Having lost everything,
Still they smile through life
As if it were a comedy —
How dare they make
Me
Look bitter?

Patterns in the evening sky,
Waves crashing with eternity.
Another day comes to an end,
Promising a new beginning.

All fires need tending —
Love is attention.

Actions can reflect our mood
And yet, we are not our feelings —
Moments can set us astray
But should not change
Our destination.

Try everything —
Happiness awaits
At the outer edges
Of your comfort zone.

Before ringing
Death knocks thrice.
Pay attention —
There's still time
To end your chapter
With a smile.

It all falls apart,
With the years comes the decay.
Treat the rust, but keep the gray —
Us survivors, we've earned it.
With head held high,
Fly those colors.
Proudly show your age.

A day, a week, a year —
Mere moments.
Promise, vow, and oath?
Mere words.
Even gifts most powerful
Hold no worth
Until they're put to use.

Liquid courage, fleeting hope —
There's no message in a bottle.
Drowning in a pool of spirits,
All you'll find are
Dried tears at the bottom.

Regrets, tiny windows,
Past unseen —
Rearview mirrors
Not our own.
Images of who we were,
And ghosts of
Who we could have been.

Fair weather suitor,
It's easy when life smiles —
Love me on my bad days.

Self-serving praise,
Thinly coated in friendliness —
They'll tell you
What you want to hear
To get what they want.

Born to play,
Pay to win.
Life's a game —
Get over it.

Be mindful your feelings,
The heartache, the longing.
Find worth in yourself
Before seeking love —
You can't find in others
What's lacking within.

Of all things given freely,
Most worthless is
Advice unlived.

The despair we feel —
Hope, the scapegoat,
Fear, the enemy.

Steal hearts, moments, spotlight,
Existential kleptomania —
Taught to want,
To dream,
To covet
Other people's lives.

They can't
Erase the act,
Bury all the evidence,
Spin all witnessed truth
Into plausible fantasies —
Not so long we resist,
Refuse to validate their fiction.
Not so long
One of us remembers.

The church of me,
We patron saints,
All praised in colored light —
Capital I's and uncrosses T's,
Lives displayed with
Stained-glass abstraction.
Lead-lined disconnected stories,
Worshipped
For all that we are not.

Sometimes we're in
The driver's seat,
Other times
We're passengers.
Either is fine
With the right heading —
Just enjoy the ride.