Colors

     Fly your color high
to direct a path

     Fly your color strong
to inspire the meek

     Fly your color softly
to hear other stories

     Fly your color gooey
to entice the strangers

     Audaciously fly your color
to forgive ingnorance

     Recklessly fly your color
to show another way

     Let love direct your color
to define a hate

     Let dance infuse your color
to stifle the inflamed

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- artwork by Alberto Giacometti...
- mailed to Louisiana - 

Be Somebody

Why you gotta be that way
Why you gotta be this way
Who you gonna destroy today
What's good 'bout hurting souls all day

Someone's on top to play
We can be there too and stay
Why's the world so dreamy today
'cause it's all gonna go my way

But somebody stops me on the way
They say no no no never this way
I thought I could be my dream today
Thought I could be somebody, my way

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- artwork by Roland Reiss - 
- mailed to Arkansas - 

Coast

I.
The water recedes until blood shows up.
Blood orange ocean distilled by the shore.
The continent's edge littered with souls staring,
always seeking the horizon day and night.
Looking outward feels contagious, desirous.
Infects us to look inward.

II.
Ocean water comes in blue, some green, some grey.
Transparent from below, colors leap out from ahigh.
Power rumbles from waves breaking. Wildlife thrives.
Shores feed from natural and continuous death.
Underestimate water, you may die.
Show a modicum of respect, and boldly soar.

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- artwork by Helen Frankenthaler - 
- mailed to Missouri - 

Crazy Sane

There is crazy. There is sane. 
They are relatives. So please no blame.

She is perfect. He is awkward.
Chaos is fluid. We've all caused pain.

Admit a brokenness. Hide that joy.
Respect your audience, while they complain.

Let everything go. Take it all very easy.
Blab to everyone who'll hear. Repeat to sustain.

Pick a name who likes you. Love them hard and long.
Keep things crazy, when it gets too sane.

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- artwork by Alberto Giacometti -
- mailed to Iowa - 

Sunshine


Hello sunshine
Pleased to know you
Bright sunshine
Burning sunshine
Immensely powerful sunshine

Far faraway sunshine arrives to bestow life
A sunshine combo (healthy and dangerous) at all times
Sufficient sunshine relaxes
Too much sunshine unhinges
A dismal amount of sunshine depresses

Cannot look straight-at that glowing in the sky
Just as sometimes I cannot look straight-at you
Sunshine and you
You and Sunshine ultimately equals life (enhanced)
No diminishing please

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- artwork by Yves Klein... -
- mailed to Minnesota -

Cost Of Living

The thick air stops motion.
Stillness arrives beginning its
patient choke on living;
painstakingly slow, it may last for
days or decades.

There is no easy calculus
for measuring not living;
Just an internal drum beat that slows slightly,
slightly slowing, immeasurably retarding.

That beat barely rattles the air.
And in this faintly trembling pocket of oxygen
lies life.
Deciding to desire life, occasionally
is an intentional act for survival;

a negotiation between
good and better, bad and terrible.
Repeal previous agendas.
Move anew now.

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- artwork by Otto Nebel - 
- mailed to North Dakota - 

Bad Citizen

Bad Citizen

A bad citizen lives there
everywhere a citizen is
is a chance to be good
A bad citizen hides there
running-with their will, as they will

Blow on the bad citizen
and receive blow back
The bad citizen barks aloud
insisting on their way, for them
But not for a decent citizen

listening to all that convincing crap
repeating repeating making that same point
All kinds of bad citizens
workers, watchers, creators, manipulators,
presidents, President

I shouldn't have named my dog Bad Citizen

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- artwork by Agostino Bonalumi - 
- mailed to South Dakota - 

No Noes

There is a place with a thing.
You see it.  You seek it.
You may touch but you may not have it.

Sometimes we stop seeing straight, we want it so bad.
Naturally Intoxicating.
We get it with mastery.

Mastery enables you to get things,
even that thing you saw in that place.
"Find a way to get in the way" of a no.

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- artwork by Ellsworth Kelly "Avocado" - 
- mailed to Nebraska - 

Opposing Opposites

Birds chirping, hearing hospital screams.
Tough talking, yet practicing mindfulness.
Fish swimming, and splattered guts on the road.

Smelling decay, offset by strolling pine forests.
Accepting love, squashed with demanding power.
Rape, tormented by trusted passion.

Lost in a story, or tragically losing your way.
A powerful pinch, cuts to a soothing caress.
Eyes open, and eyes yearning to shut.

Depression, momentarily defeated by vitality.
A simultaneous world of opposites,
easily seen and hard to accept.

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- artwork by Rene Magritte - 
- mailed to Oklahoma - 

What Is Wrong

What is wrong with people
Why do some trample upon others
Why do some throw a blanket of hate upon an entire people
     with different skin color
          with different religion
               with different culture
What is wrong with people

What is wrong with people
Why do some vomit their beliefs upon others
     instead of extending an invitation to talk
Why do some people act like their story is the only way
What is wrong with people

What is wrong with me
Why do I think listening can encourage empathy
Why do I think all people are equal irrespective of skin color
What is wrong with me
     bruised and aching and raging from injustice

What Is Wrong

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- mailed to Texas - 
- artwork by Paul Nicklen - 

Process

Blunt life.
Shiny dreams.
Severed morals.
Syncopated love.

a life is love
going right and wrong
scene by scene
without hesitation

Bold moves.
Acidic talks.
Arresting thoughts.
A birth.

staying alive
bound by hostile surroundings
feeding and eating
with immense amounts of sleep

Beholding beauty.
Something seemingly coming from nothing.
Sorrowful hurdles cleared.
Scintillating life.

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- mailed to New Mexico - 
- Artwork by Andy Goldsworthy -