Cocooning

Bomb blast cataclysm,

Wars, infighting and schisms,

My world a nuclear holocaust

Chart and compass have been lost.

Feel completely paralysed,

Magnetic residue depolarised.

Haze and ash from smoking fires

Veil the stars up in the skies.

Wrapped in what remains of hope,

I gather my forces and regroup.

Gotta do some figuring

To understand where I'm going 

Once renewed I will come forth,

Spread my wings and fly due North. 

Face Off

I've been afraid of you.

Never wanted to admit it

Cause I thought it made me weak.

But I'm afraid of you.

I've been terrified of you.

The look in your eye, 

The edge in your voice,

The way you hold yourself,

It all terrifies me.

I am scared witless by you.

You drain my confidence

Have me second-guessing every decision,

Every step,

Babbling, rambling, losing my cool,

Losing my control.

I have feared you for so long.

Forever it seems.

But it's a problem.

And the status quo 

Isn't always the way to go.

Fear has run its course.

I need to face you,

And face you I shall.

I might tremble a little,

I might be tempted to pee a little

But I'll come out of it strong.

Army of One

It only takes one voice

To make a difference,

One tiny dislodged pebble

That loosens another 

And brings on an avalanche.

One time is all it takes

For a habit to begin to form

And a single word,

Spoken with boldness- 

A single no,

A simple yes-

Can trigger change

Through the power of influence.

Scar Tissue

I didn't know 

You could affect me like this.

I hadn't realised 

How deep you'd gotten under my skin.

It wasn't til I took a closer look

At the places I'd been,

That I got the real picture

Of the damage within.

I've had time to heal 

From the havoc, burns and breakings

But deep inside there's still a dull aching

That I cannot reach

And it's taking all I've got to stop myself shaking

From the chills that I feel 

At the memory of you

Buried deep underneath

Layers of scar tissue.

Once you were out of my life,

I simply moved on.

I never thought about you.

Not even once.

But for some reason lately,

You've been on my mind;

I can't seem to shut you out.

Believe me, 

I've tried.

I tell myself over and over again

There's no need,

No need at all for me to dwell

On stuff that happened way back when.

But it isn't that simple

And I cried

When I understood how much it's affected my life.

I took it for granted 

When my wounds disappeared,

That all was forgiven,

I had nothing to fear,

The past was behind me,

The future was here.

But it was just this scar tissue

Numbing me at the point where

There was a major issue

And I couldn't see clear.

Now I see for myself

How much I surrendered 

Through ignorance of my health,

How all of the pain that I had disguised

Had me running on fumes.

Fumes made from lies

That created a spectre like a monstrous tower

That loomed high above me 

In whose shadow I cowered.

Now I've found the courage

To reclaim my power.

Now I won't let you daunt me

No matter how much you glower.

 Now I have the remedy 

That truth brought home to me:

Love and forgiveness

Have healed me fully.

Now the hurt and the pain 

Are gone finally.

And the marks on my flesh,

Those dark, ugly scars

They are bookmarks of lessons learnt

And now, that's all they are.

Wake Up Call

Eyes closed, mouth shut,

Let you have the things you want.

Sat back, content to watch

Now I see that I was such

A fool to leave so much unsaid

In hopes that things would sort themselves.

Just because you say so,

It doesn't mean that you know best.

And just because you think you know,

It doesn't nullify the rest.

If I had a dollar for every time I let

You have your way to avoid an argument,

I'd be a frickin' billionaire! 

You couldn't see how it affected me

Or else you didn't care.

Just because you have opinions

Doesn't mean you can ignore my reasons.

And just because you've had your say,

It doesn't make my words unnecessary.

I am not a genie you can summon

When you feel the urge to play

But whom you can stuff into a bottle

When you're done for the day.

Just because you've grown by leaps and bounds,

It doesn't give you the right to crowd me out.

And just because you have a voice,

It doesn't mean you get to veto my choice.

I am not a switch 

That you can just flip on or off

And frankly, right about now I have  

Had more than enough.

Deconstructing the Man-Child

Dolls and guns and building blocks,

Make-up, tops and Tonka trucks

Don't all make the most suitable toys

For the games of little boys.

Or maybe you're not a boy at all.

Maybe you're really a little girl.

You'll never make it in this world

If you don't toughen up and stand tall.

Little boy you're way too soft.

You've been too coddled.

You're not manly enough.

Hands straight, wrist's way too limp

Folks'll think you're a weakling,

A sissy, a wimp.

So what if you don't care for sports?

There lies your province

And you'd better conform.

