I’ve tried taking walks,
In the shoes of all kinds of people.
People with few shoes,
People with no shoes,
People with more shoes than 17!

I’ve learned the journey hurts everybody,
No matter the shoes.

Vagabond Prophet

Epiglottis

No epiglottis left,

Both breathing and swallowing everything,

Taking all into stomach and lungs.

Only then will you know every part of life

With every part of you.

A canvas of your living,

Painted in real time.

Move your arm,

One stroke of a brush,

Sweep your legs in an arc

One more brushstroke.

When body evicts soul,

And all your deeds extolled

Then your grand masterpiece will be unveiled

All colours layered and snuggling together

All blood stirred throughout.

Live a life that people years later,

Don’t stare at the framed article hanging

Saying, “I wonder what this one’s about.”

– Vagabond Prophet

HOV Lane

If you’re the kind of person

With enough baggage to use

The carpool lane alone

You’re not alone.

Want somebody to ride with?

We’ll get more smiles per hour,

We’ll kill the suspension shortly

With the weight of it all.

Do you care?

I don’t,

When the car breaks down

Leave the baggage in the trunk

Keep on walking and watch it all burn.

– Vagabond Prophet

Minstrel

Days in a row now

You’ve got your stool in the foyer,

Gnarled fingernails

Classical guitar.

Strumming and plucking,

Most beautifully

Did somebody hire you?

Or did you just see a need?

For those with cancer

You play in C minor,

Important work you’re doing.

You minstrel of meningitis,

Troubadour of tuberculosis

Don’t give up we need you so.

– Vagabond Prophet

Timezones

Sleeping in same bed

Yet time zones apart from one another,

Him straining for a future hoping it’s different

Her yearning for a past that never changes.

Different beds now,

Followed their watches

Did either get what they wanted?

Will I always be haunted,

Wondering if it could have been different?

What if they’d got help

What if we switched leftover night

To Thursdays?

There was never anything left of them by Friday.

My rumination waxing

Never gets any answers,

Just resolutions.

It’ll be different for me.

– Vagabond Prophet

Sometimes I miss sleeping outside.
Resting in time with the earth,
Waking to the wind or the rain or snow
Gently prodding me awake.

Vagabond Prophet

When you wake to find
Everything smooth as silk
And charming as Rilke,
You’re already in paradise.

Vagabond Prophet

A Day in the Life

5:30 A.M.

Beep Beep Beep,

Snooze.

6:00 A.M.

Beep Beep Beep,

I should really get up

Snooze.

6:30 A.M.

Beep Beep Beep.

Okay now I really need to get up,

Those dollars aren’t going to milk themselves.

Coffee, driving, walking, lifting, dreaming.

Coffee, driving, dinner,

People I love, people I work to provide for.

Coffee, writing, more dreaming.

…

5:30 A.M.

Beep beep beep

Snooze.

– Vagabond Prophet

Back to Pulp

Pfft tss Pfft tss tss

Pfft tss Khh Pfft tss Khh

Beatboxing onto paper,

Ink instead of sticks

Pages instead of cymbals.

A drummer with no skins to beat

So I’ll beat the paper back to pulp

And shape it into sticks

Just you wait and see.

Bmm Bmm bmmmm

Sts bsst bsst bmphh.

– Vagabond Prophet

Curtain Call

Let my mind run wild

In a meadow mild

Every thought a soliloquy

Just between you and me.

You’ve been audience and stage

You’ve been lines on the page

You’ve been curtains and ropes

You’ve been keeping up my hopes.

I was always performing for you

Didn’t always know it true,

But here I am and standing tall

Awaiting my curtain call.

– Vagabond Prophet