The Dog That Was Almost Something More

The dirty white dog
Falls twisting in the air
Endlessly
Feet searching for purchase
Eyes showing their whites in fear

Her life flashes before her
All a whirly-burley speed montage
Of food-sleep-outside-food and lazy
None of it mattering the least smattering
To anyone at all

A sudden surge of yearning
Fills the tiny weightless pup
A to make a difference feeling
A thirst for adventure
A want to leave a pawmark upon the world

Until she lands gently upon her favorite pillow
All new thoughts pushed away instantly
Replaced by a hunger for snacks
A thirst for a sip of dirty water
And a desire for a nap

Pulse

Somber-faced DJ
Spin me a song
Scratch it out with your dirty beak
All the night long
Above the gunfire and the screams
Make the humid night air thrum
"WOOMP WOOMP WOOMP"
Till I can't tell the difference
Between a bass beat battering my body
And the Pulse of violence all around me

Oh Brother, Vend to Me a Memory

A dollar slipped right past me the other day
Right between the gender pay thigh gap
Unbeknownst to me
Straight into a vending machine
Freshly packed with butterflies
All delicate wings mangled by corkscrew dispensation
Hung up on that last little ledge
Just above where it says $1.00 - A3
Now to either fall victim to a two for one
For the next patron to come along
Or to a Hulk-worthy grasp and shake
Of this vending automaton bandit
Where I will walk away with half of the inventory

Crushed colored veneer thin wings
And mangled caterpillar body bits and things
All gotten for the low price of one dollar
Proving that money can buy happiness once again

I collected them all up in an impromptu pasted bouquet
To place upon your grave today
Held close beneath my painted face horrific
To frighten away that curse specific
Of time being the great forgettorator
Where you will become less and less with its passage
Crushing out all the specifics as it does
Leaving a furrow trail within my mind
A place for new memories to take root
No matter how frantically the little farmer in my brain
Comes and tries to smooth out the soil once again
The details are gone
As what grows anew will never be the same

The forgetting cannot be stopped
Even with a million broken butterflies
Until only generalities
And false memories
Remain

Path

An outline of a foot
Pressed softly in the sand
One right after another
Leading off to the horizon
As it dips like a frown
To both the left and the right

I follow these most diligently
Stopping only for necessary breaks
Chasing the occasional shiny butterfly
So that my own trail of footfalls that follow
Is more a zig zaggy impressionistic art line

Attention Deficit
And its little brother
Pure unadulterated laziness
Both taking their unseen toll

With ultimate goal a bit  uncertain
Just a hazy gaze outline of a plan
To perhaps reach one step further
Than the ones I so vaguely trace

A Penny's Worth of a Memory

Out of season snow flurries all around
Gusting and swirling
Puffing cold unique flakes
Straight up my new dress pants
Stinging the skin above stretchy dress socks
That cling a little too tightly to my calves
Causing them to moo in discomfort
Later on leaving impressions in the skin

Always late
Scuttling along the sidewalk near my house
Trying not to slip and fall
Red-brown penny loafers not offering much grip
With their leather soles
And hockey puck material heels

Each shoe carries the obligatory penny
Both from the same year
The year of my birth
For luck
A little loafer secret

Pennies never to be spent

Dreamlight

I feel the feather touch of the fantastic
A kiss of breeze
A waft of home
A dash of something alien
Flashing lights behind my eyes
As I rub them in disbelief
Before falling back to grips with gravity
Slung between two paper wings
Soaring to the stars

Loose Ends

Some people are tied up tight
Continuous strands of geometric might
Complex knots at all the joints
All acute angles with purposeful points

Some people are flexible structures
Taut arcs of stretchy strands
Able to squeeze through the tight spots
Then simply take a deep breath to re-expand

Some people are less whole and square
More a ragged flag left too long in the wind
Streaming through life darting this way and that
Ends frayed and unfinished trailing behind

Some people cannot move on without finishing things properly
Tying up every loose end in a permanent way

Some people move on constantly with no end in sight
Less finished business
More anything but