Just Friends

You keep reminding me,
We're just friends,
Though I've said I love you,
But still,
Just friends,
I have no power,
No more than this,
Even though you've told me you love me too,
Your feelings are your own,
So all my love can do is surrender,
Reminding myself,
True love should mean so much more,
But here I am,
Feeling empty and alone,
Hanging off your sharp hook,
Dangling like a fish out of water,
Unable to untangle myself,
All these deep feelings,
Wishing love would wrap around your heart,
All these silly love things and desperate needs,
Still you are so far away,
And I am reminded once again,
That in your friendly way,
No matter how or what I say,
We remain forever,
So very far apart.

I don't see the use,
Wandering through all these markets and city parks,
Past all those bobbles and beads that are so obtuse,
Sparkly things we'll never have or ever hold,
Never afford because we are the living poor,
So what's the bloody use?
Torturing ourselves with fantasies,
All those things in life beyond our limited reach,
If only we could see unlimited light,
Even a dim glimmer winking at us,
Blinking from far down that wicked tunnel,
Where a vast myriad of lost things,
So many forgotten promises and other gold rings,
Lay littering the scuttled lee side,
Still we discover we are abstrusely marked,
Staring hard into that unrealistic void,
Then arise those feelings of want and need,
So much denied even when we're tormented by want and greed,
All those many desired things,
We'll never have or ever touch,
Because of circumstance elements simply out of reach,
So much we could learn from lessons compassion can teach,
Finding ourselves lost and alone,
Wringing our sorry hands in these difficult times,
Yearning for substance that will never come along,
Human desires like true friendship and honest love,
But for some nightmarish reason,
We find we're not good enough,
Not adequate enough in any season,
Not pretty or handsome enough,
Unsuccessful ones in this needy phony world,
So many wretched poor and neglected downcast,
Pitiable outcast things that make daily life unbearably tough,
Without an ounce of love or friendship,
What good can come of this terrible lonely crowded space?
Who would ever want to hold our hands or kiss our face?
It's so hard finally letting go,
Knowing everything is truly lost,
Realizing there's no way back,
No realistic or absolute out,
Plus such tragic personal cost,
There are no u-turns now,
Nor bridge or safe flight path to take,
A world of lost and lonely souls,
Centuries of messed up lives,
A universe of worthless hopes and dreams we make,
Shaking us to our inner human core,
There can be no more really,
Besides lonely homelessness and back alley death,
Forever ridiculed because of delinquent social norms,
I just don't see the use.

Threads

Threads attach me,
Sewing distant realms together,
Pulling needles with a thread,
Places hemmed by ardent love,
Knotting hearts with love affairs,
Unraveling love and other famous mysteries,
Like monks drinking nettle tea but who cares,
Love doesn't care,
About threads or hearts or splitting hairs,
Unraveled love with all its mismatched history,
Shredding hearts with all love's divergent mystery,
Feelings condemned in time because of loveless shame,
Knitting undone pieces into remnants and other erudite games,
Dexterous fingers painting showy flower petal art,
Love really doesn't care,
Choosing words choosing sides,
Love can't be trusted,
Love might not stay,
Choosing all that love might bring,
Secret love often hides away,
Love might be there or there or even there,
Revealing truth in that mosh of selfish ideas,
But still we stumble,
Fumbling through love's recurrent rooms,
Settings where love crowds an infamous pit,
Somewhere in love's deep ocean,
Pitted against a wandering sky,
Love might finally soar,
Or if luck would have it,
Dive deep to dangerous depths,
Skirting heaven and hell by and by,
So many love stories that love could tell,
Yet errant love grows wings,
A soaring eagle,
A flying fish,
Secure in those unknowable realms,
Love's rebel garments,
Adorned with scales and feathers and golden threads,
Beguiled love with all those patchwork things.

Falling and falling,
Careening over myself,
Plunging off the edge of the flat world,
Plummeting into precipitous blue,
Space slipping beneath my red yellow feet,
Tippling off this shifting shelf,
Sinking deeper into intoxicating love,
Calling love's magenta name,
Falling and falling,
Magnetic in this calling game,
Still falling and falling,
Just north of fragrant love,
Did I say I love you?
Distilled I'm falling,
Surely falling,
Falling just for you.

