Single Man Seeking Loved Ones

Animals don't really have rules, laws. Most of them do have good manners, I've noticed. Maybe man came up with the concept of law with good intentions. Somewhere along the line, profit came into the mix. Oh, and power, too.

Now, I'm a man without much money and even less power. I don't mean to brag but I've got more joy than the president of the United States. Wait- yeah, I mean to brag.

Those children are our children, our responsibility. So are those hungry people and those sick folks without any access to healthcare. I won't sleep at all well tonight if I don't mention all the stray dogs and cats on the streets and in the shelters.

Look for the sweet ones. The place is crawlin' with 'em.

Nothing Supreme

How much matters? I keep my mind on love 'til I don't. This old world breaks hearts and breaks spirits as a mean hobby.

In some circles the males were "Rolling Stones" or "Beatles." "Rosenquist" or "Rauschenberg." "Hemingway" or "Kerouac." 

Honestly, if they store up enough jizz in the sperm banks, men are done. Quote me. Make sure to get your jar opened before the last one goes. Here's your hat, what's your hurry?

                                       

The Wheels Fell Off

At this point I have to wonder which will last longer- me or the good ol' USA? 

Kindergarten was a new phenomena when I was five. I didn't go. Now I have to implement my Sunday school moral education with information gleaned from bumper stickers. T-shirts. 

A friend just asked where I picture myself in five years. The first thing that crossed my mind was a hole in the front yard.

                                    

Bound For Gory

From my vantage point it all looks like milk and honey. Oh, yeah, there are bumps in the road. Heroes, though, they learn to die. If they're lucky, they just go peacefully, in their sleep.

It's funny, isn't it? You live a long life and what do you remember? Being picked last for kickball. Not being asked to square-dance when it's the girls' turn.

This is not my country. These are not my times.

Joy? I know all about that stuff. We tried to trade glass beads and smallpox blankets for it. How's that working out?

Black Eyes and Crooked Noses

Well, I guess I've about had it with compromise. There's right and there's wrong. Oh, I've had it with fighting, too. Politics is just too mean for me to pay much attention. I'm including church politics in there. I choose to live with love.

Everybody's invited. Don't show up to tell me how foolhardy this is, though. I know, I know.

Grown Up Fever

Honestly, I've never felt like an adult. A grown up. I've always been uncomfortable in adult roles, grown up clothes. Now? I'm an old man having skipped over all those stages of life with names like adolescence, young adult, middle age.

There are no real advantages that I can find.

I'm gonna try to make the most of it. I'll never be wise but I'll always tell you the truth.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

Time Can't Be Wasted

Of course time can't be saved either. One minute it's here, next minute it's still here. Stars, though, they burn out. Luckily, we have plenty. More than all the grains of sand, I hear.

Every song I don't write is something that I feel and don't share with you.

I'm saving it all for Valentine's Day.

My Zero Tolerance

Somehow I seem to find myself right in style. Almost fashionable. I have zero tolerance as it turns out. Who knew?

Yeah, I have zero tolerance for these psychopaths in D.C. and these bureaucrats mishandling children. I have no patience for "Americans" willing to watch roving gangs of thieves destroy our democracy in order to secure their own tax cuts. I find myself unable to sit through biblical babble from evil hillbilly runts justifying and legitimizing hateful action torturing and penalizing the weakest people in our society. 

Oh, dear friends, I could go on:

Unending war. Environmental degradation. Lobbyists writing legislation. Income inequality. Healthcare that does not provide health care. 

I could go on. How's your tolerance?

These villains don't read. They don't know history. That's obvious. Do they know where revolutions come from?

                                        

Kneeling Here

Oh, I'll vote. I'll renew my driver's license to stay out of the pokey. In the meantime, though, I will do everything in my power to undermine this "government." Notice I didn't say overthrow. These psychopaths do not represent me in any way. 

Let me talk to the soldiers and I will try with all I'm worth to convince them to lay down their arms. 

For the time being I'm not going anywhere. I don't know where to go.

As long as children cry and I have to look at monsters using them for political games, count me as an insurgent. I will not be fooled into hate.

                                          

Jesters and Psychopaths

Life. Kinda' the ultimate distraction, isn't it? It's not like I've got better things to do. I always thought that villains didn't really exist, that grownups knew better. Now I watch this orange ogre and this hillbilly imp stealing children as though they were staging some Brothers Grimm fairy tale and I cry myself to sleep.

Sometimes I wish I believed in heaven.

Today I wish I believed in hell.

War Games

Sometimes I wonder, "Why do I waste my time on this dribble?"

