Bet on work and failure
As a path to growth
Bet it’s a bet
That won’t appeal to most
Own your sins
Grow from them
Acknowledge your failings
As much as wins
Become a better man
In the public eye
Be known as one
The day you die.
Gene G. McLaughlin 2020
The world is on sale
and also on fire
30 percent off all you desire
gifts under the tree
are the world’s pyre
-Gene G. McLaughlin 2019
There are ghosts in your spine
Created from that which came before
Thoughts I once called mine
I take full ownership of no more
We are agreements between elements
Negotiations between factions
Maybe influenced by environments
Leading to actions and reactions
Embrace the us in all of us
Make plural the royal we
Are my envy, hate, or lust
Just a war of ghosts within me?
An engine of looping thoughts
A walking talking analogy
Ghosts maneuvering for position
Wishing it to be their eyes that perceive and see
Gene G. McLaughlin 2019
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
1-800-273-8255
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
Even the mountain is not free
Battered and bruised by both water and winds
You have not seen all there is to see
Despite your mind claiming it knows how the story ends
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
This is a world of change, nothing else is true
Within it lies suffering and wonder with no measure
Both dispensed and visited upon you
Containing love, loss, pain, and yes even pleasure
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
I would request you stay a little while longer
I’ll ask you this each and every day
Each time you feel the black dog’s hunger
We will sip coffee or tea till it fades away
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
Maybe we will talk of nothing
For the topic matters little to me
Because a world without your heart beating
Is a far poorer one which you fail to see
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
Gene G. McLaughlin
Refrain – Bob Wills/Tommy Duncan from Stay a Little Longer
Rage encounters empathy
If you live long enough
Acknowledgment of the other
That’s where it gets rough
Your friends and enemies
Each know the same pains
When harm’s inflicted
Both souls are stained
To be a mammal is to anger
Putting your needs above
But to be a mammal also
Is to love
You did what you did
Then and before
But you can choose to do it
No more
Maybe rage is part
Of a divine plan
But maybe love can grow
In the heart of a man
Live long enough
Perhaps to learn
Fire can warm
Not only burn
Gene G. McLaughlin 2019
Some days I drink for my country
Some days I smoke for myself
Some days I dose for the dead
Some days I dance for everyone else
There’s still ravens in the trees
There’s still smoke in the wind
There’s still a madman staring upward
Waiting for something to begin
Stories are pattern recognition
When there ain’t no pattern there
But you can tell somethings right in front of you
Yet all you can see is the cold mist in the air
For now I’m just self-medicated
A little of this and that to get through the day
I’ve got nothing special slated
I’ve got nothing new to say
Gene. G. McLaughlin 2019
BeardedRiffRaff.Blog 