wheels cars.
His younger sister somehow
Got her hands on quite a few.
Despite her age, she right away
Knew just what she should do.
So now I'm finding, on her chair,
The cabinets, the floor,
A galaxy of shining stars
To jazz up the decor.
two cheeks and one nose
embellished with smile stickers
a toddler face lift
2/4/2017
Again
on the highway
reading bumper stickers
this morning
"life is a beach,
You know what I mean"
"got Jesus,got milk?
buy one,get one free"
"got virgins?go to Virginia"
"dropout and proud"
"my dog is smarter
then your student
of the month"
"bad boys rock,
bad girls rock and roll"
"lady,your middle finger stinks"
"retired,no boss,no bills"
"back up with your bad breath,
you freak"
"hotties for Obama,
rich for Mitt"
"Jesus saved me
from reality TV"
"shame,
gas costs more then beer"
"Wanna go green?
buy a green suit"
"free speech?
go learn english first"
that's all for today
now i'm off the exit...
Billboards and bumper stickers
as we drive down the highway
little pieces of culture
drifting all along the way;
colors, messages, pictures
so many things we see
so few that we remember
billboards and bumper stickers
covered frequently
with new messages to be discovered
suck me in,
spit me out.
try to wipe the dirty flavour from your mouth.
i'll linger there,
like you linger in my mind.
but my heart,
thats a different story.
far from broken,
yet i thought i was in love.
its empty.
hollow.
perhaps its made of tin.
do i even have a heart?
or many spread throughout,
like peanuts or stickers?
in my lungs,
my calves,
my wrists,
my teeth.
you didn't get to them all.
you left me with something.
which is why i dont mind,
why i wont cry over it.
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