Freedom,
Far behind us,
Sensing something,
Freedom,
Far in front of us,
We glimpsed untouchable light,
Freedom,
But that forbidding wall,
Freedom,
Still cruel gulags,
Freedom,
Jails overburdened with broken men,
Screaming tortured souls,
Freedom,
Rancid war and horrid bombs,
Armies of bullets and infinite terror,
Freedom,
Oppressed behind iron curtains of savage razor wire,
Freedom,
Precious hopes and dreams,
Clean air and fresh streams to inherit,
Fertile land so family and kin can share it,
Freedom,
Weeping behind cold steel bars,
Dying bound in unforgiving chains,
Freedom,
Crushed by heartless tyrants and dictators,
Imprisoned and crucified in dank dungeons,
Freedom,
Boxed up by  joyless slavery,
Subjugated by heartless servitude,
Freedom,
Shot to death in angry streets,
Beaten and strung up by the neck,
Freedom,
Beheaded and buried by tyranny,
Crushed under the weight of cruel strife,
Freedom,
Invented by poets and artists and anarchists,
All those dreams that children imagine,
Freedom,
Lost and found and lost again,
Genuine freedom tragically forgotten,
Freedom,
Stolen away by insane kings and inane presidents,
Robbed and betrayed by rabid corporations,
Freedom,
Unceremoniously burned in the street,
Incinerated by raging rulers and brutal barbarians,
Freedom,
Imagined but never really achieved,
Concocted but never truly realized,
Freedom,
Reserved by divine command,
Ultimately refined by big brother's almighty hand,
Freedom,
Raped and crucified under Roman laws,
Spat upon by greedy power and unjust social flaws,
Freedom,
Garroted and drowned in bottomless wells,
Infected and injected with abysmal terror,
Freedom,
Human rights stripped away by avarice and hate,
Suppressed resistance by the dragons of war and State,
Freedom,
Hunted to ground by destructive forces,
Trampled by heartless armies and cruel men,
Freedom,
Wishes myth and fables trade,
Hysterical forces in this desperate masquerade,
Freedom,
Love your neighbour,
As you love yourself.

What if love could drive a taxi?
Would precious miles and minutes go by faster?
Would love charge a fare for a trip to sample saki?
Or a rendezvous on the banksy train?
What if love would surrender,
Bow down in the transgressive rain,
Forgive excessive muddy carpet stains,
Relive memoirs garnishing a Persian interior,
What if love could whisk us back in time,
Relinquishing reticent rakish rhyme,
Once again two love birds meet,
Waffling between street and so sweet,
Embracing a long lost jungle crush,
Steamy love rising with all that crazy quilt heat,
Mending wounded patch-work souls,
Piecing together broken hearts,
Exposing token truth,
Extracted with passionate stardust,
And what about cherished rapture?
What about desire's unbridled lust?
What about enraptured love?
Capturing romance in that mixed up rush,
Ecstasy clasped to that exotic crush,
Exquisite love driving a luxurious handsome cab,
Pledging mysterious amour beside the charming sea,
What an engaging ride with jehu love that would be!

Why words?
All this alpha beta energy.
What about these pastel pictures?
Divinity's third eye,
Deep vision with inner sight,
God's deep well of intuition,
Yet this black and white world,
Disillusioned we are blinded,
Illuminated but still we do not see,
We are the walking deaf,
Van Gogh's relieved ear,
Carved relief on Beethoven's piano,
Heaven singing from that deep sea,
Chilled we balk and cannot hear,
Souls waiting to be reborn,
Stubborn innocence again in some fine frame,
Suffering creates this Salvadore Dali atmosphere,
Bleak storm clouds like black curtains,
Rescued from compelling Guernica,
Drawn across this empirical stage,
All these Picasso worlds tinting eternity,
Tempestuous obscurity manifesting rainbows,
Manuscripts of mortal light revealed,
Illustrated chapters bound,
Covered front to back and back to front,
Abiding each watercolor story,
Awash with tides of life and death,
A tinged reef of worldly evolution,
Ubiquitous periods of our lives,
Living stories only God could imagine.