Hello

I am the way I am
because nobody could convince me
to be otherwise, a simple thought
to be not so easily deterred
from the wreckage of bad behavior

it’s okay to say “yes”
when you mean “no”
it’s okay to do your best
while you grow old

because no one really cares
not even if they want to

I am the way I am
out of spite, I hold the appellation
“poet” in high regard and
take a simple line or two

I am as I am
tending the garden, fearful
of court documents, wary of
tax forms, I never learned
how to pry open a box of butterflies

I am the way I am
capable of secrets despite
my mouth, I turn up the volume
and listen-in to real news,
angry mobs in Budapest, trouble
on the streets of Beijing, a newborn
cloud coveting the garden

I am subservient only to the blind musician
and his “futile horn”

(from HANG ON TO THE YANGTZE RIVER, Lithic Press 2020)