a cold wind blowing down Whitney Avenue

There was a cold wind blowing down Whitney Avenue. 

I hadn't been to this bookstore in a long time, at least ten years.

It was a lovely place, even more now than it was then.

It had an adjoining cafe, with a narrow doorway between them.

I had drifted in there, having not been there in so long. I wasn't really after books this windy late October day, I simply wanted... escape.

After looking around for a few minutes, I went to the other coffee stand, the one in the bookstore itself.

Within a glass case, rows of wonderful pastries could be seen, so I decided to try one (very sweet), and accompanied it with a latte. There were two couches near the counter, a nice place to sit and relax.

The music they were playing was nineteen nineties fare, maybe no later than two thousand and three. Aside from the young woman behind a counter with a new iBook, it could have easily been some day more than a decade ago, and my mind began to drift back to that time.

A younger couple walked in. They were perhaps in their mid thirties. They struck me as the artistic type (kindred spirits), though not as radical as many. There seemed to be a sadness between them, conveyed in facial expressions and gestures. Something was sad between them.

I watched them, studying the clearly sad interplay between them.

After watching their few minutes of silent shopping, Eagle Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight" started playing. I could see her look up briefly, coyly, with hurt in her eyes, but then back down to the book she was holding. He caught her glance, put down what he was holding, and walked up to her.

They were standing in a section of shelves that formed an open box, the fiction section. As he got to her, he reached his left arm around her waist, and slid his right hand into hers, and pulled him to her.

He began to dance with her.

I never knew you could dance to that song.

Yet they were.

It was a slow, tender dance.

She rested her head on his chest, now wrapping both arms around him.

There were tears in her eyes, causing them to sparkle, which could be easily seen even from where I sat.

They danced until the song ended, and then stood still when the next song played.

She looked up, and he kissed her lightly, tenderly.

Then, hand in hand, they walked out.

Into that cold October wind that blew down Whitney Avenue.

Darkness Speaks

I had stopped along the road one day for reasons still not known
Looking beyond a bog, into the deep, dark woods found there
On this autumn evening a feeling chilled me to the bone
As the shadows grew longer and my breath hung in the air

The wind was cold that autumn day as I looked into those woods
Reminding me of winter's approach in due time to arrive
The fading light, the shadows, the wind made me shiver still more
Together with my mind these things did conspire and contrive

Perhaps it was a trick of light that confused me as I stood
But something soon caught my attention, soon I was aware
Of a face! A face! I know I saw! There in the tangled brush!
That faded when I looked again where I once saw its stare

I gasped and turned to walk away, convinced it was just nerves
Playing with my mind the way that anxiety sometimes can do
The wind picked up, carrying a voice that sounded in the leaves
A voice so faint but clear that I felt shivered through and through

"You know me well, you always have", the voice in whispers spoke
"You know that I am always there, barely a heartbeat away
You see me yet I'm not really there, your mind knows this is true
The feelings that you feel tell you that I am real as day...

"Those shadows that make you stop and look again with pause
That sometimes appear to come perhaps at the oddest time and places
The creak of the floor, the squeaking door, that make the bumps arise
Those times like these when you know you've seen my many faces...

"For I am the absence of all light, but not the nightly sky,
With thousands of stars it is still blinding when compared to me
No, not the night but something else you fear, you just can't see me still,
Hiding in plain sight and everywhere yet somehow you still can't see...

"For I am darkness, eternal, still, infinite and yet confined"

The voice soon faded from my ears as the wind died down
Leaving but the clattering leaves blowing down along the lane
The Sun appeared one last time as the clouds blew on by
Yet in my mind that voice I heard in a haunting refrain...

"For I am darkness, eternal, still, infinite and yet confined...
For I am darkness, eternal, still, infinite and yet confined...
For I am darkness, eternal, still, infinite and yet confined..."

when once i saw the stars

they glimmer and glisten
a reminder of how small i am
a speck on a speck
in orbit around another glowing point
in an endless sea of stars

i look at them
i know something of their distances
and on this night
they look back at me
and remind me of what was

one glows with light from when i fell in love
another when i was trapped
and this one's photons from a time
from so long ago
when my ancestors roamed the hills of eire

when once i saw the stars
and they glowed upon me
with reminders of what was
what still might be
what i am

a speck on a speck
a reminder of how small i am
they glimmer and glisten
and care not
they just are

poverty

The poor were found in every age as humans walked the earth
From fertile plain to forest dark to death to life to birth
To desert sands to water's edge to ice fields cold and stark
Wherever we have wondered, poverty too leaves its mark


Some have no choice the part they play in this game we know as life
No silken pillows 'neath their heads, no ease, no rest, just strife
From dawn 'til dusk and back again they plod to make ends meet
No crown victorious on their heads instead thorns of defeat


Others still plot this course through decisions none too wise
From judgments deemed just too poor their problems did arise
"This is a choice they made themselves" we say none too kind
"They shouldn't have done this or that, they were perhaps just blind


"And we are right," we say to ourselves, "we have concerns of our own
We need to keep our lives in order, our things, our stuff, our home
We have to run this race we're in most each and every day
We have to do this always and we must keep the wolves at bay


"Besides, the poor aren't hurting so much (or at least, so we're told)
For in winter the houses they live are seldom all that cold
Their shelters are fine, for even in the harshest summer's heat
They can rest and cool their troubled lives, to there they can retreat"


Of course, we lie to ourselves, for once the facts are known
That poverty's skeletal path is not so far from our own
We're one crisis shy, every one of us, from paths filled with dread
Yet we choose to cast derision upon those there already instead


We claim piety for all to see and yet it's very odd
That while we choose to follow him we clearly ignore our God
And Jesus we also ignore and just as equally;
"Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me"


Remember this, and heed these words; poverty's here for all
And those who sit up oh so high have oh so far to fall
For when on the steep slopes of fate any one of us slip
If no one cares then we too fall into poverty's wicked grip

14

Young enough to still dream big

Old enough to desire

Hopeful and ambitious

Cautious and wise

Wanting to conquer the world

Needing to be home by ten at night

Eyes full of wonder

Heart full of hope

The world is still big

Your limitations are small

Music is sweet

Life is still sweet

You're in the cusp

Not really a child

Certainly not an adult

And the horizon is still a long way off

our digitized selves

We’re digital metaphors in the world we created
It’s a place where nothing is real or concrete
We move about here in our virtual city
With virtual shoes on our virtual feet

We own virtual stuff and knick-knacks galore
That we keep in a place neither real nor surreal
Neatly arranged and put onto shelves
Composed of electrons, which certainly are real


And once we have died what becomes of this stuff
That when we were living made our lives so complete?
It really goes nowhere, your digital estate
They simply push down the key labeled “DELETE”

kindle by candle

Kindle by candle
The world has gone dark
Another storm set in
Leaving its mark

You huddle by laptops
Now shuttered and closed
Serving as desktops
For notes you composed

All of your music
And all of your stuff
Was stored as electrons
In digital fluff

One simple surge
Was all that it took
For servers so distant
To suddenly cook

Your teeth are gnashing
You’re screaming aloud
Wondering why in God’s name
You trusted The Cloud

So it’s

Kindle by candle
You’d forgotten the rules
That fate is unkind
To digital fools