Jet Pilot

I wish I were a jet pilot

Swaddled in the safety of my cockpit

Casting my gaze on the earth below

My fellow ants march in lines below

Punching their time cards in their time zones

Neither I have time for, as I exist in no time

Boarders

Imaginary lines

Laws of gravity and sound

Bend and break

All raise their heads in envious wonder

Wishing and dreaming that they too

Could rise above the noise

The noise of doubt, worry and fear

Mine I cannot hear

For they are incinerated by my engines that be

White streaks on a blue canvas

For the rest of you to see

The Basic Unit of Matter

I kept to myself, and those like me

Roaming far, innocent and free

Then, we were discovered

Captured

Men wanted to know where we came from

We couldn’t say, we honestly didn’t know

So they poked, pried and spied

Now from heaven we fall

Headed for a destination unknown

Like slaves in the bowel of a ship

Made not of wood, but of metal

Oh Lord Forgive them

They know not what they do

They are fools

Don’t they see

They can run

But we are the surface of the sun

We are life

And we are death, destroyer of worlds

Before man

We never had an and

They are against us

Oh dear, my reputation is currently in tatters. 

You see, good sir, it was a rather minuscule matter. 

It all started when some white men sang blood and soil 

Or was it mud and oil

Either way, everyone else was roiled 

Please don’t leave, hear my plea

Now they want to remove me you see 

As if I were nothing more than a flea 

But I’m not a flea, I am a general 

Was a general

Well, I’m here to commemorate a general, you see 

I sit here on my trusted steed, 

Beautiful bronze skin basking in the sun 

My sword raised high piercing the blue yonder. 

I ponder, why  

Why do such an awful thing 

Have they not heard

I’m Andrew Jackson the third 

I need an army

An army to keep the humans at bay

But who, who will answer the call and stand tall

Benches

You know me, you can’t let them do this to me

You must be tired of the humans sitting on you

“But that’s what we were designed to do.”

Trees 

Please 

Help me and I’ll help you. 

“We already do, we shed our leaves for them to collect 

 What can you do”

I will scare the squirrels 

You must hate how they make themselves at home in your home 

“But they aren’t scared of you”

How dare you!

Hose, yes, you water hose

Help me, help you

“But I already do” 

“I get coiled and kinked every time they leave me be”

“See” 

Sidewalks 

My trusted, sturdy sidewalks

“Maybe we’ll take your side

But it would be wise not to confide

As we love to dip, splinter and trip”

Streetlights 

“We burn out our bulbs as fast as we can”

Who else is here

You see, I can’t turn my head 

I must always be looking ahead 

That’s why I can’t turn my head

Whomever is behind 

Please speak up and be kind

“It is we the trashcans 

We grow and overflow

Day in and day out 

No matter how many times they clean us out” 

“It is I water fountain. 

 I will not be tamed

As my aim will be no water in my water main.”  

“Knock knock.” 

Who’s there?

“A sock.” 

Please don’t mock. 

“No really, I’m a sock.” 

 A sock!? 

“Yes. I escaped from a washing machine.

I thought it would be mean.”

You see,

This is what I have to work with 

Oh dear, I’m soon going to be a myth 

People must understand 

You can’t erase your history or else you are just a mystery.

“Benjamin, come here boy.” 

Don’t go Benjamin. 

Take a stand

Fight the man.

Oh, please not on me

What are you doing? 

Benjamin, are you pooing? 

Texas

June

See a taut rope while on my float behind a speeding boat

Hear the nightly music festival of crickets out my bedroom window 

Smell of chlorine 

Taste Grandfather’s nachos made with Kraft cheese and Doritos

Feel wicker rocking chairs on the back porch

July

Dogs and cats frightened by exploding fireworks

Harsh lifeguard whistles

Mesquite smoked chicken with my granddad in the backyard

Dr. Pepper

Greasy sunscreen on and pungent bug spray Off

August

Jurassic Park, Independence Day, and Spiderman

Buzzing of nearby bees and distant lawnmowers

Musty football locker rooms after dreaded two-a-days

Blue Bell Ice Cream

Leather car seats, burnt by the angry August Sun

Sept

Confusion, towers collapsing, adults crying

107.3 Mix FM

Way too much Axe Body Spray 

Lucky Charms and flaky Toaster Strudels

Yellow Dr. Marten stitching

Oct.

Helmet on and hand over my heart before Friday night church

Coaches screaming

Paper textbook covers with the pointy “S” symbol

Plastic neon colored mouthpieces

Goosebumps giving me goosebumps 

November

Ostentatious garters and mums the size of dinner plates for Homecoming

Making thunder with my rifle in a deer blind

Pine Sol

Fruit punch Gatorade powder mix

Midnight muscle cramps

December

Late night discussions on makeshift beds with the cousins 

Johnny Mathis Christmas carols on cassette

Sulfur on my fingertips from New Years Eve fireworks

Drinking eggnog and playing Pogs

Hot wax stuck to my skin at candle light church service

January

Grand Theft Auto, Halo and of course Golden Eye, playing until we were red eyed

AOL dial up

Grandmother holding her cigarettes up to a cracked window in the Buick as she drove

Chicken fried steak and gravy with fried okra on the side

Nintendo 64 controllers

February

WWF over WCW, if you can smell what I’m cooking?

Sonic boom of the Columbia space shuttle disaster

Antiseptic hospital rooms with my mother 

Bethany

Smoothness of burnt CDs filled with Linkin Park, Korn, Disturbed, Evanescence and P.O.D.

March

Standing in the corner at the school dance, building up courage for the slow song

Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys on continual loop in my sister’s room 

Stinky catfish bait

Blood on my metallic braces

Coarse white and red logos on Tommy Hilfiger Jeans

April

Glow in the dark balls for midnight golf

Mom reading Bernstein Bears and the Boxcar Children to my sister and I

Lake water up the nose after being baptized

Liquid chalky antacid

Plush toilet paper in my hands for sober, late night mischief with the boys

May

Peep talks from Granddad, reminding me that, believe it or not, there is life after high school

Grandmother’s contagious laughter

Gasoline fumes as I filled up my first tank in my first car

Diary Queen blizzards

Holding my mother’s emaciated hand, knowing that’s the only thing I can do.

Cumulonimbus

I rise like baking bread
Everyone can see me
Yet no one can touch me

Locked in a forever war
Which is now consider natural
Hear me roar

Please don’t be scared child
Some call me a God
While I’m anger and pure rage
I am also mercy
And I help turn the page

What do I look like?
Whatever you see
I can be