Wishing (You) Well

I dropped a wish down the old well

with eyes that followed as it fell

to dark and murky depths below

where doubtful dreams and hopes may grow

but keeping to the local lore

i tossed also a quarter more

it shimmered in the dying light

then into darkness made it's flight

maybe just simple superstition

wasted coin, a poor petition

or fleeting comfort for the few

who frankly know naught else to do

when all else fails, you may yet try

but wave your pocket change goodbye

Leap of Faith

A heart so walled away is blind
if i entered, think you would mind?
fortresses do crumble, Dear
Twas through a crack i entered here
throw up your walls to keep me out
i'll slip back in with your self-doubt
you're not infallible, you know
I'm simply trying to help you grow
with lessons learned that we all share
with aims to help, to strip you bare
from such illusions harbored in
each morning's hollow waking grin
each evening's frown before you sleep
dreams haunted by the lies you keep
and fears yets still of something more
not of life's love you could restore
but also that you could regain
the semblance of a heart's true pain
that you might trade it for the dark
protection for a lesser mark

Wishful Thinking

Bring me to the water's edge

ripples dance across the surface

i'll sit with you upon a ledge

counting ways that it was worth this

knowing it's all just a dream

hold my hand until the waking

our stones, we'll toss, into the stream

until woken by gentle shaking

sunrise comes when it is ready

entwined fingers, palms together

i do my best to keep it steady

♡ that skips like rocks on water

unfair facts that i can't alter

Change of Heart

A heart of stone you ground to dust

and breathed life into with your trust

it changed me and brought such great joy

so shocked at first it seemed a ploy

from dust to clay a vessel shaped

but filled with holes and cracks that gaped

my earthen heart was fragile yet

still none inside it came to let

but in you seeped like molten gold

you drowned my doubts and took firm hold

securely settled deep inside

the brilliant warmth solidified

it's fractured shelled then fell away

a perfect whole where it had lay

Moonstruck

i look upon a distant star
my body's here, my thoughts are far
it's so nice to be understood
to know you're loved, to feel so good

i lay here in my bed tonight

the music's on, the feeling's right

just knowing someone out there cares

puts me at peace, nothing compares

The Masks We Wear

Wanted to be a loyal friend
Sometimes we fail to see the end
My heart, once bruised, now on the mend
The days flew by so very fast

Those dreams I entertained some nights
Of company and turned-off lights
Took mind and body to new heights
Now deeply buried in the past

The cruelest card that life has dealt
That gets me blue, makes my hopes melt
Is that despite how good they’ve felt
Of ties I make, none seem to last

I grow attached quite easily
My social sense abandons me
I’ve done some awkward things, you see
Such history is very vast

I patiently await the day
That I might hear the newsman say
“Hell’s frozen over, let us pray”
That from me, this curse I may cast

Lest it all come crumbling down

I'd rather have a brickhouse than a straw or stick house
tough as nails and never fails to hold
i found a warm and cheery glow inside
the night the door was opened wide
with drapes and carpets covered like pure gold
who lives within i cannot say
i suppose that i'll find out someday
but for now the bed is calling me
and before i drift off far from here
i want to make this brickhouse secure
from waiting wolves and offer some safety

Invitation to the Depths

Believe in what you cannot see
Can you conceive the air we breathe?
Each breath is slowly killing me
You know you will too eventually
It’s nothing to laugh at that time destroys all things
While wearing your heart on your sleeves
You’ll find out how much it bleeds
how many dark stains it leaves
How jaded are your memories
That you can’t see the forest for the trees
But I can see the sea, washing steadily over me
I know the tides, your change of sides
You shift on that beach quite nervously
Stepping on sand, your piece of dry land
The only certainty on which you stand
But let’s swim, these depths invite you in
Test your waters, fear isn’t the only common sense
It’s a natural defense, another border fence
Breathe, this air will help you float, but only if you let it
Can you take it? Life has no preserver, you got to make it
It’s all about your motion in this ocean; sink or swim;
Davey Jones waits and you could very well join him
I can see your back, but all you can see is the shore
Walking on water isn’t commonplace these days
It just doesn’t happen anymore
But damn, I swear you swam, half-ran right back over that crest
Your shirt, a useless sail fixed to a heaving chest
Where did your loyalties lie & when did they falter and die?

Craters & Catalysts

Fall back into the crater where the catalyst hit
Of the depth of inspiration you’ve found in it
Far from the world let’s try to free fall
Like leaves from a tree first one, two, then all
to float on the surface, where you lie there dying
technically but surely, though some go on trying
Immersed in a sea, what is it to be?
So uncharacteristically buoyant
Yet still sinking quite peacefully
When facts don’t make sense
And ignorance, your only pretense
‘cause they’re all so shallow
like spheres sorely lacking dimensions
useful as a trip to the gallows
Grab hold as you’re told to the rope in suspension
Be ready to jump when you wish to land
The choice always given, everything close at hand
Not often we land on a sole destination
But with one foot in uncertainty, and the other temptation
For all that we seek, the bright-colored lights
That so light up our dreams
And fill up our nights
would you tear at the seams
As you drift from the heights?
No, dive in and absorb it, these rare lucid streams

Sticks & Sand

writing in the sand
like so many times before
incoming of a wave
washing my words from the shore
gathering my thoughts
as rhythmic water sounds and breaks
even as i finish a new line
again, the ocean comes and from me takes