TALE-TELL (Tell a Tale)

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I think we all know the scene of the locomotive pulled train and the hissing

When it’s pulling into the station

Ripping through the thick white fog as arrives on the platform

Waiting impatiently to roar into the distance,

And if not from personal recollection, perhaps from a film, or a cartoon

Let’s induce us with this vision, sit and be still for a moment,

Watching it roll in.

The train stops in a little village, the fresh snow is still covering the ground though it has warmed up

I hold my grandfather’s hand as he lifts me into the cabin, and follows

We choose seats in the second suite and sit by the window, so we can see the countryside that will roll by, seated across from one another

The long planes of freshly grown grass are starting to move and become one single lime green line

I wait patiently until my grandfather puts his crossword puzzle down, always filing it out in pen, realizing just the right moment to inject a story

My ears, if they could, would perk up as if a dog is listening to the sound of the wild.

The moving train car is the perfect place to conduct a “tale-tell”

And if you knew my grandfather, it unfolds effortlessly, like melted butter onto a toast

By now I have forgotten how nervous I was at first boarding the train,

Now only paying attention to the deep steady voice that’s leading me into far away lands

Into a place where its people invented paper,

I sit on the edges of the pyramids, breathless,

I am seeing Cairo through my grandfather’s eyes

Effortlessly in love with life, and all it takes is a “tale-tell”

The words unroll as if a film was shown on a big bright wall in front of me

My grandfather, with each pause, touching his beard, as if the rest of the story,

Was embedded between the hair strands, and with each touch more of it was released.

Secret tale drawers he must possess, in there I think,

Another touch, another magnificent unveiling of a detail,

Which brings me closer to invading reality

Of the land in mention,

When suddenly, the door of the car opens, and

The brisk air punches you in the face, almost alarmingly when you open the door and are greeted with white plains everywhere.

During this Holiday Season and every other time of the year

 May you also tell or hear a tale,

To or from a friend, to a loved one, to your family

Perhaps sitting around a fire pit, tell a tale.

Let the magic unfold, and never disappear.

It’s the season of the tale-tell.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2013

Peace, dry.

There is no other place like the desert to see the stars

There is no other place like the desert for burying thoughts

It encloses you in its vast dryness

Holds you closer than a mother holds a newborn

Just so it can show you it’s chameleon like powers

How quickly the hot sand becomes colder than ice,

Amazed you will stare, while it balances the extremes

I ride through it, over large enclaves, until my legs

Are redder than a lobster and attached to my bike

Only by habit, or they are frozen to it, depends the time of day

Still, I ride with a rush like no other

Weave a new map, for someone to follow, in hopes no one will

This way I remain alone amongst and with the giants

The desert knows my name, and I know its soul

For me there is no place I call home

Only places I ride

The two wheels

While tripping dust into circles above ground

My home is in the movement,

Through the redness of the morning and

The highlights of the evening

If a meteor shower surprised me there

I think I’d be ready to give up eternity

And stare like a kid mouth agape

Longing for nothing more than that moment to last

Those times in between in between dry pieces of peace

Those make a lesser man sweat with fear

Fear I sometimes wish I possessed

To you, beast of nature and with you

I can only climb until I remember

It’s been so long since I’ve seen free water

And a tall green mound and bolt to another side

Of this land, my land, the land that’s logged in my bones

So much peace, so much dry heat, I could never

Thank you enough.

September 13, 2013

CALL OF COLORADO

I remember, as it was yesterday


The quick draw of weather changes Colorado unleashes onto the un-expecting first time traveler


It was from sun to hail to rain to snow to sun all as if unveiling a painting at a gallery opening


Beautiful, quick to open the eyes wide; what to wear and when you ask? 


The rides you'll endeavor will always yet never truly respond


Be there and fully

Clothed in layers or unprepared at awe you will be

Do or do not -no matter the will


Encapsulated into the crystal clear water of its rivers you'll come

You'll yearn to scent the mountain fresh air before you'll have a chance to open your car door


In the north on all corners the Rockies will wave and smile


Their magnificence will draw you in year throughout


The horses and their pastures, everywhere and always around

In all seasons they carry glory and lust of the prairies of the Wild West

But the spring is what shall seal the envelope of desire.

You'll remain sorely present imagining how you can walk this land with not much in hand.

Long time to come

10-11-13

FREE-DOM

So you say you want to be free?

Somehow this reads as a line out of a song

Sung out of boredom, another Dom,

A few notes from a famous song

A smirk as you drive by a marketing slogan

On a horrifically yellow billboardA raise of an eyebrow, spitting sideways, under your breath

“Only if”.

