You Got Lost along the Way

I still remember

Back when we wanted something

It’s springtime. You’re cold.

Dry Bones

It’s been 50 years I’ve lain here,

Waiting for some kind of song.

But the fiddle fell on deaf ears

When He drew it swift and strong.

Every bone of mine was broken

When they threw my body down,

But the words have all been spoken

Vibrant life is in this town.

Holy winds clean what was rotten,

Blowing dust off carbon ribs,

Sinews stir with strength forgotten,

Fingers flinch in this eclipse.

Lift my head to see the mountains,

Start to rise and march to war;

In this valley full of dry bones

There is hope like none before.

Stand and listen with my brothers.

Here to answer yet the call

We are living like the breathing

Now restored beyond our fall

Depths

Eyelids like waves, lapping at the beaches of slumber,
But I'm afraid of the ocean.

It isn't pretty

Draw pistols like pictures, it’s wartime.

Fire off shots faster than a frat kid can drink them

And learn that every closet we filled with skeletons is opening up

Like a frog in outerspace, get ready, this one’s gonna be messy.

Throw precision out the window.

It isn’t poetry.

It’s battle.

Forget your rhyme scheme and pretty words.

You’ve got a trigger and a pen.

Choose which one’s stronger.

Waiting

There’s a flood at my windowsill,

But I just sit and watch the droplets on the glass.

you were never in the military

The air was brisk and brittle that morning,

Frozen by news that came without warning,

We learned that six months can come all too quick

And a physician’s mouth can make you sick--

Too little time for all the plans we’d made,

But you wore the pin from that hand grenade

That the doctor pulled like a purple heart

You said each day was a fight to the death

In a war where lungs were stealing your breath

Your heartbeats were gunshots, less than precise

Munitions were low, but they would suffice

The enemy, slaying myriads ‘round

Was the lack of will to rise from the ground

And take one more step into the unknown

So when that fateful day came upon us

Unprepared for the end of this battle

We swore we’d contend in your honor

I’m sorry that we’re all such poor soldiers