Seagulls

Sailors drowned and dead

And now one with

The earth and sea again.


Dancing, singing, feasting,

Laughing at their joys shared

And experienced in this world.


Along the coasts and over the

Beaches and waves painted

Black and white and shades of gray.


Look into their black eyes and

Briefly glimpse their souls

Staring back at you.


Gone from this world and

Now enjoying the same pleasures

Compounded in the hereafter.


Sailors drowned and now returned as

Seagulls dancing, singing, and feasting,

And laughing again.

Making Rosaries

My self imposed penance and labor of love,

Working beads and knots on lengths of cord.

My fingers spacing out Our Father's and

Hail Mary's and Glory Be's.


Individual beads and knots form decades

And I meditate on each and every single one.

My prayer and my meditation,

My all focuses as I contemplate.


Mysteries of God and family and

Friends and work and home and issues;

My hopes and dreams and my fears.

My past, my self, my mind, body, spirit, heart, and soul.


Joining the two ends in one unbroken circle

Of glory, of joy, of sorrow, of light.

Binding myself to my prayer and

Bringing me peace and strength and understanding.


Simple and unmeaning pieces come together to shape

With meaning in the form of wooden beads or knotted string.

To become my daily prayer and

My power and my courage and my wisdom.

My Most Precious Gifts

You are my greatest treasure,

My most precious gifts of God.

Since the day each of you were born,

I have been and still am in awe.

I watch each one of you grow

Into your own woman.

No more beautiful sight

Will my eyes ever behold.

I don't regret a single day of fatherhood.

How blessed am I by God,

Three times over and then some!

You are my strength and reason for living.

My living breathing miracles with

Your mother's beauty, I can only

Hope and pray I am worthy

To rear each of you.

I want only to do the job well and

Earn my right to be called your father.

I have no need of sons,

God has seen to that, and He's blessed

Me with you - Victoria, Judith, and Stephanie.

Working Man

Robbing Peter to pay Paul and

Earning my meager existence,

One day to the next.

Living paycheck to paycheck,

There must be a better way?

I resign myself to always

Being a monetarily poor man and

I must find my riches elsewhere.

I must content myself with

What I have and who I have.

My pleasures must be kept simple.

I do what I do and

I take my pride and my pleasure.

Perhaps I sleep easier than wealthier men?

Perhaps my pressing concerns are less?

My responsibilities are no less and

My labors are no less valuable.

I am truly my own man.

Recapturing Lost Perfection

One day we will have

One perfect married day together.

One perfect last day

Of wedded bliss.

Then we'll begin our decline together

In our married life for whatever reason.

Husband and wife together for life,

But the perfection gone.

Loved, but not in love,

Respected, but difficult to respect.

Then a day will come

When we'll recapture once lost perfection

Together again.

Each To Our Own

Each to our own strengths,

Our own gifts, our own talents,

God given and strong.


To love and nurture and share

With our brothers and sisters and

Our children and theirs.


And each to our own weaknesses,

Our own vices and faults, our very

Own personal and human shortcomings.


Uniquely ours, ours to truly call our own,

To work and to seek help

From those stronger than ourselves.


To share it all, our strengths and weaknesses

All with each other, to accept, to nurture and

Love and give and to strengthen and grow.

Breakfast So Perfect

So perfect a breakfast this Sunday morning

As no other food or hand could provide.

My cravings, my hungers immediately satisfied.

Clear blue sky and sun rising and the

Morning dew wetting my shoes and pants leg

As I walk to the fig tree in my backyard.

Planted by my grandmother's brother before

I was born and still bearing fruit for my table,

For my cravings over all these years.

Grandma and grandpa's way of still providing

For me all these years after they have gone.

Delicious, sweet, juciy figs fat, soft, and golden green.

The red pink fleshy insides spreading apart

Beween my finger tips this morning.

God doth provide and abundantly so!

The birds feast on the figs and a spider

Weaves its web making a home in the branches.

I feast on a good half dozen or so this morning.

My fingers and lips sticky with their sweetness.

How perfect this breakfast, these few precious minutes,

This Sunday morning coming home after work

Hungry, ravaged, tired, sleepy, but all of this satisfied.

Perfectly satisfied by a handful of figs, my own figs

Born of my own tree in my own backyard.

I go inside satiated, shower, and sleep well.

At the CYMF

Don't let that big mexican read his poetry to me!

Don't let that big mexican lay his stories on me!

Let me go painless, with peace and dignity.

No, don't let that mexican read anything to me!


Don't put me through any cruel or unusal punishment!

Don't let me participate in any UTMB studies!

Wouldn't want to be carved on or filleted piece by piece.

No, don't let me be a part of any research study!


Don't put me in one of those death rooms up front!

Don't put me across from the bitches in the nurses station!

Want to live to walk out of this damn place on my own.

So don't let them put me in one of those rooms up front!


Don't let certain staff lay a hand on me!

I ain't mentioning no names, but there's

A choice handful I don't want to lay a finger on me!

Oh Lord! Please have mercy on me at this medical facility!

One Man's Mantra

I'm confused because I don't understand,

I don't understand because I'm confused.

Over and over this plays in my head

As I fill my canteens at the waterbull

On range 314 before the 12 mile hike.

Corpsman asks me if I'm okay,

I reply, "I'm confused because I don't understand,

I don't understand because I'm confused."

Lt. asks me if anyone has hurt me,

I reply, "I'm confused because I don't understand,

I don't understand because I'm confused."

Cpl. puts an e-tool in my hand and

Makes me kill a tarantula scurrying across the sand.

"Kill! Kill! Kill it!", he shouts at me.

I reply, "I'm confused because I don't understand,

I don't understand because I'm confused."

Rest of Hotel company steps off on the hike.

Hotel hell, sanity checks in but doesn't check out.

They put me in the back of the 3 ton truck.

I'm fucked now. I'm confused because I don't understand,

I don't understand because I'm confused.

I'm in the VA hospital now,

Can't feed myself or wipe my own ass.

I'm really fucked now, so young.

I'm confused because I don't understand,

I don't understand because I'm confused.

Reality Bites

Reality bites and bites hard,

Digging its teeth deep and

Knawing relentlessly;

Not ever letting go, violently shaking

Its head side to side and to and fro.

No remedy or relief of the vice-like jaws,

Only taking the bite and the burn.

Becoming one with the teeth

And the unletting pressure.

Accepting truth, accepting reality,

A weakness becomes strength.

A fear becomes hope,

And the one time storm

Becomes a calm and it's all good.