Your Memory's Alive

When I'm out on my rounds, I know your memory's alive.

It's not that I aim to go past it when I drive,

But I've been by where I last saw you a couple times,

and that's not even the way I think about the restaurant

That my memories of you seem insistent to haunt.

I suppose that's what my mind needs; I guess it's what I want.

Exhuming Societies' Bones

I know that four-eyed nerd-dom's not like Indiana Jones,

But there's still something thrilling about exhuming societies' bones,

Bringing new honor to their temples and new footsteps to their roads

and bringing life to ancient livers' humbler abodes.

Still, I wonder if it's right, disturbing ancient tombs,

Just to find out how the ancients decorated rooms.

Everybody's Doing It: Second Thoughts in the Art of Saying “No”

They keep telling me that everybody's doing it,

and I ought to go along.

They say I don't want to be the last one to get it,

Something I never did want.

I see it happening everywhere around me.

Though I'm not the following kind,

I still sometimes get the sneaking misgiving

That I'm being left behind.

Two Trains Leave the Station

If I leave Crazytown at eighty miles an hour

Head for Hollywood,

Stop for a drink in Distraction Junction,

Get dinner in Doubtsville,

and rent a room in Regrets River,

How long until I collide with my conscience?

And where do I look if I can't find the answer?

Stay Behind

I don't want to leave behind the classroom,

Or being in the dumber half of the room,

Nor hundred-poem months on the regular

Or being able to start writing a novel in November,

and of course I'll miss the people. I will be a mess,

But I will leave nevertheless,

Though some of those things may not stay behind.

Cockroach Little

The sky is falling in pieces

Big as houses,

Hard as bruises.

That happens sometimes.

When the sky falls, everyplace light

Is a busy highway,

Is a shooting range,

Is a slaughterhouse.

When the sky falls, I hide in the dark.

Risk/Risk

There's no easy and hard; there's no black and white.

There are risks, and then other risks. That's the beauty of life.

There's risk taken for granted, when we risk things forsook.

Then life asks us to risk things we can't overlook.

There are risks that we take 'cause we crave the reward.

There are risks that we take 'cause we're a little bit bored.

Those are the risks that make your blood awaken,

and then there are risks that just cannot be taken.