*Spoken word featured in "Harmony Conspiracy"*

Poetry

Cassandra Me and the Ant Odyssey of Rain

At first, I was only able to open you, from the left side / Smooth sweet baby 1988 Buick / Body boxy you brave the streets / Sleek sky blue coating / Such a wise, old owl /

Your engine's a tiger that growls hard when it hits 45 / Your windshield wipers are curious eyebrows / the right always slightly raised / Inside you reveal a cushy comfort deserved of sofa status / My buttocks welcomes the fuzzy soft seat / I sink in / smile / turn you on

Your interior lights glow green / Cassandra's seats cushions, become waves / Blue and green colliding, forming an ocean / Fuzz turns to foam / As machine melts into nature, a metamorphosis yields home / My knees become sturdy rocks / My seats' backs become cliffs' edges / and the waves, break gently upon their shores / The foam once fuzz splashes my face, capturing my Cheshire Cat smile like soap suds, on a baby, in a bathtub

Ah yes, the feeling of youth / Cassandra you are my first car, and I am your captain / We sail through Jersey streets together / We listen to Bruce Springsteen, together / and all you do is treat me right / Constructed of steel sturdy as a best friend's shoulder / Faithful as the return of a golden retriever / You stay, by my side

Cassandra, your tape player spins the wheels of audible dreams / Symphonies streaming like rivers through speakers / Kindling hope as fuel / You grab hold of children's wishes once thought vanished in the wind / Take them in / and play your engine's song / A soft low tiger purr lullaby / Until even the criers / rest easy

Odyssey of Rain

Two lovers played in the rain
They wrestled like preschoolers fighting off cooties
Circle circle dot dot
They circled ‘round the stone brick patio
their feet pattering on puddles
water droplets leaping from hard surfaces
seeking out places to set their feet 
and run

Water droplets stop mamboing on sneakers
where rain hardens before hitting the earth
No splish on glass
No playful splash on grass
just 
the breaks

unable to dot the "I" 
in I love you
 
Water droplets fall from unpredictable, burnt skies
where clouds’ tears ride gravity’s wind towards earth
on a long, fateful journey
a great, epic odyssey
that never promises
rewind

The only promise made
is to return
once again

Me and the Ant

Using a rock as my watchtower,
I stood at the outskirts of a dewy lush green

I observed a brown ant, barely visible
explore the landscape of a crabapple

A leaf- a mountain, shaded the ant from the sun
The grass- giant pillars, now seemed small
for the ant stood atop the crabapple's apex
to take in the scenery

How long is an ant's memory?

Mine played back
like my favorite albums

My hand, shaky, reflected the bittersweet promise
held in each turn of the dial
as I flipped through remembrances
like jukebox selections

The long winter I spent writing in my room, my first kiss,
that soulful homeless guy who had the most genuine smile,
playing tackle football in autumn with the boys,
that time I kissed her at the stoplight:
all had their own number

I looked over again to my loner friend
We were sharing a pivotal moment together

Each of us explorers
Each atop an apex
Each trying to find
our path home