Adolescent Adults

Adolescent Adults

Broken 

Like cracked 

Red Plastic Cups

A nation of adolescents 

Who are really forty year old adults

No responsibility 

No view to the next generation 

Let's Party On

Like we are on a permanent 

Disney vaction

Who do we blame 

For this national shame?

The Media, Our Mommy,

Politicians, 

The list is endless 

In the point the finger game

When you are educated 

To only consume

How do you make room 

In your own private

Self actualization boom

We are healthy and cut

With just the right amount of ink

Working and working

To pay charge card bills

We are strung out 

And wrung out

With habits that kill

Seeking alternative consciousness thrills

How do we move from 

Self to other identication ?

We have to become grown ups

In our adolescent nation !

Don't see being an adult

As the killer of joy 

Or the ultimate drag

True selfless Love

Is the prize on the 

Adult living shelf

When we perfect 

That kind of living

We will enjoy visiting 

Not living as

Our adolescent self

Taking tour of new substance abuse program.  It was beautiful and needed, but made me sad to think of so many lives being limited by substance abuse.  Addictions literally stifles development.

Rust Rivers and Dents

Rust and rivet lots of dents
Where have all the dangerous cars went?

I know i drove a lot in the bad cars in 1990s
But was I the only one?
That had inspection stickers from the decade past
Twenty dollar tires you prayed would last?

Have your neighbors identified you
By the sound of your slipping fan belt
Or your back firing 4 cylinder yelp?

Did you ever keep gas
To prime your carborator?

I had a car with a hand choke
Honest, no joke!

That Van that shot fire
Was probably too much
But it belong to the church
So Faith trumps Luck!

Did you keep a screw driver
To spark the starter?!

The Air conditioners
Never worked
That didn't matter
I kept the heat on all year
So the engine would not overheat

Clamps and hoses
To cover the leaks in your brake lines
Popping the clutch
Was always a good time!

It was easier If you parked on a big hill!
That is if you didn't need
Chalk blocks because the
Transmission slipped when in park!

Air shocks keep you from
Buying new springs
Rivets and rust make
You look mean

All the cars now are so nice and clean
I still like to See cars with
Rivets dents and rust!
But I am glad I No longer
Drive cars that bust!!!!!

Saw an old green van on Route 1 South just before Jamestown RI exit.  Brought back memories. 

Autum Without Colors

Autum Without Colors

Autums without color

Like lines in a face getting clearer

Like the end getting dark and nearer 

Like wanting to live the life of another

When days sometimes pass

Sometimes smother

Digging inside for what is bright

Need a machete to hack 

Away the overgrowth and blight

Can't understand the struggle when 

I feel like I  been doing right

It is not by brute strength

But by spiritual might

When I am weak

He is strong and gives 

Me Spiritual sight

Lie in my bed pray and grown all night

Got to live as I approach my twilight

Breathing heavy

Like flood waters inhaling a river's levy

The task task task task

How long will they last

A slave to the machine 

That is designed to be mean

Catch a glimpse of myself

In the mirror with a medicine shelf

Autumn in full view 

In the hew 

In the lines of the

Face that defines me

Peace is what I will

Choose to see

If Autum colors 

Are going to free 

To be in me!

Not the best foliage this year, had me reflect on Autumn without color 

Bored

To be entertained by others work
Or trying create my own
To do something productive
Or get lost in a phone

It is a beautiful day
And I am sitting on
A couch

Bored
Feeling like a louch
Nothing profound
Flowing through me head
But my Sunday nap
Turned into prison on the bed

Don't feel like pulling on friends for affirmation
But need a distraction
A my life vacation

The solution would be simple
If the Pats game I could see
But only got Netfix
So No TV for me

Surviving the Peace

Surviving the Peace

You fought in a land far away
And did what you had to do

You saw friends fall
At your side
So doing drugs
Was an earned right
And a reasonable place to hide

The War for you finished and done
But the fight with addictions has begun
So now the question is
Will the Peace I Survive!

Seen genocide and suicide
The memories of your killing
Have no place to hide
Your deeds had their place
In the protection of the human race
But will the peace I survive

Up for days alert at the trigger
Now sleep refuses to linger
Your mind that won't adapt,
Won't even nap

As you try to move beyond
The Ranger tag and Army cap
You ask...
Will the Peace I survive!

Thought this poem should be longer.  Inspired by rock ceremony at Starlight Program.   Young Army Ranger, struggling with the absence of adventure and the trauma of war  

My Walk Thru the City

My Walk Thru the City

Roaming thru a city
That was once my home
In no hurry, strutting out alone

Not looking for a pretty place sit
Always been comfortable
On steps with the grit
Grab myself a piece of
Convenience store fried chicken
Chill out listen
To passing urban rhythms

Factory driven cities
Have never been clean places
Jack Daniels nips dropped where they were drank
Tits sag in wife beaters
Worn to help with the stank
Cheap cigars hang on lips
Of wrinkled filled faces with no teeth
I am looking for a place
Where shaggy beards meet

I turn from the curb
Into a storefront art collaborative
Bob Marley sounds
Make the vibe attractive
JFK and Robin Williams images
Are hung are without complaint
Robin has earned his place
Among the tacky art saints

An ambulance siren echoes
On the marble stairs of library on the block
Where street smarts
And street art
Will be cool in a generation
Today they are the voices
Creating the conversation
Some are profound
Some meant to shock

A shop must sell 3 wheeled scooters because I saw two
One was an instant friend to a Harley
The other went to war with a pick up truck
The scooter, then the truck, spun U turns
Running and chasing
And shouting fuck you
All I could think is
What are they gonna do!