Take your tears and stuff 'em down.

Who cares if you're hurt?

There are people around!

These feelings of yours, they have no place

Out in society

You have to save face

No matter the cost or what toll it may take.

Don't look at me like I've got you vexed.

We are the grown-ups

And we know what's best

Day in the Doldrums

With nothing to do,

I stretch out and lie flat

Feeling the wood

Dig into my back.

I exhale all the tension, 

Look to the sky

And observe there aloft

Mirrored life passing by.

The wind in the sails

Has grown old and died,

The currents are still

There's no hope in the tide.

Here I'm suspended,

Hostage of the Fates

Ignorant of 

What new thing awaits

In the upcoming minutes, 

Or hours, or days.

While my vessel sits quiet

With nary a wave

Or even a ripple

Upon crystalline sea,

I drink in the silence

And learn to just be.

Weather False-Cast

Fair to partly cloudy

With a risk of scattered showers,

And I was ready for a lovely day.

Wasn't worried 'bout the rain 

'Cause I knew it'd go away;

When it came

The sun would always be there
To shield me from the pain.

So when the drops they started fallin'

I didn't think it was a warnin',

Never been afraid of a little gray.

Wasn't til some hours later 

When the drops had grown much greater,

That I suspected gloom was here to stay.

Well the weatherman was talkin'

'Bout all the systems workin'

In the atmosphere 

Said there wouldn't be a problem;

All my concerns he'd solve 'em

Now I wanna know what's goin' on round here.

I'm talkin' to you Weatherman.

You ain't nothin' but a charlatan.

You sold me bundles of false hope

With your slick smile and the words you spoke.

So I'm callin' you out Mr. Weatherman

Speak up now, if you can.

I heard the thunder rolling in the distance

And decided it was time to listen

For an update from the radio.

I knew it was a bad omen

When the wind that had been sighin'

Began to scream and then to roar.

Next came the forecast I'd been dreadin'

And confirmed the thing that I'd been guessin':

I was caught out in a raging storm.

It's flash floods and landslides

And people fearin' for their lives.

I can't believe that this could happen

Just when I should be relaxin';

I'm caught up in a war of elements

When I never enlisted or gave my consent.

Gale force winds,

Water on the rise,
Pounding surf;

Lightening flashes 

Make me want to hide.

A small craft advisory is in force,

I doubt if it could get much worse.

I know this storm is not your fault

But you should have known to warn me first.

I never saw it comin',

Got blindsided this mornin',

I mean I was so damn unprepared.

This thing it hit me at unawares

When you should have had my back

And I will always blame you for that.

Talkin' to you Weatherman,

Cruel, heartless charlatan.

With your good looks and boyish charm

You took me in and you disarmed

And put me in the way of harm

Instead of sounding the alarm.

Talkin' to you Weatherman,

Slick, smooth talkin' snake oil man.

Talkin' to you Weatherman,

I survived despite your plan.

Talkin' to you Weatherman,

I'll never fall for you again.

There is life

There is life.

Underneath the frigid snow,

And in the dungeons far below

The rugged surface of the earth

Are troves of unimaginable worth

Far away from prying eyes

And the groping fingers of thieving spies

There is life.

In deserts dry, dusty and bare,

You'll find that even there

To the well-trained, practiced ear
There pulses in the atmosphere
Hums and sound of endless chatter

From secret pools of living matter.

There is life.

In a world of hearts gone cold

Where robots and zombies march without souls,

There still exists a hidden laughter

For those who believe in a happily ever after

The spark of warmth that radiates

Will melt the frost upon some gate

That leads down old, forgotten paths

To where the weary, wayworn heart

Can take its rest and find some peace

And there you'll find it

Life indeed.

Shapes in the Clouds

 

 Never was a fan of squares.

All those straight lines 

And sharp edges

Always seemed too severe.

But triangles just weren't my thing.

Too pointy,

Too pompous and ominous 

And rigid.

I tried the circle routine.

And that gave me boundaries... 

For a while,

But I mostly remember

Being dizzy all the time.

So maybe, I'm not meant to be geometric 

Never been good at fitting into the norm.

Perhaps what I need is something less electric.

I'd probably be better off with a more organic form.

Curves and squiggles,

That entice laughter and giggles.

A world where rhyme weaves tapestries out of riddle,

Where caterpillers hold court 

And cats play the fiddle,

Where myth and legend can cavort 

In fields of the Elysian sort.

So rather than passively feeling out of place,

I'm gonna migrate,

Find myself a climate

That's much more suited to my taste;

A land fit for an itinerant space case.