21. To Look and Long

I look and long
When I glimpse a loving glance
Or tender touch
Things we once shared
Before the rigid stares
And frigid glares
Now proximate
Not intimate
Winter without warm embrace
Only cold eyes and face
And rare glance
Faintly hinting of past romance
Laying beneath a cloud of snow
Alive or dead I do not know
Perhaps our love again will bloom and grow

20. A Curious Craving

Philosophers ponder body and mind
Theologians parse spirit and soul
Scientists peer into the conscious and unconscious brain
All seeking to explain
The mystery
Of humanity's need to know
But the only thing that's certain so far
Is just how fascinating we are
We even preserved Einstein's brain in a jar
To search for his mind in part of his body
And so our quest goes on
To discover what makes us tick
And maybe even a cure for the sick
There you have it
A tome in a poem
About our curious craving
To know the unknown

19. A Better We

Me
Thee
We
Entwined
Entangled
Emeshed
A conjoined personality
A blended being
Never meant to be
It's time to reclaim our individuality
Our own identity
Trading codependency
For independency
Held together by the common connection
Of a co-created family
Now I'm free to be me
And you to be thee
A better we

18. Middle Night

Middle night
Sleep departs
Thoughts dart and dash
Mind wheels spin muddy rooster tails
Going nowhere fast
Stuck awake
Ignition off
Mind stills
Quiets
Sleep creeps back
Nestles in
Returns

17. The Family Math of 1+1

When I started out
I thought just one would do
Soon there were two
Then more
For a total of four
Kids that is
Gee whiz
Number four now has three
To add to one's three
To add to three's three
Now two has one with thoughts of two
What started out as one plus one
Is closing in on twenty
Counting the four's one plus ones
Some might say that's plenty
But soon the kids of the kids will join in  
With their children
It's not hard to imagine what's in store
There'll be more
Amazing to the one who thought just one would do

16. Strangely Healing

I've got news
There really is a muse
Who inspired the poets of old
How else to explain the sudden urge to write a poem
Something to say

Not well suited to an essay
Better said with metaphor
Part thought
Part feeling
Strangely healing
As mind and heart embrace
And converse in poetry verse

15. Your story

What's your story
You have one
I have one
Everyone has a tale to tell
To make sense 
of our experience
Past, present
And what's yet to be
A prophecy
Not one told by an ancient sage
One told by you
To you
With power
To shape and guide
The story you write on life's page

14. It's not a fair fight

It's an old story
A child delights
Then demands
Then commands
Soon come the fights
Some you win
But it's not a fair fight
The bigger, smarter you
Fights within 
In search of a way to win
Without a little hit
Just the threat of a lonely sit
That leaves you bearing the pain
It's not a fair fight
What to do 
When the child is bigger 
And smarter than you
And still delights
Even with the fights and frights that battle within
An older voice is heard
I had the same delights, fights, frights 
And pains with you
It's an old story with a happy ending

13. Mind Thing

What is this thing we call the mind
Is it the brain we think with and feel with
Or the soul we come with and leave with
Or just a thought with a name
To explain from where it came
A theory of mind
But one thing's for certain
We all have one
I think
Sometimes too much
I think

12. Phantom Echo

A severed relationship
A phantom limb
No longer there
But still wired into my brain
It feels so real
Especially the pain
Oh, the longing to have it back again
In time the phantom fades
Just its echo remains
To remind

11. Family Roots Wall

As I stared into the lense
Trying to look my best
I had a flash before the flash
Caught a glimpse of a time yet to be
My departure
There on a table in front of an altar
A photo of me
The one about to be taken
A portrait in a time frame
Like the ones I've seen at the funerals I've been
On their way to a drawer
On their way to a family roots wall
On display for the future to see
Searching for face parts passed on to them
Look at that nose, those eyes, that chin, that grin
Passed on by me to my children's, children's children
Passed on to me by my father's, father's, fathers
For me that wasn't so very long ago
My great grandfathers were born in the 50s
The 1850s, I mean
A blink of an eye
The click of a shutter
That's me there on that table, that wall
Smiling a little because I'm a little smiler
From a long line of little smilers with big chins
Who did my eyes come from

