Without the guidance

of your teenage son, what 

on earth will you become?

~

To hear him tell it,

I’m destined to end my days

wandering lost in a fog.

As I harken back

to my college search process,

it was not, at all, like this!

~

It must feel good to

know your son has more options

than you had back then.

Why do we look here

and there for happiness when

we could look inside instead?

~

Inner happiness,

somehow, seems less fulfilling

than outer validation.

Let us find beauty,

As unlikely as that seems,

Unto which, to turn our pen.

~

Slowly shifting clouds

against a darkening sky –

beauty comes knocking.

If we are willing

to open our eyes, can we

bear what we will see?

~

If we could stomach

All that open eyes beheld,

We would never have shut them.

Have truth and wisdom

followed faith and charity

into history’s dustbin?

~

Truth and wisdom, faith

and charity still reside

among us dust free.

So, let me get this

straight – groping and grabbing is

ok if you’re rightly aligned?

~

Groping and grabbing

is ok if you’re blind to

basic human dignity.

As the wind begins

to howl and rains to fall

dare we hope for some relief?

~

Here in Virginia

we can expect some relief

from untimely heat.

What if we spent as

much time noting simple joys

as we do dissatisfactions?

~

Noting simple joys

offers scant satisfaction

over dissatisfactions!

I don’t want to hear

the latest dreck to dribble

from the “oval orifice”!

~

I’m astounded, my

fellow poet, that you would

close your ears to false facts and fear.

The first thing to seek

is understanding of self

and others. Love flows from there.

~

What can follow from

peace, love, and understanding

but maybe more of the same?

Narcissists believe,

despite all the evidence,

all press is good press.

~

Underneath it all

they are consumed with a need

to know they really matter.

Tell me, how many

golf trophies does it take to

feed those felled by hurricanes?

~

Gilded plastic cups

will not change mud to water

nor will they feed the hungry.

How can that huge bird

thread these woods so silently;

flashing soundless ‘tween the trees?

~

Unlike He Who Shall

Not Be Named. that bird has not

discovered Twitter

Is there anything

more chilling than sheer darkness

clothed in robes of white?

~

Terror often comes

clad all in shining raiment

to mask its vile nature.

From an early age,

some lap the milk of human kindness;

others… hate’s dark fire hose.

~

Throughout our lives we

choose over and over from

which source we will drink.

Hurricane relief?

Why bother when there are so

many jets to charter?

~

If we took those jets

and flew them ’round hurricanes,

the cash would be better spent.

Sometimes a respite

at exactly the right time

can recharge flagging passions

~

The wise among us

know that sometimes a white flag

is no sign of surrender.

Sometimes even the

best of us draws a blank. We’ll

let the reader complete this piece.

~

When we’re heading down

familiar paths that lead to

 pain, what helps us turn around?

~

Agony’s byway

has so many deep worn ruts,

breaking free is quite the chore.

How can we keep track

of the constant info flood

without some medication?

~

 We must build dikes to

 keep the floods at bay and thus

halt the need for med-evacs.

When the seductive

siren of self-aggrandizement

calls, what will help us hang up?

~

Answering machines

help us to avoid the calls

of unsavory critters.

As chaos fosters

rhetoric more bellicose,

can we step back from the brink?

~

You’ve got the order

wrong. As rhetoric grows more

bellicose, chaos ensues.

e

Why can’t we see Truth

even when it stands before

us glowing with light?

~

Often glowing truths

are really will o’ the wisp

hastening us to our doom.

We choose our focus.

Will it be thorns or blossoms

or the value of both?

~

Both the bloom and thorn

serve a unified purpose:

assuring reproduction.

Merry-go-round or

suspended rollercoaster,

hang on, here we go again.

~

 When everything’s in

a spin, it’s hard to see when

or how it will end.

Both in the same day

I was given the finger

and lent a kind hand.

~

He who flicks you off

is not, necessarily,

kinder than the hand lender.

When routine becomes,

first, ritual then, boring,

how do we re-energize?

~

It’s our state of mind,

not ritual or routine,

that’s the energy drainer.

“Sticks and stones may break

my bones, but words will never

hurt me.” Huh? Seriously?

~

Not all injury

involves a broken body

or the letting of some blood.