Economy Class

They are soaring.
They are nowhere.

She hands him a small square white plastic tray.
He places it in front of him.

She forces out a smile.
He dies inside.

A cottony gauze drapes over him.

Time flexes and bends. 

Asleep. Awake. Then both at the same time.

The TV’s on. With no sound.

Commercials in grainy black and white,

Wordless frames of Tom & Jerry in slow motion.

Music pumps through his headphones.

But he’s not listening anymore.

He looks down and rubs his eyes. 

He looks up.

She’s gone.
Flying away.

Fragile Paradise...

"Life goes on.  It gets so heavy.

The wheel breaks the butterfly."

                         - Coldplay, Paradise

Lost in the Music

"Just because I'm losing,
Doesn't mean I'm lost." 

                        - Coldplay, Lost

                           

No Throwing Pieces

"I'm gonna pick up the pieces,

and build a lego house

when things go wrong we can knock it down"

                           - Ed Sheeran, Lego House

O Hanami Too.0 (Haiku)

Fresh scented halo,

Plays symphonies of pink buds 

That fly though spring air

(Photo Credit: Me)

O Hanami (Haiku)

Gentle blooms pink kiss.

Now gone barren, dark, alone.

Time fleets, petals drop.

(Photo Credit: Me)

The Poetry of Last Resort

“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.” 

                                                ― Charles Bukowski

Marino's Sky Blue

I remember waiting in the sun.

For the ice cream truck. The jingly song.

Two quarters pressed against me,
     
         scotch-taped above my ankle,
               
                   under my sock.

I'm waiting for my Sky Blue Italian Ice,

That I will scrape into my mouth with a flat wooden stick.



Now it's later.

Blue skies and the sound of the ice cream truck.

And I'm waiting for you. Mind drifting away.

You're the popsicle.
And I lick you up in the heat.

Our tongues. Our lips. Our sticky smiles.
Everything turns to blue raspberry sweetness.

And you taste sky blue.
_______________________________________________

*Note: This is a shortened and re-worked version of Summertime Ice Cream

A Tribute to Kurt Vonnegut - Piecing Together His Words

Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?  Me?  I can have oodles of charm when I want to. No good at life, but very funny sometimes with the commentary.  

So here's my advice:

Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.

Just because you can read, write and do a little math, doesn't mean that you're entitled to conquer the universe. If you can do no good, at least do no harm.

There are too many of us and we are all too far apart. But there is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look. So make love when you can. It's good for you. It's to make your soul grow.

(You realize, of course, that everything I say is horseshit. All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies. And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I'm kidding. Actually, in nonsense is strength. But I have had all I can stand of not taking myself seriously.)

So.

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. 

There is no why. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. 

All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. All this happened, more or less. Round and round we spin, with feet of lead and wings of tin. Everything is nothing, with a twist. And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep. 

In the end, we are what we imagine ourselves to be. 

And so it goes . . . Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And until you die . . . it's all life. 

And in the meantime, we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos; where everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

-----------------------------------

**With the exception of a few transitions, all lines in the above are verbatim quotes from the works of Kurt Vonnegut.

Take Me and Feel Better, Except When You Don't

Life got you down?

It always had a way of creeping up on me.

Whatever you do you feel lonely? Alone? Like everyone is far away from you?

When you're depressed where do you want to go?

              Nowhere.

You just shouldn't need to feel this way anymore.

The Feel Good Solution:

Cymbalta.

   Zoloft.
              
               Abilify.

                            Effexor.

                                          Prozac.

                            Lexapro.

             Zyprexa.


There is an increased risk of death or stroke.

Severe liver pains, some fatal, were reported.

Call your doctor if your depression worsens, or if you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of suicide.

In some cases . . . it may lead to coma or death.

___________

**The above are all taken verbatim from advertisements for Cymbalta, Zoloft, Abilify, and Effexor.