If I were a Zen master I’d ask you

Do you know what free-dom is?

What it truly contains, how it exists, within you, us all?

Your rushed response would send me into perpetual silence.

Staring into the mountains wishing I never asked.

I am not a teacher or a guide; I am no one

But I know Freedom, always innately, and very intimately.

So instead I’ll put on a face you recognize

Beekeeper mask, hands dripping with honey

Licking my fingertips in joy, I say

Freedom is the ultimate flight

To freely roam the earth and collect sweet flower juice

That will constitute a honeycomb sooner or later.

You nod in agreement as you too,

Think freedom is about an unstoppable force

Choice of movement, and action even

I should finish this batch, I utter and

Walk away in my camouflage.

For a few minutes and through the buzz of the nest below

My hands, I recognize

My flaw, my inability to reach,

To patiently, share, perhaps show or guide

To shove aside the mist of your mind

I don’t note the silence around, as there isn’t any

I am no longer free of thought; I am deep in my aura.

They name towns and streets in the name of the free

But do you want to reside in Freedom town

Or do you want to be free?

What is free, and dom?

Kingdom, Stardom,

Mandela was ever free yet he couldn’t leave a room for a decade

To be free is to be not only free of attachment, attention, and habit

And of the Self and away from the Monkey mind. 

Walk this land heart and head, aligned

For there is no bigger feat for a man, when these two are at odds.

Freedom lurks on every corner, in every town, on every island

You bring it with you, wherever you are. 

8.13.13

Coloring the night

I am so aware of what it all can seem like

But let’s return to where only written words

Existed between us

Folding and unfolding like summer picnic chairs

Just as colorful as a sundown from a perfect beach day

It’s in the eyes, and the body, the energy that just fluttered

Between you and I

From the very moment we hugged on the street of your house

There was no denying it, no need to deny

While watching the film, it felt as if we watched thousand and one prior

Walking home, holding hands, it was natural

Unplanned for and yet completely normal

Want to come to the party you asked

I said why not

From kissing your lips the first time, I knew I was in trouble

It was magic, laid out, and to my surprise lady of temptation reared its head

And it was no way out of that lip lock

Off to the party and beats and drinks drove the night

But the comfort we achieved before heading out, still remained

Not at a distance, within a hand’s grab.

On the dance floor, like high-schoolers we ignored them all

In passionate kissing, and hands in places that should maybe not

Be unless in a dark lounge as we were finding ourselves to be

Home sweet home we finally made it, tired, grinning, intoxicated

Put your friend to rest, running out to get a bite

Purchased a lotto ticket, because this night was already amazing

Hey you never know the next day we could have been

With funds in hand and on an airplane to another land

The unknown always there to get us going

Sweet and hard lovemaking followed,

I could pretend and say I’ve done this before and it’s fine

I have never made love to someone meeting him only that night

And never would I imagine it’d feel so right and amazing

There is much to be said about the good ole “never say never” and I am now a student

Of yet another life’s great notion to the end

We were fast asleep just to do it all over again and lock in passionate

Embraces even Kama Sutra would have been proud  

Not getting tired of hearing each other saying what burned in our minds

The incredible heat or the moment and our bodies and minds connecting,

Our lips dictating the rhythm, the ride that ultimately ended in a few breaths of sleep.

I write these lines to you for you to know, that in my eyes you are, one of a kind.

Belt notches do not exist in my world;  I am not the loose kind,

And so with inspiration and the moment of it, came and I am on a mountain’s peek

Throwing up a balloon, to set it over the skyline.

May those blue eyes only retain what they should: love for life.

And your body, I can’t even mention it without already sensing a shake,

Your voice that clearly cuts through my own and sending me into a spiral

Finally your touch, isn’t just beautiful hands touching me, it’s a phenomenal

Soul,  of a man with vision sharing a world only he knows to be true, with me.

My friends say I should harness the passionate horse in me, how could I not share with you what I feel? 

It’s at the core of who I am, and most people if not all have a hard time dealing it out, the unapologetic truth that I share. 

I know a few people, who are self aware,

And possibly only those can appreciate this incredible and yet pristine moment ceasing I call the absolute mad truth of the insides.

I wouldn’t be me, and I wouldn’t want to censor myself,

To share the truth as I know to exist

Is my only reality, only necessity.

Let it not scare you, but if it does, I can accept it with a smile

Knowing I have shared what I had to.

 June 10, 2013

 For Michael C.