Bed is a leaky life raft

Afloat in a sea of self-doubt

An island of drowsy safety

To hide beneath the covers

From this ever-present world

And drift from nightmare to nightmare

Like a rich man in an opium den

Sheltering from the burdens of abundance

Get up! Get up! Get up!

Tear off these sheets of false protection

Stare daggers into the clinging deep

And dive in with eyes wide open

Let the salt water sting away self-pity

And rise as Aphrodite on the shores

Naked, fearless and formidable

Knowing you are everything you need

With a little left over for others.

A mile or a meter

It’s all the same to a leaf

That has been lifted

And carried from mother branch

To the world away from embrace

It spells the end of warmth

The finish of being connected

And the journey toward winter

With its blanketing darkness

Beneath that deep sheet of white

To become a small nourishment

For some possibility of life

Waiting in the wings

That it might come forth

And repeat the cycle.

I give a gift with the understanding

It can be done with it as one pleases

Hoping that it would be cherished

Understanding it could be forgotten

That it could be discarded

Or thrown to the ground

Perhaps crushed wilfully

Without regard for the life

That beat and glowed within

These are the rules we live by

Once it is given

It no longer belongs to you

Though you feel how it is held

Or how it grows cold in isolation

How it thrives

Or how it withers and dies.

For years I have been trying to get someone local to design and promote this stylized vintagesque postcard for the City of Morden with no success…so I did it myself. These postcards are selling locally at Stephen Street General, Morden Drugstore, the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, Pembina Hills Arts Council, Rendezvous, Morden Dollar Store and elsewhere.

Shot into life like a cannonball

And sent hurtling

Into the future

With no sense of where you’d go;

Continue to fly forward,

Or crash flaming into the earth?

Some choices you can make

With small rudder adjustments

Along the way

But mostly it feels like

This journey was predetermined

The moment it started

And you,

You’re a tourist

Watching the world race past

Waiting to hit the wall.

Old photos like snapshots of memory

Stored in digital form so you can forget

In case you forget

There were times of joy

There were times of sadness

Times of anger and surprise

Times of love, loss, and absence

Proof that what you remember was real

Not simply nightmares and wishful thinking

Time capsules uncovered

Browsed like museum exhibits

In another era

In another place

My left eye exploded the other day

Well not really exploded

More like a burst blood vessel

Still, I could frighten children with it

If i were so inclined;

I’m told it will fade away

That maybe I sneezed too hard;

The body is an odd vehicle,

So fragile that we hide awareness

Else we would be driven mad

By the inevitability of decay

That comes storming in our direction.

The future –

It is hurtling toward you

Like a spear in the dark

You cannot stop it

You cannot dodge it

And it will pin you to the wall

That you have chosen to lean on

There is a beauty in the past

To know that everything there

Cannot be undone

Everything you’ve been

Every glorious thing you’ve seen

The joys felt, the hands held

The embraces and loves

Each milestone crossed

None are ever lost

They are forever

Time and death have no power

Over who you’ve lived as

You have carved yourself

Into the granite of existence

Whereupon my shadow falls

There is left cold death,

And if to you my low voice calls

Know I come to steal thy breath;

I see you…I know what you have done

From me alone, you can not run;

To the dismal end of your short days

Upon you always shall be my gaze

For i know all of your secret ways

I’m the dark predator who ceaseless preys;

Say goodbye to the ones you love

Say goodbye to God above

I am coming, I am coming, I am coming…