Hot pastrami sandwich from a kitchen RV
Ended my trip
Another meal ate on the curb
With the grit
I enjoyed my day
Hanging and moving in no particular way
But I have to say,
I am glad this is not my everyday


A had a day to wander around Fall River while waiting for car to be repaired

Indians and Oil

Oil and Indians

Land keeps grabbing for a place to stay
Hoping white men will rest from exploring each day
Land wants to chill with the grass in the hay
But oil and indians keep getting in the way!

We sign great treaties
When the land's too far the see
But give us some time
there'll be a hankering need
We just need a little bit at as go
From sea to shining sea
Don't ya know

It is not that we don't mean the things we say
It is only that oil and Indians keep getting in the way

The protest in North Dakota are the latest example of ambition and greed leading to the mistreatment of native people.

MAD Men

Our competition for resources
Would end with cooperation with each other

So called, reasonable men have discussed the benefits of Mutual Assured Destruction,  
Truly this is MAD

Does ideology only lead to war in the hearts of hungry men?
If only that were true!

Understanding the depravity of man
Brings little comfort    

Predestination even less 
It is just another form of exclusion 
Making God the creator of the
Haves and have none
Of greed and starvation 

Incomplete Poem.  A portion pulled from another poem, Illusive Kindness!

Thinking to the Sink

Thinking to the Sink

Thoughts follow the cadence
Of a full and slow dripping sink

A drop per thought
Can't decide
Should entertain them
Or want them to stop

Awake and Asleep
Simultaneously
Are these thoughts
Friends or Enemies

Thoughts filtered through Scripture
Provide a clearer picture

Am I Anxious
Be anxious for nothing
Am I in want
He provides all my needs

Whatever is pure on lovely
Think on these things solely

A Drop of a Thought
Is always a search for wisdom
Asking is the only condition
For an abundance
Of its provision

Like cool water splashed on a tired face
Is wisdom to thought
Refreshing in its place

That drop of thought is a friend
If a friend I see
My own mind is not my enemy

Thinking Thoughts of Wisdom
I can Let It Be
If I want my mind
To be a friend of me

Caught part of a conversation at the end of a group conversation about dreaming, but being aware that you are asleep... Awake and asleep simultaneously 

Freedom's Wool

Freedom by definition
Means you do your best you
While you let others do it too
And you avoid all that is cruel

But we are programed for uniforms
And punish those who wear theirs wrong
If you can take your conformity beating
You will break from the sheep
And societies shearing

The pressure to Sheep Up will never stop
It has literally killed many who refused that spot

So Be Strong in the wardrobe of your choosing
Be a Nerd
Be a Punk
Be a Christian
Be a Suit
If that is your Wool
Be them all at once if that is what you want to do
Real Freedom means you be you, let other too,
And as Elvis said
Don't Be Cruel

Warrior Flat Face

Warrior Flat Face

Moving Slow, Affect Flat
Shuffling 
About to fall
Where does this soldier want to be?
No where at all!

How do you connect 
Through the mind fogged with haze
How do you break through 
Those eyes so glazed

Let those who shared that walk 
Show the way
Let those with wisdom 
Have their say
Take life by the hour
When days are longer than a day

Leave no man behind
Ain't just about sand and mud
Sometimes it is about 
Laying down the bottle and drug

Man down
Might mean
My Wife don't wanna be Around
As Memories Drown

THERE IS HOPE
Recovery Wins
Pound for Pound
Life don't have to be 
Lived by the Round

Wounded Warrior!!!
Fight !!!!
Your Mind Will Be Sound
What was Lost 
Can be Found

Laugh, Live, Give, 
Push, Shove, Love
Read, Seed, Need
Let your Heart Bleed
We Bear Witness
You Served
Therefore You Succeed

There are a couple of service men who are contained in this poem... Warrior Flat Face has been smiling lately 

Veterans Circle

Vet's Circle

In a Veteran circle
With men half my age
Listening and learning
To the trauma they engage
In isolation Self Imposed
In the group they find Repose

Avoiding war entirely
Is too much to ask
I suppose

What's caught
What's taught
What's fought
When peace is sought

Not peace with the past
Though that is true in part
Peace with the future
Yah, but everyone
Wants a new start

To know it is or
Wasn't done in vain
That there is justification
For this life and its pain

That there are good reasons
We all should remain sane

To laugh as you go about your day
To enjoy the simple pleasures
Of playing a game

To remain as long as you can remain
And navigate the
Stages of Change
To enjoy both the sun and the rain

To know you can be alone and not lonely
Because what every Vet circle knows
Is you don't live for yourself only

Powerful group work is bringing healing to service men suffering from PTSD