Curious

If you want to know about something
Shed light on it
Expose it
Look at it, examine it, play with it
It might delight
It might distress
If lucky
It will magically inform
Yet another chapter of you

How many chapters are allowed in the span of living
How many are available
How little love do we access
How big are we able to be
How intimate we can become with a stranger
Miraculously building a giant history
Even creating other humans
All
Along the way
With one we've played with,
Looked at, shed light upon
Wanted to know about

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- artwork by Alexander Calder - "Blue Panel" - 1936
- mailed to Hawaii - 

Fight For The Right To Fight For What's Right

I do nothing
I don't like or dislike them
I do nothing

Used to feed humans, Used to protect people, Built for killing life
Commonly admired by those who possess
Often diminished by those who do not
For sport, serious play, intimidation
the list can go on and on and on

and now is a time to evaluate
the passion for possession
the moral movement against
strength of political persuasion
real reasons money is invested

The will of a majority does not work for some laws
Powerful politicians recommend laws
Informed strong minds hopefully decide laws
Greed sometimes gets in the way of law

and greed
    desiring money
    distorts actions
    acting like strength equals power
    fantastically selfish
is not law

I do nothing
Plenty do, entertainment is riddled with them
But I do nothing with a gun

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- artwork by Zarina Hashmi... - 
- title taken from song "Mos Definitely" by Logic
- mailed to Maine - 

Hurry The Hanging

Sitting in this wooden home surrounded by creaking.
Those incessant wood sounds triggered by
a walk a wind a thought
The individual wood veins sit suspiciously silent
supporting the weight

Destroyed love hangs everywhere.
Attached to remodeled houses along the avenues of living
Looping around elementary school brains during the freedom of recess
Heavy in the air of dark beer-smelling bars
Branded on the mid-aged human purchasing farmer market food  

Destroyed love disappears the longer it hangs.
Dissipating steadily in fits and starts
Fleeing the scene of emotional shards
Melting away inconsistently
Corroding and eroding so life can sneak in

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- artwork by Georgia O'Keeffe - 
- mailed to New Hampshire - 

Trees are Trees are

sometimes trees are just trees

standing there watching the ants
eating rain shedding leaves growing thicker skin
some get naked in winter

standing there in their splintered shapes
their strength streaks underground in avenues of curves
those urban trees have one advantage over the forest trees:

watching humans live while they kill themselves

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- artwork by Gisela Colon - 
- mailed to Massachusetts - 

Cacophony Demolition

Talking takes the sting from a fight
deletes it probably never
and deposits it away inside

That sting pulses with venom created from within
produced by the alchemy of external influences
and internal dictums
The sting can rip a functioning human
into a dysfunctional puddle of confusion

That bird standing on the tip top of the lamp post
has survived solely by its evolved instincts
its song has no sting

That song humans sing
at times has too many notes
informed by sugary nonsense
steered by fuzzy money
the note to build on is singular without point

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- artwork by 1010 - 
- mailed to Rhode Island - 

Kitchen Reflections

Study the spoon and find round impressions
     distorted like thoughtless views.
Cold pans and pots awaiting work
     like minds watching television news.
Note the corner for kibbles and nestled dog fur
     unhidden like a natural laugh.
Small power motors empowering cooking tools
     just as scents awaken the brain's photograph.

Water runs on and on then off
     dedicated to usefulness - a parenting dream.
A messy drawer inhabited by junk
     parallels the sparkling ideas we have yet to scheme.
Imagine nocturnal drinking-glass coffee-cup battles
     silly yet resembles the petty elephants held within.
Finally a click of the light switch sounding off or on
     enabling sustenance day or night again.

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- mailed to Connecticut - 
- artwork by Frank Stella - 

Slightly Faster

Riding while crashing into bumps
The wheels absorb hits
while the bum puckers

Traveling alone
a single mind on two wheels is allowed to wander alone
Barely piloting the terrain
lays a pathway for carelessly exploring the brain

Purple frame with yellow rims flash by
recognized from past roadways
Pedaling while steeped in dream

the road enables explorations of inclinations
toward a better state
Bicycles pedal forward
propelling lives ahead too

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- artwork by Richard Artschwager - 
- mailed to New York - 

Tone

Curving perfectly around bones and veins and vessels and things
it grows, self-heals, and is resilient
keeps innards dry, yet gets wet happily
skin

So soft at youth, so telling with age
it has color - color that in some minds separate
while others rejoice from the variety and beauty
skin

People are covered by it
a joy to touch when love is involved
bless those doctors who must touch to heal, even when decrepit
skin

Defies full understanding
in millennia colors adjust as needed - for climate
this age, hues preposterously and shamefully build barriers
skin

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- artwork by Francis Bacon - 
- mailed to New Jersey - 

Darkness Seen Through Light

Woman leaves her home.
Waits on a sidewalk
for a ride to arrive.
She is blind.

Am I blind,
conjuring mystical scenarios that never occur.
Not listening. Listening too intently. Helping when not asked.
Call me blind I suppose, for those.

But not like the woman, real blind.
Note her deliberate routine
weekly, daily, decidedly.
I see her dark vision through my lit vision.

Wonder why my blindness envelops me.
Issues appear obvious once I see the understanding;
breaking my back to understand.
When I see, the woman, it encourages vision.

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- artwork by Christopher Payne - 
- mailed to Maryland - 

Flow

Money carves a blurry path, muscling through rivers of unknowns - 
Illuminate that. Bury this. Ignore those. Amplify what..
Cunning money, 
with all its coldness,
performs chores without breathing.
Disingenuous, hmmm, but accepted as currency.

That river's current pokes slippery hands into the invisible air,
offering free money, selling freedom.
The current has deliberate, diabolical intent.
But another currency exists. An emotional one.
Debilitating and exhilarating when allowed to flow -
emotional currency. Spend it. Save it. Let it move everything.

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- artwork by Bridget Riley - 
- mailed to Pennsylvania -