The Taste of Star Shine

There was never nothing less than nothing

like what is more than everything

and somewhere in between

we breathe

and believe

we need to need what we need

when in reality

nothing is anything

like the weight of light

weightless till it burns our skin

and even in the dead of night

we are helpless but to let it in

through the scars of stars

cutting through the night’s sky

celestial bodies long since dead

shine like wayward spirits

victims of violence

like the Big Bang

or a supernova exploding

never knowing they’re dead

and far from their light

navigation was read

to get sailors from Europe to the New World

and humanity spread

on Earth by way of stars that don’t even exist

while nothing means something

nothing could even mean everything

to one lost at sea

thirsty

needing his water to be

nothing but salt free

and the madness of the irony

surrounded by water

and dying for a drink

but nothing in the offering

is bigger than everything

real or imagined

and now we can just be,

What To Wear For the End of The World

We were promised a massive storm tonight

a storm so big the whole city is shaking in anticipation

businesses have closed

public transportation stopped dead in its tracks

churches filled then emptied

all from the fear of the wind

and the media is blowing the most hot air

scaring us into submission

over the greatest news story since the last killer storm

the perfect storm

is the perfect news story

to keep us tuned in

telling us where and when to fear

and how long we have to live

and here come the clouds and the wind and the rain

and we’re all doomed

and here comes the inevitable

and then there it goes

and we survived

and aren’t we disappointed!

Like hearing the sound of screeching tires

outside our window

expecting the crash

that never comes

and part of us

the worst side of us

our 2 a.m. dark side of us

feels cheated

that no one died

and we survived

nothing more than a zephyr.

Thinking Outside the Box

We’re too close to death to take it seriously

the membrane between this side and that side of the earth

is as thin as a window pane

we take funerals for granted

like we know we’re all supposed to be there

including the one in the box

so we accept violence on television

and murder as a noun and a verb

and war

and the image of Christ on the cross

is at the core of every church

though the ascendency to heaven

and the resurrection

are images left to the imagination.

Glass Faith

The glass floor at the CN Tower

proves we see right through the miracles at our feet

stepping out on its surface

we walk over 300 meters above the downtown of Toronto

looking down to view our fate

should the glass crack

we put our faith in human engineering

and good glass work

the floor can’t be seen

we look right through it

we see only the floor of the city

so many hundreds of meters below

tourists will stand on this same invisible carpet

to take pictures of the world so far below

never seeing how close they are

to their end

and their beginning

to believing in God.

A Revolution of Angels

The Devil was the first angel to fall

this we know

but who was the second

who is the Buzz Aldrin to the Devil’s Neil Armstrong?

What made that second angel take his leap of faith?

He must have thought that Lucifer knew where he was going.

How high is heaven

if you can’t see how low is hell.

If you’re looking around a poker table and you can’t see who the sucker is

get up cause it’s you.

I Open the Window to Inspiration

I’m listening for rumors and allegations of inspiration

through a broken screen

and I know I haven’t got a clue

just an open window and a barking dog

and now a second dog is barking back

two dogs engaged in loud conversation

I don’t speak dog

so I can only guess they are negotiating fire hydrants

I’m not inspired by fire hydrants but I’ll write the word a couple more times

as terriers mark their territory

fire hydrants mark our anticipation of disaster

just like baseball counts hits, runs and errors, cause the game demands that there be

hits, runs and errors

if not it’s a perfect game

and those are pretty rare

like a perfect day

so we install fire hydrants all around our city

cause we know there’s going to be a fire somewhere.

Now, I’m going to light up a smoke

lean back

and try not to burn the whole place down.

Looking Through Stained Glass Windows

How glass is born from sand

forged in an oven

melted then cooled into transparency

we see right through its body

though we fail to see its flowing properties

left to the sands that time saves

glass bottles will ripple like waves

and what was once clear becomes grainy

like blue tropical skies suddenly become rainy

and the law of gravity

dictates what goes up must come down

from stones to souls

we fall back to where we were first found

laying there on the ground thinking it’s heaven

till someone tells us better

and though we see through the windows of the soul

to the smoke from the coal

rising till shattered by the sky

we know

even though contacts and laser surgery

can’t show us everything

like light can’t be believed

til it’s seen against something

all the red through violet of the prism

and seeing orange and yellow and green and

all without passing through the same prism

that had once been a prison of sand.

Leaping 39 Kilometers To The Ground

Looking at the Earth from above the stratosphere

is like seeing the sea from land

and trying to count fish from the safety of the pier

“There’s always more fish in the sea”

we tell the heart broken

but what if the heartbroken doesn’t like fish

or is vegan

then what do you tell them?

There’s always more clouds in the sky

but clouds change

and the sky turns from a kaleidoscope of sunsets to stars

all within the same night

as the nebulous gives way to the Milky Way

as the night shines through so much brighter

than any light on earth

stars are only as far

as our technology can reach so far

like New York to New Delhi

used to be almost an unreachable distance

when today it means less than a day’s flight with one stopover in Paris, City of Lights

then what will we know when we know Mars

is bone dry and then it’s high time to fly to Jupiter

and Mars becomes its stopover

then suddenly we’ve reached Pluto

and this universe isn’t big enough for our imagination

to think there are as many stars in this galaxy as molecules in the human body

means to me that the ultimate goal to find

is waiting for us

somewhere between our soul and our mind.

I Know I Don’t Know

I know nothing about nothing

doesn’t mean I know everything about everything

or something about something

I mean I know nothing about nothing

meaning the existence of nothing

in this world of something and some things

that are too much to explain

still, it’s simpler to speak of some something than some nothing

which is what I know I know nothing about

if I have confused you, know

you know as much as I know even if you don’t know it

cause it’s worse to think to know something you don’t know

than to know you don’t know anything or even something about nothing

that’s where the ego gets going

and that’s where everything gets lost

in the thinking of knowing things that cannot be known

like a Holy War or tomorrow’s weather even though we know the forecast today

we fight as we pray for peace

we become prey to war machines

preying on soldiers who think they know what they are fighting for

while generals roll the die on their lives hoping to get it right

while God above prays that we make better moves

 

Still Life With Coffee

It’s not just the turning of the leaves

or the turning of the calendar that sets these fingers free

it’s the freedom to do anything

freedom to do anything and I do this

I choose to do this: miss the leaves that left.

I don’t want to dance myself into depression, who chooses to be depressed?

I do.

I sip my midnight like my coffee: black, no sugar.

At the crack of black midnight Sunday morning, still life with coffee, I turn like leaves and

fall.