Rise and Shine!

Rise and Shine!

Up early with the dog walkers and birds 

Thinking about my goals, writing down ideas and words

As the sun rises another day begins

Yesterday doesn’t matter, losses and wins

News, attitudes, and weather we can’t control 

The weight of the world demands a toll

The future is a mystery, what challenges and opportunities lie ahead?

You won’t find out, until you get out of bed!

To become a worldwide known unknown

I’d like to be anonymous and wealthy 

Like Bansky and Satoshi

Stealthy but moxie 

Creating art and wealth with proxy

Rather than being mediocre or obscure

With modest means and influence, mostly unsure 

If my ideas were ever worth the time

And effort to chip away at and mine

So thousands, then millions, and billions spent time and money on my whims

Reference often, go into debt, risk their lives and limbs

Just to obtain my creation

Something so strange and special, it causes instant elation

Something that haunts you like Frankenstein 

A terror so charismatic it stole the scientist’s last name and design!

To frighten and delight for generations in time

Most don’t know the woman who wrote the book or the character who brought the monster to life

To become a worldwide known unkn...

Megatron and Me

We was playing with our transformers

1984, outside just having some fun

His was a semi, mines was a gun

Police lights flashed, so we both started to run!

Cops thought I was packing some real heat!

We split up in alley, playtime became a track meet!

Transformed my gat back into Megatron real quick

My friend and Optimus Prime were able to successfully dip!

But me and Megatron failed to give the pigs the slip 

Still hot on my trail, I stashed Megatron in the trash with a flip 

Collar snatched, my heart sank when the ground left my feet

The pigs squealed, ‘Hey little punk, where’s your illegal piece?'

I spit on the ground and kept them both guessing

Watching those TV shows, I learned my lesson

Didn’t say nothing, per my Miranda rights

Just then, a buzz above illuminated the street lights

The second cop copped his watch, and they let me l...

Pull apart the art from the folks

The difference between pathetic and apathetic it’s hard to conceive 

The media just misleads

Product consumption and various misdeeds

While all the vitriol gets soaked up by our seeds

Your selection for the election

Lost, why do the rich and famous need more protection?

Cost, the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich

Ask questions, when the future forgets the past, life’s a !

And then you die, so why do we even try to explain?

When the authorities show us nothing but disdain?

Pain, is just frustration leaving your body, but can you sustain?

Hundreds of brilliant men and women tried to complain 

Just to be be called crazy, converted, or even assassinated

Then later celebrated

Those black heroes who died young, been tried, or overdosed 

Went from young gifted and black to comatose 

Used...

Cake for breakfast

Cake for breakfast

Celebrations leave me breathless

Tenacity and the capacity to accomplish goals

The village that raised me had various roles

Church, school, home, even the corner store!

It only took a little time and effort, but they gave me so much more

At the celebration of my graduation, I greeted and thanked nearly everyone

The next morning, I woke up early from my night of fun

And enjoyed a piece of my graduation cake - yum!

Politics and Discourse are dead

Politics and Discourse are officially dead 

Folks right, left, and center all see red

Everyone lies because we made our bed

By consuming social and traditional media that only agrees with our opinions 

As our algorithms and AI transforms us into minions 

Today your opinions only matter if you have money or fame

That’s not the way American democracy should work, what a shame!

Dreams are like Diamonds

Make them believe!

Ideas to reality, work from success

Critics first doubted, but now they’re impressed!

You had to make them believe

Like some fairy tale lead

Years of sweat and winkles on rolled up sleeves

Hands get filthy building impossible dreams!

Grime plus work equals births the greatest of things

Dirt under your nails

Cloudy water in pails

You got it out ‘da mud…Like a worm or a bug!

Persistence paid off, in due time

Doubters bare witness, once your treasure began to shine!

Thoughts sprouted and grew like a tree

High in the clouds, but below most can’t see

The roots that anchor and nourish reality

Them haters stay jelly than a mug!

A prescription for this affliction, use this song like a drug!   And…

<Chorus> Make them believe… What you can see

2 types of people on a sinking boat…

There are only two types of people on a sinking boat

Those who save the boat and others who save themselves

Nobody knows who they will be, or what compels

One to risk life and limb, or take their chances with sharks and whales 

If everyone decided to labor for the greater good 

The chances of success would improve the likelihood 

That all may survive, patching holes or finding a bucket

But who am I kidding, most folks will probably just say #%?! it! 

Why do we want to be what we’re not?

I want to be what I’m not

Not what I’ve already done and been

I want to do what I can’t, meaning I want to win!

All of the wishes unrealized, and goals unmet

The unsuccessful challenges lost, to make up for years of desire and regret 

I want to be what I’m not

But I don’t even know how!

If I found a way to do it, it would it make me smile?

Why can’t I be content with me?

When I look in the mirror, I don’t 'love' what I see

Because all the success that I’ve achieved so far

Isn’t enough to make me believe, in my life’s movie, that I am the star!

If my life is someone else’s wildest dream

Then why do I have a desire for a new scheme?

If I became everything that I’m currently not

Would ...

Ode to the Rat Catcher!

At the Robin Hood Renaissance Fair, a rat catcher greeted us by the entrance

She cradled one like a baby rat, fully entranced

She had a few toy rats attached to her dress with a string

Rocking her baby and engaging with her pack, she began to sing

This actress never once broke character, sitting on the cold ground

Half way through the event, she walked by (with her rats in tow) making a squeaking sound

She explained (in English) that she was bilingual, and fully fluent in ‘rat’

I thought to myself, ‘damn, this young lady can really act!’

The third time we saw her, my daughter and her friends decided to interact

She wasn’t selling toys or anything, she was just really dedicated to her art

Kudos to her and whomever hired her to play this historical accurate part!