Appreciation and Expectation

A and E

Where would I be if I was living without high A and low E?
Appreciating everything around me and what I have
What I can do and who is in my life

And expecting little
Little to ask for and little in return

For appreciation can come in high measured doses
From little acts of gratitude to the people who raised you
And expectation is dribbled out from an eye dropper
With little forethought in any given situation

Maybe my clarity has sharpened, honed if you will, to a fine razor edge
And even the quotidian can seem full of color
While what use to seem exciting and life blood giving
Is now remembered as dull and gray

But how to find appreciation in comforts known not here
Of adventures with expectations held low but still not met
Oh lord appreciate somehow my state
Of excess without mess or stale breath

For upon arriving to the place of appreciation
I find the comfort just knowing that all I have
Is enough, it is enough
And in contentment I bask

What Do I Miss Most

Long good morning stretches
Chairman Meow
PST the BST

Sidewalk smiles
Organic Soy
Good golly Miss Molly

A bed full of pillows
A bunch of cheery fellows
A back rub a bath tub

Mellvilles legacy
Steam coming off the lake
Friends, writing pens

Sunsets on my left
Overnight sleepovers
Late dinners absent benders

Friends that truly care
Kids and students who know my name
Seattle trips bending hips

A long time since I've seen my home
Even though I've not been lonely
I've been alone on this coast

Ground Water

Not with taint of taste or chemical smell
Nor the idea of a festering sore
But purity such as never'd taste
Upon the lips of innocent men

Who conquered this land with prejudiced pride
Who committed atrocities and in history books lied
Failing to tell the entire truth
Oh what stories they denied

But water is our last precious resource
And even our industry threatens its life
Where it all began on this eastern shore
We are not different than a pilgrims whore

Betrayal and neglect and heads turned away
Miles of innocence tucked away
Fatten our citizens with corn fed lust
All the while no hero's to trust

So leak your fertilized infamy into our groundwater
And from plastic we drink with safety we hope
For the last precious thing we have to sustain
Is spoiled by money poured down the drain

Minneapolis

Its cold in Minneapolis
Very cold in Minneapolis
Briefly felt on the Jetway
Snow blew in my face

I'm changing zones in Minneapolis
And changing planes in Minneapolis
One leg closer one leg numb
Hold on chairman here I come

Moving sidewalks carry me
Moving sidewalks ferry me
Twice the speed of normal man
While writing with blackberry in hand

A mini look at Minneapolis
A mini stop in Minneapolis
I'm glad that I'm still headed west
And not rotting in Minneapolis

Airports and Red Eyes

Airports. Sitting always waiting
Late late night flying no security lines
Carry on bags minimally checked
I could "tweeze" the crew and take over the flight.

It's New Years already where I'm going
A few more hours until it reaches here
Sitting on a runway tarmac
Well much better than last year

Strange but the news seems always bad
And its in airports that I only chance to watch
I mean there are televisions everywhere
What the hell. how about a cartoon instead

For the last three weeks I've fought off a cold
Tried to keep good care of me
Not looking forward to six hours
Of recycled prana breath of life

So they call it the red eye and I do see why
Because I've been awake for over one day
Tired and leaky and red rimmed eyes
Await the arrest of this journey

On the other coast just east of here
Will be who knows what, no expectations
But get me out of this automated environment
And let me be free from here

Airports and red eyes
Holidays and flying
New sights certain to see
And home again much refreshed

Public Domain

Public toilets
Voided bowls and urine smell
Men evacuating what they so preciously let in

It's been way too long
Since I visited my own john
I miss it much, I piss way too much

To spend so much time
Smelling others behinds
First thing I'll do is take a poo

On my throne
In my home
And smile knowing I am alone

Transcendental Portation

Traveling
Is it harder on the mind or the body?
The waiting hours and uncertainties
Your fate, your fucking fate, left to others often unseen

A road trip trust fest
Trying not to make waves
In the car not a boat
Yet a sickness arrives faster than we do
Thank god for median warning strips

A flight
A frenzy chase to hurry and wait
And then the not knowing
The fear and the release of control
And the cramped elbowed spaces

A train
Rallying to the rails
Somewhere miles away it chugs along towards me
And I'm waiting in cafes espresso shots replacing patrone

And I'm tired from sitting
Like I've thought with my ass
Where my mind could have spent
All these hours on tasks and projects
And be energized instead

Traveling
And it makes home that much more
Appreciable
And it makes me that much more