10. Silhouette Shadows

I'm working on a theory of dreams 
That makes me think they are not what they seem
Strange yet familiar
But they feel so real
Where do they come from
Where do they go
Some are like old friends
Some like familiar foe
Some a bit of both
Some shock
Some shame
Some are just insane
Where do they come from
Where do they go
Many are those who claim to know
It's God speaking some say
He's pointing the way
No, no, comes the counter claim
Dreams come from worries, fears and uncried tears
Perhaps
Perhaps not
Maybe those who mine the brain will strike it rich 
With a new reality show
Who wouldn't watch another's dreams 
With commercials and a proper viewer caution of course
Okay, Okay
Let's get real
The very thing I tell myself when dreams disturb my rest 
With past tears
Future fears
Or longings unfulfilled
Where do they come from
Where do they go
My theory is that dreams
Are nightly thought streams
Flowing without our knowing
Leaving only silhouette shadows
Cast by the dawning light

9. Carnivore Mind

All my life

and it's been quite a long one so far
Boredom has stocked me
Always
Everywhere
The terror of a long line up

A bathroom without a book
A waiting room

What will I feed my carnivore mind
Something

Anything but a hungry mind

But now I'm bored no more
Filled to full and then some
All because of a magic dish 

Filled with thought delights at a finger touch
My iPad
My Boredom Slayer

8. I am an artist and you are, too

One thought impregnates another
Gives birth to an idea the artist makes visible, tangible, audible
Sometimes tastey and aromatic
There are fine arts, language arts, performing arts
And, yes, even industrial, culinary and martial arts
And, of course, the art of arts and crafts
What kind of artist are you
If fame is your game and money your aim
Go ahead and proclaim
I'm an artist
You really are one too
Just like everyone else who takes a breath outside of their mother's womb

7. Love is not nice

I love you she said
And I you he replied
As long as you're nice to me
I'll be nice to you

Agreed
So began a transaction some call love
Which lasts forever
Until he stops being nice to her or she to him

But Love is not nice

Love is kind

Love is patient

Love is not self-seeking
Love keeps no record of wrongs

Love never fails

But transactions do

So be nice to her
Even if she's not nice to you
Love without payback
Expect no return
Love her even if she doesn't love you

6. I am more than my data

I remember a time when I was more than my data

Before when I was a person instead of a product

No more

I remember when I was more than my likes and dislikes

When I was more than what I read and watched

Or bought at a store

No more

What happened I asked

That's easy came the reply

Big Data gave us free toys

And giggled
I mean googled all the way to the bank

Where Rumpelstiltskin's kin spin our data into gold
Beware
If offered a free product
You are the product
Big Data made it so

5. MIA Elders

Where have all the elders gone
You won't find them among the MIA's resting in entertainment nests
Nibbling on pickled eggs
Watching and waiting
Waiting for what you ask
Don't ask
You wouldn't like it
No nest or mummied eggs for me, thanks
I'd rather keep flying until it's time to fall from the sky
So where have all the elders gone
Look and listen for the Action

4. An urn by another name

They call it heaven

Do what you want
When you want
How you want
If you want

I call it hell

No purpose
No reason
Save one
To have fun

You 've earned it
I'm told

You're old

Relax
Retire
Have fun

Not me, Bud

Death comes soon enough

Why rush into its sticky embrace
By becoming a shelf ornament
Or an urn by another name
I fancy myself as Alice's white rabbit

Where shall I begin
I shall begin at the beginning of each new day
For as long as there are days for me

3. Taliban Tea Party

Right or wrong

Good, bad or evil
Your choice
My choice
Let's have Taliban/Tea Party

Chat about true things
True for you
True for me
True for us
True for all
All the time
Everywhere
Tea, with or without milk

2. Time Before Time

There was a time before time

When nothing dwelled
Or so I'm told by learned folk 
Who say it must be so
Even though we'll never know
Unless we find the clock that time began

1. Curiousity

Why
Why, why
Chipped stone
Sizzled meat
Broccoli on an iron bed
Touch down on Mars
Voyager to nowhere
Everywhere