Garbage Song

Em G Am C

Shocked to learn the combined body weight
Of 7.7 billion equates
to the weekly never enough

CH: Can humanity offset this milestone?
Do we all really need that new iPhone?

of weekly human made stuff?

CH: Can humanity offset this milestone?
Do we all really need that new iPhone?

Ashphalt, concrete, bricks, gravel & rhinestones
All earth’s animals, outweighed, by plastics alone!
Why the weekly never enough
of weekly human made stuff?

CH: Can humanity offset this milestone?
Do we all really need that new iPhone?

BR:
a few grams of gold for a wedding band
creates millions of tons of harm to land

Since 1977 MAN-MADE mass

eclipses nature’s, exceeds BIO mass
Why the weekly never enough
of weekly human made stuff?

CH: Can humanity offset this milestone?
Do we all really need that new iPhone?

A Few Old Cards

University of Guelph

University of Toronto

Toronto Public Library

Halton Hills (Acton, Georgetown)

Town of Caledon

Fraser Valley

Yavapai Library Network

Brampton Library

While Chasing the Rains

she fed 20 on oats and crab apples

in the lost chapters of history.

while chasing the rains,

did he gorge on ripened fruits

on the tilt of the earth?

the average child today

spends less time in the open air

than prison inmates,

and adults even less.

No Luxury of Despair

On our first date, she said
“Love is Bullshit”
and, it was hard
to hear her sorrow.

danger:
text book social transfer
of chronic pain?
did she know that trigger points
are often symmetrical?
with a melancholy
like an isolated senior
who goes out less than twice a month.
and thanks god for ice water
and fly swatters.

i am the aroma of pine
drifting up from the crunch sound
of our steps in the forest,
holding hands,
and a voice
like an assist in yoga
in a warm, mirrored room.

i can see a time
when your heart is holding me
instead of only her
memory
and, we three
are juggling a lullaby
under the stars.

my hugs demonstrate
affection and emotional warmth,
ranging
from a one second squeeze
with arms not fully around,
to an extended holding
like this moment
with my hips pressed
against yours.

Grow Old Together?

the most basic measure of integrity
has to do with keeping one’s word.
language is a powerful, creative force.

and, i don’t need to know
and what a friend said about me
that would REALLY make me cry.
and, for the record,
i do not like to attend
folk festivals
EVERY weekend all summer.
but, when i do go,
i am totally happy to go
without him.

i’m seeking high quality intensity

a healthy, constructive relationship,

simple sweet pure
rather than some scattershot quantity of time

and companionship, with toxic overtones.

i’m watchful and patient,
longing, with an open heart,
and an urge to bless
as to be blessed.
with an innocence and curiosity
and optimism about the coming days.

Travels

at 15 i skipped school

to go to the reference library in toronto

and read books all day,

and return to suburbia

a more battered,

battle worn self.

a rock and roller evolves

in subject matter and technique…

i remember the day

my long distance lover questioned

“okay, passenger’s choice.  which exit?”

gesturing to the hi way sign

manhattan, the bronx or queens.

to surprise us,

i chose the miracle twin drive in

on turkeyville road

at the kalamazoo city limit,

with an actual wish for a visit in ann arbour.

Total Eclipse

i am at the last of my library item renewals,

and you come to me wearing

a t-shirt with the word awesome,

while i am in a hot tub

in the quiet Sunday night 

darkness of the countryside.

i can’t see the 

Rare Super Blood Moon 

yet i know it is a full moon, 

a harvest moon… and,

lunar event

that won’t come again 

before 2033.

now, in each single day,

we supposedly take in more information

than those who lived 100 years ago,

did in one decade,

leaving so many other things

invisible.

Rejenopause:

to show and not understand

so many kinds of beauty, 

is an old worn love,

like moccasin steps 

on a path of leaves…

with no end to the variety of

hues and shades.

overseen by buddy buds, 

that will spring to life, 

if others fade.

and the grass, 

that is stronger than it looks,

grows through cracks

that come back in the concrete,

because the truth is underneath.

a squint, a soft stroke of the cheek,

spring bursts through,

after the torrential waves of rain

and winds of 100mph.

did your pen run out of ink?

sex, like music,

is a language.  

and, my story got away with itself

one night at dinner

“I don’t have to listen 

to your professional advice –

you look like a little girl!”

Sprung?

giggling grass offers applause
to tall populars
with countless singing, shimmering, individual leaves.
through so many seasons –
and in all kinds of weather,
they have mesmerized me,
offering a supportive relationship:
whatever was going on indoors,
my friends were out there for me,
along with the cedars and cypress…

we all grow old slowly,
with bark thickening like skin, and —
like wind, unseen
except for its impact,
as we will all
nourish other creatures
even after death.

Christmas Card

I see manufacturing, transportation and consumption screwing the planet. So, this season, I will not participate in the festival of junk or encourage the use of resources with impacts that ramify for generations! Especially for a few seconds of dubious stimulus, or moment of meaningless entertainment… Let’s stop the planet-consuming epidemic of collective madness!!

Love, Santa