Grey > Gray

Grey days and Gray nights
Combine to make the Greays
A truly horrid spelling sight

Grey sunlight spotlights my way
As I go greyly about
My greyest of days

The prettiest rainbow I have seen lately
Was a loud sheen of grey of shifting hail
Clearly divided stripes in the sky
A salesman's display of greyscale

Maybe it's just me?
I ask myself out loud
A middle aged grey man
In his little island of grey
While the rest of the world 
Is colorful
Is normal
Is more than just 

GREY

I'd build the fastest vehicle ever known
Just to escape the greys
Something with which to build the speed
Necessary to get to a red shift
To stretch the wavelengths like a taffy puller
Though I pause in this contemplation

What if I went to all that trouble
Only to find it all is a grey-shift instead?
That it was all just a mad search for something called color
When all that there is
When all that there ever was

Is GREY

- FDR30JAN2023

Just Don't Think About It

The rear end of a trash truck was bright in the darkness
My brain designed the arrangement of lights as a face
In an all too typical fit of pareidolia
Though definitely a mechanical version of one
Just a rough outline of five white lights
With one steadily flashing orange one at top center

Awaiting an input perhaps

George Harrison played on my radio
Another cheerful song
About some serious subject

And my mind wanders
Back to serious things
That I normally keep tucked away

Orange flashing light
George Harrison
Fucked up thoughts

I wish they'd go away

So I pass the now disapproving face of lights
That ass end of a speeding trash truck
Revealing open road ahead
Lined by all the multi-colored reflectors
That everyone wants to put at the end of their driveways
On their mailboxes
Corner posts
And unique family signs
Each trying so hard to be one of a kind
That they all bleed together into a kaleidoscope of colors
One not being distinct from another, really

George finishes his song
To reveal a sudden
"Burt Watson Chevrolet!
The only Chevrolet dealer by the airport!"
Distraction

I think of other things

More pleasant things

I bump up the cruise control a couple of times

And I drive on

- FDR22NOV2021

That Elderly Aircraft Mechanic's Lament

Gather thy nuts and bolts while ye may
For as the years grow colder
The fingers lack flex and closure
While the worms gnaw away inside

Until a husk of yourself is all that is left
An eggshell thin and fragile
Which would crack at the slightest shamble
Unable to bend and pick the FOD upon the ground

To grasp and pull upon that expensive wrench

Feels as a knife edge upon the fingers

A conundrum and conflict of a sort

For your skin turned to thick leather years ago

Too poor to quit

Too old to rehire

Is this that that awaits us

As we yearn to retire?

The Union stole your pension

The recession ate your 401K

Family emergencies sucked those savings

So you go in again every single day

Grind the corrosion

Flush patch the flaw

R&R a constant speed prop

Rig those flight controls

~A pause to sign your life away~

Account for all your many tools

Wipe down and slip into shadowed trays

Receive your Charles Taylor award

And keep on going until you can't

-FDR30JUN2021

When the Mob Thinks You Know Too Much and They Buy You a Brand New Pair Of Shoes

Come close
Lean on in
A tête-à-tête
As my feet 
Are encased
Within concrete

We'll discuss deep subjects
A universe
A mote of dust
An ounce of trust
Until our time runs out
As all things must

Remove your mask
Let me see your face
I've revealed all my secrets
Now lets hear yours
Allow me to read your lips
As sounds can be ignored

Almost time now
You prepare to push me in
One last glance
A word or two
Beleive me I understand
This is what you need to do

A moment of weightlessness
Then the water closes in
I'm holding my breath
The light begins to dim
Seconds tick by
Fish begin to pay attention

This is fine
I think to myself
As I exhale one last time
Face obscured by bubbles
Cold and quiet all around
I can think of worse places to be found

- FDR11DEC2020

Anachronistic Chronometry

Aluminum cased
Leather strap secured
Silicone and precious metals electrified
Time keeping in this modern age
Is smarter than it used to be
With apps to track my sugars
Count how many times I sit and stand
Compressing my stress
By reminding me to breathe
Telling the time is almost an afterthought
Replaced every other year

Prodded by ghostly gears and springs
Ruby bearings pressed by pin points
Spinning just one timeline over from this
Where electricity is not king quite yet
And long hands chase short ones
Augmented by compound functions
Wound with care never too tightly
Maintained by a craftsman
Passed down generationally

Faretheewell Google Plus

This song inspires something
A lyp sync battle
A half remembered hip shake wiggle
A lyrical introspection
About how this could have been you
If only you were more outgoing
And could play music
Or sing

Goodbye Google Plus. It has definitely been a thing.

The Ugly Tree

The tree was ugly

A chrome-needled creation
From the twenty-five dollar pile
At the local superstore
With pre-installed lights
Which did nothing to help its looks

Tall and narrow
To keep the cats
From perching on the branches

No star on top
To light any wise man's way
Nor a hidden pickle
For a joyous child to find

The tree was ugly

Charlie Brown would have passed
For it deserved no love
But someone did buy it
And that someone was me

A desperate plea for Christmas cheer
Falling upon several pairs
Of tone deaf ears
Leaving the tree all alone

The tree was ugly

No one gathered around it
No cats desired to play with it
No presents hid beneath its apron
No train ran endless circles around

This mostly unwanted tree was ugly for sure
A glorified vertical stick with lights
Standing too tall and narrow
For anyone to take seriously

But it is mine
And holds all my Holiday hopes for me


-FDR13DEC2018