In the distance I see
Monuments (built by unknown hands)
To wealth (accumulated via unknown plans)
I’d tell you what their plaques said
If the world would just stop spinning
I’d tell you what the score was
If I knew what constituted winning
Sometimes the smells of being alive are
Dust (as it covers all)
Rotting cabbage (you bought but didn’t use)
Spring flowers (they will not be denied)
Excess time (somehow it wafts in the air)
Uncertainty (you can smell it in your pores)
Will the world ever be the same again?
(The answer has changed since you asked the question)
Does all of this make me feel better?
(Parts I disdain and wish to fade away)
Or am I terrified?
(That which I love, and fear will not stay)
Breathe
(No longer taken as a given)
Grieve
(For all that has been riven)
Repent
(There is no sin to be forgiven)
Grow
(Opportunity has arisen)
Choose
(Actions of your own volition)
Wait
(The future remains well hidden)
Gene G. McLaughlin 2020
Beware they that ask
For your love and rage at the same time
Love is one part of your story
Rage is one part of your story
They are roads to different destinations
That you will take at different times
They that ask you to combine them
Do so for their own means
They wish to become the story you tell
To simplify you
They that ask this do not mean you well
They have no wishes for you at all
They dream a dream for them
Cherish your love
Safeguard your rage
They are yours and yours alone
Gene G. McLaughlin 2020
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
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
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