"Why do I preach as though I have something important to say?"

Well, sir, here's what it's all been building to. Little boys play war. In my culture we played cowboys and Indians. We coveted toy guns and we set ants on fire with magnifying glasses. Me? I saw "To Hell and Back" seven times.

On the other hand, I have always favored pink shirts. I did mention that I was raised by women, didn't I? Strong women. Loving women. Smart women.

Now, here I am- an old man. Oh, I've always had the nerve to speak up. It just takes some time to get the words in order.

Do everything in your power to stop war. All war.

Help the ones who can't help themselves, human and otherwise.

Ignore false prophets. They will make themselves obvious.

That's about it, my beautiful friends. Love with all your heart. That green paper and that shiny metal are tricks. If these bozos think that they own land, well, I'll dance at their funerals. 

When you find someone who tells you the truth, slap him on the back. Give her a kiss. As him to dance.

The Devil's Makeup

Here I sit counting breaths and thinking in rhyme, trying to keep it in waltz time. It has taken me this long to figure out that there's no such thing as good luck or bad luck. It's all just life. You live for a while and you die. It ain't rocket surgery.

Remember those old bumperstickers, "He who dies with the most toys wins?"

Well, no, if you're not older than Pythagoras, you don't.

Fact is, love hard, love often, love unconditionally- you win.

What Rhymes With Moon?

There are days when I'm sure that all the songs have been written. Sometimes I worry that I wore out this old heart several romances back. It's been out of warranty for years.

Oh, I'm not complaining. If I were famous, they would kill me. 

If you take yourself seriously, you're a fool. On the other hand, nobody's better than you. Use your love to fix things.

Buttoned Lips

All my ends are dead and I'm searching for a pulse. All these living things need love and here I am with a heart full of it. It seems to be a supply and demand problem.

Having never fallen out of love and having never fixed a broken heart, I've built a tower of sad that is a monument to loneliness. Maybe it's all for a song.

Pray for peace. Search for truth.

Rambunctious

If you put life's parts together wrong, you have drama. Unfortunately, there are no printed directions. Well, that's not altogether true. They're out there but how do you know where to find them?

Fragility is not really an attractive trait, is it?

Stiff upper lip and all, right? It's Ms. Gore's party and I'll cry if I want to.

Three Eyed Jacks

Low expectations, that's the key. I've never wanted anything that I didn't get and what did it ever get me? Now I've run outta' stuff to want.  

When I was a kid I would sit for hours poring over the Sears & Roebuck catalog. I would mentally select one item from every page for each member of my extended family. Mom, Grandma, cousins, all the aunts and uncles. Sometimes friends, neighbors and great aunts and uncles.

It was a disciplined exercise. I wouldn't allow myself to skip a page. Of course I was always aware that Murray Jr. didn't need anything from ladies' lingerie and that Aunt Pauline had almost no interest in baby chicks.

When I think about the hours that went into this endeavor, I'm reminded that I could have amounted to more with a little direction.

My big plan was a commune. Still is, I suppose. Funny- this old man who lives alone and has gotten comfortable at a table for one has always wanted to live with everyone. I want all the dogs and cats, too.

In college I took a course, Idea of Utopia, in the Ideas Department. Everybody else understood that it was a literary class. I thought it was some kind of vocational thing.

I was never like the others. Never will be. When friends try to be kind in explaining my personality, they tell me, " She just doesn't get you." They've been telling me that for years. I've just begun to catch on.

Secure Your Valuables

Seems to me that maybe the major source of unhappiness is the expectation of happiness. Let's hope I've got it wrong because I can't see any way out of that one. How good would romance be without drama? We'll never know.

Elvis offered to teach me karate. He didn't, of course, but he offered.

My life story is all based on "what if?" and "this close" and "if only."

I wouldn't change a thing.

Pardon Me

Wise men and wise guys still debate the temptations of Eve and the flavors of Kool-Aid. Me? I talk to ghosts of the heart and struggle to pay attention. You can't waste time. You can't waste love.

Tell 'em the truth but tell it in jokes. Songs. You may not set anybody free but you'll sleep like a baby.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

Warm Weather Friends

Woke up this morning with gravity everywhere. Dreamers shouldn't have to put up with any such indignity. Artists will tell you that they see the notes, feel the colors, smell the truth. You can't make somebody else burn.

Here's that ton of bricks that I've heard so much about:

Love won't make you happy. Not forever. Neither will lack of the stuff. Losing love will make you unhappy. So will losing your keys. Heartbreak looks for excuses.