Don’t believe in me
Don’t believe in yourself
Believe in the facts
And nothing else
What of faith
That which you can feel
Like the lucky tingle
When the cards start to deal
Who really knows
Certainly not me
All I got
Is what I can measure or see
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
I’m a lot like my father
Who lies quiet in the grave
I’m much like my mother
Yet not quite as brave
I’m a lot like the wind
Struggling with direction
I’m much like the water
Mirroring my introspection
I’m a lot like my sister
Struggling with myself
I’m much like my lover
When she takes me someplace else
I’m a lot like the rose
Beautiful and thorned
I’m much like a weed
When I feel lost and scorned
I’m a lot like nothing
When it all feels disconnected
I’m much like everything
When each morning I’m resurrected
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
I have the kind of
Knowledge you get
From spending too much time alone
Books are my solace
When I am lonely to the bone
I am a dreamer
I am a drunk
I am thinking all the thoughts
That Crusoe must have thunk
I have the kind of old soul
That runs away from pain
I know all about the price of love
And its small and subtle gains
I am a dreamer
I am a drunk
I am thinking all the thoughts
That Crusoe must have thunk
I might have misgivings
Along the way
But the train’s already moving
And the fare has been paid
Some come on now
All you words and songs
Give me that substitute
For which my soul longs
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
Life is want and hunger
Seeking shelter from the rain
The rage to tear asunder
That which causes pain
In the humming center
Is the still humble fact
The life we enter
Is harder when we react
Our decisions
Unquiet the soul
Self derision
Takes it’s toll
You cannot win
That which is not contested
Freedom begins
When you are divested
The sound
Of the water
The taste of the wind
The embrace of your beloved
Tomorrow begins
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
Interpreter of Apocrypha
Speaker of sweet lies
Hidden meaning menagerie
Read between the lines
Sell vacuums as truth door to door
Cleaning misconceptions cause confusions
Let me show you how it cleans the floor
Harsh vibrations may cause contusions
Deny the chaos of dirt and grime
It cleans fast, saves you time!
Hidden meaning in the dust?
Speedy cleaning blood lust!
I will come to you as a sheep
But all of me is wolf to core
You dream of cleaning as you sleep
Restful rest no more
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
‘Know this’ she said
‘I shall be with you’
Or so I recall
As the blue light
Special blinks
Reaching the case
I quickly put the item
In my pocket
A secret treat only
K-Mart can provide
Walking slowly toward
The front doors
All are watching
Knowing of my sin
Feeling their judgment
And eyes upon me
Perhaps none are watching
None judging
My criminal act of
Rebellion and romance
Going unrecognized
I cross through the doors
No alarms ring and nothing
Notes my passing into
The dingy grey parking lot
I stroll across the lot
Feeling triumphant in
My small success and
Heading across the railroad
Tracks and past the half
Burnt out sign of the
Burger King buzzing like
A sad dying bug
Drunk sitting on the bench
At the train stop knows nothing
Of what has transpired
And I pass him quickly
This is one of my finest moments
I think of what it will change
Walking through the neighborhood
I feel different and walk with
More purpose and style.
Coming to her house I see her on
The porch sitting there and waiting
And I walk up and hand her
The bounty which she has desired
She takes it and looks at it and smiles
And says, ‘It is the wrong one’
Mortification my old companion
Returns quietly and crawls up my spine
Can I do it again I wonder?
And looking at her I know the answer
Gene G. McLaughlin 2005
This is not my pop song
Playing on the radio
My pop song is still playing
On the air waves of long ago
I can’t hear the melody
And the harmony sounds bad
Well I think whoever bought this single
Well I think that they’ve been had
Well how the hell they dancing and singing
Without losing all their damn breath
I bet they’re damn lip synching
How else they avoiding cardiac death
I try to switch the radio dial
But all the stations are the same
I will just sit here quiet a while
And think who I should blame
This is not my pop song
Maybe it belongs to you
The song structure is all wrong
The rhythm sounds bad too
Maybe I have just lost touch
And start to get a bit old
But this song sucks way too much
If the truth really be told
Well instead of sitting here feeling sad
Looking for some new tunes to hum
I am going to just be really glad
I got a box of old LP’s if I need some
Gene G. McLaughlin 2003
In the blue dark moments of the dream
Happiest with sense of self
Drifting and sifting through the images
By experience informed
To the limits conformed
Knowingly it comes to me
Fleetingly clear to see
Schism of empiricism
Truth beyond my simple science
So foolish to have asked for proof
Leaving my soul detached aloof
Mystery need not be questioned or embraced
Only know to exist across void of space
In the yellow light moments of the end
Joy fades replaced with
Weight all of it reposed
With hope in reality imposed
Gene G. McLaughlin 2004
The tech will not be denied
It keeps its own pace and company
You can hear it in the past
The sound von Neumann heard
In the back of his mind
The hum Turing felt
At the base of his spine
The spark the chimp saw
Pounding walnuts between stones
The ones and twos of it
The spiderwebs of it
We stride next to it
Because we are of it
We tell stories
To mask the data
Narratives to help
Ease through our days
Those who face the light of it
Move us forward
To something different
That is still yet us
The tech will not be denied
It moves without consent because it is us
We are its company and its raison d’etre
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
I am greedy for the quiet life
For the longing to forever end
Accumulation and achievement leading to
An empty series of dusty rooms
I have already visited
Finding them wanting
Let’s waltz my love
On the porch
While the sun goes down
As the azaleas bloom
And spring comes again
The most important things earned
Are learned by the failures of success
And the victory of the speckled dusty air
Dancing at twilight
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
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