I went out into the wilderness
Slept on the grass
Earned scars in dark waters
Heard the crying wildness
I tasted all the bitters,
But none were as cold as home -
So I sojourned on

I wandered the glass ways
Tasted strange dishes where
Many’s were ones
Sons of beaches lounged
And the sounds of the screeches
Could be heard in the night -
So I sojourned on

I crept through dark places
Saw the dog stars shift phases
Some laying waste trails
Miles high and wide
But this land was to hard to lie in -
So I sojourned on

I looked down into gorges
Waters where dolphins slapped
Crystal prisms, dark shapes,
Strange paths with tapes that said,
“Don’t go there.”
Fair sights unseen -
So I sojourned on

I threw darts at soft targets
As hard men looked on,
Smiled their dark secrets,
And made light talk
Meaning well
Still,
They left my well empty -
So I sojourned on

I saw my past and my future
Reflected in glass waters
Perfect leaves held captive in one tide
Lime worms that slide and wriggle between
They washed away my fears -
So I returned.

Shuffle the deck
Turn the kaleidoscope
And the patterns form and re-form in a beautiful dance –
An amoeba;
The spreading pine;
Restless driver ants on the march;
The virus in the yolk.

Twisted zipper of life
The world is rife with pattern and chaos
And we pretend control and guilt over its workings.
Since the primordial slime
We have taken very little from her
And given even less.
We’ve got six pounds of bugs riding around in us
Laughing at the jest.

eating from the same container
dining from the same trough
I pledge
my troth is not worth chasing

the container is stained
the meal,
although delicious,
sometimes, even
delectable
is
eventually
detectable
as
identical

Thirteen lines of love and lust
Are caught between you and I
Quiet words of emotion
The cut and thrust
Of animated conversation
Leading us along
By-ways of delight
To feelings as deep as the ocean –
They rise from the depths
A tide, a pull so strong
Currents swirl around us
Roll over us
And cast us breathless on the shore.

I fucking HATE shitty punctuation!
It’s not a rebellion against the patriarchy -
It’s JUST AGREED RULES!

Break them!
Break them all.
But please,
Please!
Break them consistently

A phrase
…..is a phrase
……is…a…phrase
it has its s p a c e
……………..it has its place…….
you can……breaaathe it

….you don’t need Punch U A Shone

just like you don’t need paper
….or a pen…..cil
or time
………or an audience
just

think!

[excessive ellipses due to lousy spacing options in Medium]

Arrogant or scared
Songs we never shared
We hoard our voices away

Lonely and sad
Our music never heard
We were too afraid to ask if we could play

I’m not present with my friends
My present worries
That seem so important to them
Are trifling small
To absent me

Where am I?

I’m lost in the storm
I’m smelling the geosmin
I’m floating on dark seas
Of last year’s memories.

“Six dead, aerial views”.
Lives derailed
Trains delayed
Nerves are frayed
Be afraid
But don’t be late
Late for work.

I was just sucked into the latest Medium listicle farce that has nothing to do with my interests. Someone used the word “masturbation” in their headline/”clickbait”.

Damn! Caught again!…And this “cost” me one of my Medium “freebies”.

How dumb am I?

Oh well. It has inspired me to write.

Because.

When I decided, in my ire, to block ‘Darth Clickbaiter’, I found that I Could Not. I can stop them from following me, but I cannot stop me from seeing them.

This is the Medium version of junk mail, IMHO.

I don’t really want to shrink my echo chamber, but, in this case, I’d like not to any more of this person’s obviously self-serving and self-promoted view of their “self-obsessed” world.

Hey Medium, surely this would be a reasonable thing to do?

*Wanker is a non-threatening Australian version of someone who is virtually/verbally/socially masturbating. In the UK, I understand that it is a lot more aggressive term. They like to use the word “tosser” instead.