A man in his space, working with dead trees
Bones of trees
He speaks in terms of oak and poplar, cherry and black walnut,
maple and pine
Woody artful expressions like graceful and elegant,
rich and forgiving, ease and relief ...grain
Worn of hands and brow, the carpenter sculpted the shapes and shards
of tree bones, lived long and darkened rings
Of those he most loved, and refined their lines with the
solemn fusions he carried in his heart...

Wordle

ANGER
HAVEN
PATCH
BATCH
MATCH
LATCH
SORRY

Anybody know what time it is?

It was the corner of E.Colfax and Humboldt
Southwest I remember
Cold Thanksgiving
Colder that December
Small room off the side
shared it with my dog, a pallet, and a slide
down on the parallel lines
Offset beveled and conical splines
Rounded men by bashing rocks
falling down the mountain...

Anything
anymore
sign the lease
hit the door
giving thanks 
metaphor

I was an ant at a time
when time was unbent
I walked my way through
the maze fate had set
but failed to note
the roads without end
the things that could have been
were I made to think of them
but I wasn't 
so there I was 
at the end
of a life well spent,
or so I thought, 
at the time 

Verse Two Plus B Part and Chorus

Just trying to keep it real ya'll
trying to relate
Keeping light prescribed 
not to pontificate
Staying in the long view and living on the plain
a black and white stand on a pallet blue pain
 
(Let me proclaim! Let me explain! Let me exclaim!)

Been a hip hop life yo
a hip hop life
Changes come with strife it's a hip hop life...

A new way to measure wealth in other than accrued on paper
or cyber systems of increasingly artificial intelligence
might be in the satisfaction of status postponed until
a guy 
or a girl or
the ghost of either
or even neither
runs the express check-out
12 items max only please
No checks. No chokes
No bad puns.
Holy smokes.
So much fun
So little time

Max 
Who?

The
Line
Formed
On
The
Sand
Where
Waves
Feathered
The
Shore
Are
Littered
With
Bits
Of
Haste
And
Waste
And
The
Broken
Shells
Of
Broken
Animals
At
Once
Bathed
In
Foam
And
Salt
And
Silent
Screams
Of
Meaning
And
The
Ears
And
Eyes
Of
Innocent
Children
Yearning
To
Be
Free
Of
Boundaries
Under
The
Sun
And
Within
The
Music
Of
The
Night
Echoing
Off
The
Open
Sky
And
Reaching
Down
To
The
Bottom
Of
An
Empty
Well
Called
The
Ocean
Of
Denial

I saw the sun come up
I saw the sun go down
I had a coffee and drunk it down
It kept me up all night
Until the sun showed it light
And it showed me my plight

Render me riddles
Render me time
Render me laughter as I'm waiting in line

Render me bread
Render me wine
Render me music in every rendered rhyme...

Big Words And Things

A large black salamander guards the area of the spigot
He seems satisfied there, under paving stones and incidental life water
Not inconsequentially, his kingdom boasts survival

So spank me already!
I ate your chicken samich
and drank your flat beer
and binged myself on your cable.
So spank me already
I've been a bad bad boy.

Under the tortured memory tree
I saw you; you saw me
Under the stain of pride and grief
Trust is slain by rusted teeth
Being hunger; bade the strife
Beyond the tender breath of life
For the love of tatters and broader shoals
Wading the textured waters...

Cardinal Seen

He comes to the feast every day
fungal eye and matted crown
His red feathered body bleached by disease
His beak deformed and flaking
Quietly I watch him struggle to crack sunflower seeds
and listen intently to his joyous cheeps
Marvelous the sight, I fret
knowing he is not long for this world

Edit:

The weeks passed since those words
He thrives
Appearing as a miniature vulture, red feathered and completely bald now
the growth from his upper beak at least an inch long
he tips his head to the side
and scoops sunflower seed, 
and ever so gently
places it in the mouth of a female companion
How? Why?
Marvelously so

sick sad been had words and rhymes
freedoms chimes lemons limes
empty trains and empty talk
acids rain on stammered walk
a glancing blow a timing light
four in the floor good Friday night
based on not much these mud pies stick
to gather the eye bone a tell of the trick...

Like riding a bicycle,
playing card clipped to the front forks
with mother supplied clothespin.
Like Steve McQueen's great escape;
suddenly tangled in a barbed wire fantasy
of freedom.
Must have been the Joker...

Yeah I'm a bad boy, but I coulda been worse.
Coulda scuffed your shoes, and wrecked your hearse.
Coulda soured your wedding, and forgotten a verse.
Just waiting for the ax to fall;
that birthday you fell from the sky.

It goes this way; then darker. Then dark.
Death on a street sign, then hitting the mark.
Shadows of children; the sign of a spark.
Three suns down,  just under a stall.
That birthday we fell from the sky.

ok. I'll risk it.

the last three years.
The last three months
the last three days.

the last three hours
the last three minutes
the last three seconds.

I could paint it for you
or sculpt it
Or sing it

I could play it on a harmonica or a drum
or two blades of grass

really!
remind me to show you
to hear me

play a song
that begins in grief
and ends in joy.

remind me.
don't forget
to...

window
seed
bird
earth
soul
life
death
grief
push
laugh
cry
love
hat
detract
distract
deceive 
tree
milk
honey
sun
blood
branch
squirrel
war
truth
music

 ScottN wrote: