I will not pay my bills

Now is the time that I have made
To ensure my bills remain unpaid
I’ve made this time to scoff at bills
Stressful guests that give no thrills

Today is the day that I have vowed
To be a deadbeat and yet be proud
I wish these bills had died and gone
I would shed fake tears as I mourn

Images of the Neighborhoods

The image from where I stood
Roundly summed up the hoods
Brothers chatting up the ladies
Cops rounding up some crazies

Set my eyes on the lookout ones
One second my wallet was gone
I saw them escape to the woods
Still I miss the days in the hoods

Make me a tyrant for a day

If I were a tyrant free to rant
I would rant like a soldier ant
Rant for the dead to go away
Clean our lands without delay

I would be a tyrant for today
A chanting tyrant on display
Gag dead men of yesterday
And rid my country of decay

What happened to Sue ?

May I recite this poem to you
Of a girl whose name was Sue
If you laughed, Sue would sue
If you frowned, Sue would sue

This Sue one day trouble brew
Sued the town where she grew
An angry town did counter-sue
Now no one has seen our Sue

Who put the water in my coconut

Crunchy fibrous coconut
We ate it in a humble hut
Sometimes milky coconut
Drank the water quite a lot

Puzzled how the liquid got
Inside coconut we bought
I put the query to my aunt
She said “ask question not”

Aunt who didn’t know a lot
Gave my query an uppercut
She told me off on the spot
"It wasn't me so ask me not"

Is a flea always a pest

If a flea flies in the forest
And no pet does it infest
Is it sure, surer, or surest
That it is still an ugly pest

But if the flea we so detest
Is on its own private quest
It robs not our mind of rest
Discard this prejudicial test

Gangsters Gone

Gangster wars left hundreds dead
The peaceful ones have finally fled
This town paralyzed in captive vice
Has finally placed her wound on ice

We grew up down the broken shed
Where gangsters our friends misled
Some gangs are dead and some fled
A sad steep price the town has paid

Mr. Sorrow is Dead

Mr. Sorrow is stone-cold dead
No one’s tears should be shed
His mother had him badly bred
Let us dance for Sorrow is dead

Never shall we Sorrow eulogize
We will never cry nor apologize
We give him back what he gave
We will dance on Sorrow’s grave

Happy Days Are Here Again

Vibrant flashy lofty day
I am alive in every way
Happy days arrive again
Marching on a joyful lane

Silver, gold, I have none
But I've now a lot of fun
I’m alive and not in pain
A long life will be my gain

Reverse Empty-Nest Syndrome

New college kid prepared to leave

His parents then started to grieve

A syndrome borne of empty nest

Psychology course explains it best

Kid graduated returns back home

Now parents’ private superdome

The parents grieved a second time

They called the kid a jobless slime

The herd mentality

A herd of cattle was a sight
Filled our eyes with delight
One line of a hundred cattle
Marching like folks to battle

Now I often sit and wonder
Why big cows so surrender
They see the butcher knife
Not a cow ever runs for life

To marry or not to marry

Some married folks disdain
Those in single life domain
Some single folks disparage
The lives of folks in marriage

But life has different strokes
One stroke never fits all folks
Dance alone or dance in pairs
Just don’t you lose your ways

Home, Sweet, Home

The place that cools our tired feet
On our return from heated street
The place in months of wintry cold
Warms our hearts a thousand fold

A house is only some empty space
But homes hold us in warm embrace
A home is a place of peaceful grace
That is our home - a soothing place

Your Voice and my Shelter

If I seek the comfort of your voice
Validate the wisdom of my choice
Beam me up in a voice that’s calm
Transform me with a tone of balm

If you desire solace at my shelter
I will save you from helter-skelter
If I shelter you from bad weather
Your voice will comfort me better

Chinese Keys in Belize

I am back now from Belize
I really enjoyed the breeze
I found some bunch of keys
Under some Belizean trees

These keys are all Chinese
They don’t unlock the seas
They don’t my joy increase
Just some souvenir to tease

Sweeter love on rebound

Stumbling down on rebound
Sugar-sweetened love found
Sweeter second time around
Merry-making now profound

If you see her in the morning
She’s alive no more frowning
Even stunning in the evening
Sweeter love of new meaning

Maria, the Spanish Mermaid

Mesoamerican Biological Corridor
A place she escaped the matador
Jumped she in the Caribbean Sea
To join marine species wildly free

So escaped Senorita Maria Lopez
From the matador’s bullish craze
Now Maria is one fabled mermaid
I say Maria is my story man-made

The Queen of Street Rap

Near thirty-seven hundred block
She rapped where the ships dock
Held us captive around the clock
With fancy words that really rock

Lyrical sugar arrestingly creative
Offered in rhymed lofty narrative
Calmly rhyming just in every class
Rap queen for you I raise my glass

Celebrate Success

We will stand in front of guests
Dressed up to celebrate success
I will announce in a long address
I have found the one to impress

The one I impress will be the one
Holding my hands until I’m done
Then I softly whisper in your ears
I vow to hold your hand for years

The illusory wings of our desire

Man wishes he were a bird
With flying wings conferred
But while you dream or wish
Sky birds wish they were fish

Man wishes to fly on a whim
But birds envy fish that swim
Neighbor’s grass if misapplied
Looks greener on illusion side

Beware of the souls of prey

In a book about folks of yesterday

I read they held some souls at bay

And many weak thinkers led astray

Into pits of evil good men did sway

Now I’m reading a book for today

One that makes many tempers flay

It is a book about the souls of prey

Same folks of yesterday here today

Your laughter and your silence

The meaning of your laughter

Plus your curious silence after

Haunting puzzles I must solve

For my curious mind to evolve

Laughter is often proof of joy

Though sometimes just a ploy

Your silence after such a proof

Cancels joy ‘cause you’re aloof

Welcome the Sun and the Stars

The sun and stars of the mind
Are left for us to keep refined
Nurture the sun in your head
Star-lighted ones never dread

Sunny days and starry nights
Love the lights and the sights
Starry nights and sunny days
Light our minds and our ways

Stop looking upwards for solutions

A couple’s hassles were so grim
Thought solutions none to slim
To escape their world of hassles
They climbed atop their castles

And while atop of such extreme
Found no solutions but a dream
The couple finally ran back down
To find solutions await downtown

Be patient your summer will come

When your spring has sprung a leak
Doctor plumber should never speak
Away to plumber away to drummer
Wait with hope for a doctor summer

Tomorrow gives the summer of hope
The leak in spring will shrink in scope
The cures for leaks are in summer rife
Your world of summer bursts with life

Lucky in Love

All winter love helped you sow
In the spring that love did grow
A true love now blossoms forth
All day long love leaves you not
Your true love will not dissolve
Rest assured you're lucky in love

The Joy of Good Deeds

If you will good deeds do
With no prompting or cue
You’ll find fulfillment true
In blessings made for you

Such deeds we do in kind
No ulterior gain entwined
Deeds done of noble class
No fulfillment will surpass

Two-step Gangsters

New gangsters shortchanged me
Stole my change, fled with glee
Old gangsters offered to avenge
To nab the thieves of my change
                    
Thrilled by old gangsters’ device
I took their offer and paid a price
To make this short I’ll be precise
I was taken to the cleaners twice

Live Without Compromise

A choice among two misgivings
To be mobile with limited living
Or live fine with limited mobility
Always firmly reject in its totality

To not move but live with fullness
Or fully move but exist in dullness   
Are two but the same bad choices
I’d sooner choose to lose my voice

Money man goes to a reunion

In dollars I’ve made a million
Attired for social communion
Now clutching class invitation  
I’m off to my old high reunion

If she smells the dollars in me
If she does my class attire see
In joy and peace I will cascade
But I'll keep the million I made

Be the Master of Desire

A word that sets the world on fire
And spurs the man in us to acquire
It makes us now and then conspire
That powerful word is called desire

Like guns desire propels men higher
But untamed and wild it will misfire
If gripped with urges just to acquire
Be sure to master all the raw desire