Perfection is a meal
(four-course gastronomic delights)
best served to just yourself

Imperfections unite
us all together in works of
fumbled—endearing love

Our flaws and fat tongues
our learnings of how to love
draw me into the flock

Looking beyond us all—
to our far divine potentials
only brings us to God

If you stay flexible
in an uncompromising world
softer doors will open

Texting and media
have evolved our thumbs well
while our speech devolves

The secret of marriage
is knowing there are no secrets
within the number one

Rehabilitation—
a restoration of lost loves
beginning with your own

Tread lightly on earth
with lovingkindness—then it will
tread lightly on you

We’re hunter-gatherers
she gathers her family names
while I hunt for words

What a wife purchases
for herself is sacred—no worries!
Husbands buy vanity…

Seashells are a life’s shape
left in lasting polished colors.
What shapes will we leave?

Can the ocean be tamed?
Computers surrender in blue
I can crash anything!

Names sleep in old papers
waiting for a kind—loving eye
to wake in reunion

Names become real people
reunited with lost stories
embedded in our hearts

Departed bless founders
with loving hands of protection
two hearts unearth power

Autumn owns the light—
air and sound bow down humbly
to color’s last farewell

Forgiveness is timid
cautiously waiting on the time—
which vanishes too soon

My faults are countless!
my only hopes stream higher—
than my knack to count

Redemption is a grace
beyond my short sight or grasp
tangled in my ego

Satan’s greatest muscle:
giving pleasure in the short-term—
then turning his cold back

Winter feasts upon
my stored harvests of summer
leaving me gaunt—empty

Spring radiates hope
over thawing puddles of dark
blessing again—green life

Summer sky’s flood us all
in sun’s redemption of fervor
drifting minds back to snow

Stop watching so much news
now transformed into arguments
despair craves loud dispute

I close both my eyes
from above I see the thickets
now I can find my path

There are only three things
which resent all regulation—
guns, water, and dogs

Reality-TV
is never true reality
your family is real

If you think your lows are
higher—more worthy than others
your empathy curved blind

How smart is politics?
without science, always wanting
never one step ahead!

Love may cause us to lie
but lies coagulate into
our slaughters of love

Fresh snow painted peaks
slice the indigo skyline
white serrated knives

What ladders will you
sacrifice—to help one other
who has fallen from one?

Dreams drift upon clouds
grey—in our insecurities
white—chasing destinies

I’m all in for teamwork
as long as everybody knows
I’m completely in charge

We travel so distant
to escape, but only rarely
while most escapes drift near

It is not mere chance
the first things that children write:
love notes with red hearts

What words will cry upward
from depths of mounding soils
to mold your epitaph

If all our energy
spun from winds and basked under sun—
where would all the wars go?

Everyone has a role
in the plays of society
they just need acceptance

My armor is nicked
scored in life’s harsh encounters
but still forged in hope

Life is like a meadow
late in my years, it settles down
boundless wildflowers

When does a butterfly
ever look back with regrets
on their pre-mortal life

Raising drug prices
on lifesaving remedies
only heals Satan

Our thumbs have mutated
to shrieking tongues of bitterness
like daggers—piercing hearts

Each byte of data
read—ignored—or deleted
burns away more sky

How much ill-gotten wealth
flows from all the world’s addictions?
craves of gold thrives in hell

I am not a sexist!
I equally accept guidance
from both God and my wife

Worlds of love and pain
evaporate after our death
to loves devoid of pain

Nature never lies—
but paints over our ignorance
in the best truths she can

A bald child with a cap
tears my heart to tears of anguish
cancer’s torment of pasts

Don’t divide up people
if you must—divide by zero
then one turns infinite

For those bullied snowflakes—
at least you have white-hot courage
to stand with those unique

Escape into dreams
if only for a moment
moments grow like trees

They drove us all out
as American refugees
now—we close the doors

Dipstick of my heart
pleas the need for a re-fill
of your patient smile

Floods of information
taught a lonely planet how to
never communicate

Pure selfless service
can obscure all words of doubts
with joys beyond mind

Diversity dances
in unity of uniqueness
beauty in variety

Cold steel shackles
of unresolved hate and sin
will slice deep in your skin

Friendly ocean waves
swiftly expunge my footprints
treading dark edges

Evenings and mornings
play fine, but the in-betweens
are starch and fillers

So—is a zip line
a thrill on a cable, or
a trail in the sky?

Indoor staff meeting
intensely terrifying
claustrophobia

Hate cultivates fear
truth is the seed of all faith
faith obliterates fear

Despots crave attention
fear is the fuel of all power
who’s focus is attention

Darkness and evil
offer a vast support group
easing new membership

Kindness and humanity
offer a vast support group
walking behind you

My wife worked hard at home
building a family and shelter—
truest of home builders

Lay upon flat rock—
feel it absorb all your pain
as you warm up earth

Those who trust in God’s
eminent coming of glory
don’t build walls to block refuge

A daughter streamed Beetlejuice
in her delivery room of tears—
she named her Lydia!

Inequality cheers
loud, reckless, and arrogant when
net-worth drowns out self-worth

Free enterprise erects
enemies to consecration—
For God invests in us!

When you get in bed at night:
Do you still believe there could be
monsters lying beneath?

Are you more useful—
to the world about you
than your heartless money?

Contrived wars create
prosperity to the wealthy
more poverty to poor

Whoever thought there would
be people fleeing our country—
as troubled refugees

Ten syncopated sneezes
like jackhammers, I pound each day
reminders of my mom

Dams of old white men fail
floods in democracy’s power
when you wake up and vote

Things that help you sleep:
Snuggles, seashores, cool air, blankets
rain dancing on a tent

My early morning window
splashes my night with energy
greeting the day in bliss

My sky’s sapphire eyes
weeps in palls of pewter tears
scorching tomorrows

I’m a pluviophile—
a lover of the peace of rains—
the clean airs calm my mind

God’s creations sing
His love for us—do our works
sing the same song for Him?

Tooth decay can be filled
but insidious truth decay—
a pit of ignorance

Every star cloaking us
a fraction of the work and joy—
God invests in us all

Steel swords tempered
in our trial forges of time
fight forever bright

One slight drop of rain
kissing the ocean is like a
candle struck by the sun

One oil lamp of hope—
dangles in a dream from the
rafters of tribulation

Sweat pours in the climb
lungs pump as diesel pistons
breathing like a train

A country cries out
pains incised in selfish egos
in discords lay the wounded

God weeps in my rain
and that makes Him beautiful
delicate and strong

Those who deport the
innocent—in the end, will be
deported by innocent

One convenience yields—
two plastic grocery bags dangling
upon a barbed-wire fence

One expensive drink yields—
a plastic bottlenecked buoy
upon a sun glanced beach

Once a soft baby face
pickled in the brines of the sun
now I’m older than I am

Sky strips misting lakes
purified by evanescence
rains pour redemption

Virtual trials and verdicts
never die when convicted by
peers, on social media

How frustrating again—
forgetting a close name in dry
winds of my misplaced mind