Why is it
fortune cookies
no longer tell your future?

Have all the mystics
gone on strike?

Now they read
“Today is a nice day.”
But that ain’t no future

And anyway
it’s raining

(D. James)

A government run
by corrupt fools
is still a government
still corrupt
and it is still
run
by
fools

(D. James)

The waitresses
upbeat chatter
doesn’t match
her sad face

Tea is steeping
milk and sugar
patiently waiting

And I am lost
among the
knives and forks
plates of half-eaten meals

Thoughts adrift
in shafts of sunlight
spilled across the counter

Pay the check
leave a tip
and walk out
the same door
I walked in

Keep things simple
until my mind
returns

Bringing with it
what was lost
and found

(D. James)

Heavy with sleep
everything to do
but no time

Wait until morning
when I can think
straight again

Right now
it’s all I can do
to stay awake long
enough to write these words

(D. James)

Life moves in one direction

(D. James)

The world changes
and we change in it

Divergent paths
verge

Veer off
into other lives

Meet again
in some other form

Do we recognize
this place
as if sprung
from nowhere?

Are we known
here anymore?

Or has everything
simply moved on?

(D. James)

I looked in the place
I’ve looked before
where I thought
for sure I’d left it

But it was empty

I checked again
to make certain
and found nothing

I could swear
there was a poem
in my head
one I’d thought
about all day

But the cupboard is bare

Whatever happened
to those words?
I guess I’ll never know

(D. James)

Can you feel it
because I can’t

For too long
I tried to suppress
all this anger
all this pain

Now all I know
is this aching
numbness

Wildly searching
for an answer
when all the while
it’s been right here

Inside my head
inside of me

It doesn’t matter
It means nothing
It solves nothing
nothing at all

(D. James)

No one knew
the damage
being done

How could we
it was all
so long ago
when we were
young

Someone
should have
stopped it

Someone
should have seen
what it would do
to all of us

Now we have
to deal with it
on our own

Break the cycle
end this chain
of anger
and pain

(D. James)

Back on track
like a train
at speed

Where it goes
we’ll have to
wait and see

Enjoy the ride
and hope the end
is nowhere in sight

(D. James)

Yellow moon
hangs fat
and lush
in black sky

Warm night
of spring
finally arrived

Breathe it in
keep me sane

(D. James)

I crack my skull
on a violent shift
of perspective

Eyes sting
from the blood
but now
I can finally see
the pain
of reality

(D. James)

I don’t write
love poems

Though I love
writing and poems
an emotion
that deep
needs an ocean
of language
I do not possess

My words on the
subject of love
are trite
and best left
to others

Amen

(D. James)

Water on road
blood in mouth
twisted chrome
fading sky

Shallow breathing
heart beating

This must be
where the journey
ends

(D. James)

Black street
blacker heart

Someday the road
will end
in dust

And no one
will care
to even give it a name

(D. James)

Bland rooms
and bad food

Time shifts
and lost days

Windows
that don’t open
and beds that
make themselves

Fitful sleep
in unfamiliar places

Makes you
appreciate
the little place
you call home

(D. James)

Nasty habit
of self

referential
involvement
centeredness

Even being aware
only focuses
on the single point

So it is
to what
degree

do we see
there are others
not just me?

(D. James)

Rain falls
over the city

Everything swells
and creaks

Water trickles
along the rails

The apartment
feel like a submarine

I await the order
to blow the ballasts
and rise again

(D. James)

frustrated
impatient
impertinent

totally
intolerant
and spiteful

feels like monday
coulda been sunday
just not certain
anymore

where ya goin?
where’s this headed?
it can’t be anywhere
good

(D. James)

Like a bad meal
that repeats

This town
loves itself
more than it deserves

Rewarding mediocrity
Substituting false beauty
for real emotion

Masking belligerent consumption
with blinding sunlight
and palm trees

An American microcosm
of what’s to come

“Reality” TV
played out
in lives of
unconscious consent

Leased luxury
parked outside
your shared apartment

It’s what’s on
the outside
that counts here

This is not
the place
for epic poetry

(D. James)

To live a life
epic like the night

Full with the
weight of the moon

Dark with occasional
streaks of light

Dotted with
a billion possibilities
like stars against
the blackened sky

To be complete
and silent
in an endless expanse

Reaching beyond
the humble existence
of just walking the earth,

To the never-ending
edge of the universe

Swallowing planets whole
and still waking, in the morning
to brilliant sunlight

(D. James)

Waiting
for inspiration
like a brick
to the head

disjointed ideas
false starts
fragments
that go nowhere

Pondering
a fierce headache

the poet
and poem
remain unfinished

(D. James)

Just because
the ocean waves
ceaselessly
pound the sand

doesn’t mean
the beach is
all that fond
of the abuse

(D. James)

I want to
stay up all night
watching movies

I want to
find someway
to feel

I want to
stay up all night
and listen
to the rain

I want to
find a way
to get back home

I want to
be free
from wanting
and just be

I want to
stay up all night
and listen
to the pain

In the end
I just want
to believe

(D. James)

Falling fast now
through this life

Waiting for that
never-coming
something
to happen

Not sure
if this is sadness
or the edge
of madness

Each day
goes by and
all I want to do
is stop

(D. James)

Damp clouds
like steel cotton
darken the day

Rain falls heavy
on the city

Good time
to be drunk
if only
I still drank

Maybe I should
leave town
or become
a fish

(D. James)