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EVICTION NOTICE
You owe no loyalty to anger and revenge
As soon as you can evict those problematic tenants
The better for you
They pay no rent, just squat in your brain
Taking up room that could be used for much more gratifying things
Like learning about something or like a great hobby
That has interested you.
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VACANCY
No one gets to the Moral High Ground
By rudely shoving everyone they disagree with
Out of the way
While out-screaming everyone
In a strident, grating voice that they
Are the most qualified to claim the
Moral High Ground
As their God-given or Intellectual right
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OUTMATE
She would write to him in prison
But she would not pay for calls
The Psycho Path up the slippery slope
Almost always leads to falls
He should consider very carefully
Those grey relentless walls
And that she would write to him in prison
But she would not pay for calls
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THE PROBLEM IS THE PROBLEM
As soon as I label something as a "problem"
It is a problem
I try to label as few things as a problem as possible
Situations, conundrums, bafflements, obstacles, considerations, facts, surprises, disappointments, events, requirements, goals, objectives, sticky wickets
Are what I have
Thence I have cut down considerably
On the number of actual problems in my day
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LEVIATHAN
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Once in a while it emerges
From the murky depths
To reveal its mysterious and startling nature
Leviathan, my subconscious mind
Both Me and Not-Me
It arises from the Abyss to breach the surface
And I see it, weird and familiar
Performing some action that only makes sense
In the context of my entire life
This Neptunian being, so entwined with my existence
Because it sees what I see, experiences what I experience
Then does a deep dive to its unknowable lair
Where it devises bizarre plots for my life
I can not harpoon this innermost Leviathan
Much as I might want to
But I can attempt to talk to it in some unknowable language
I can demonstrate with my conscious behaviors
What my true intentions are
While watching, when I remember, for the preternatural signs
Leviathan has surfaced to reach a shimmering tentacle out
And touch my heart, influence my actions
Reveal the most basic and primitive version of myself
So off we go, hand-in-tentacle, me and Leviathan
While I try to chart the best course for us to take.
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WISH LIST
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What I want is a solution
That doesn't create more problems than it solves
What I want is enough flexibility
To deal with life as it evolves
What I want is to avoid commitments
Until I understand what the situation involves
What I want is to try and keep up
With Mother Earth as she revolves
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INSIGNIFICANCE
When asked why aliens, if they exist
Do not destroy us, or at least attack us
An astronomer said it was
For the same reason you do not get on a plane
Fly to a remote area in South America
Hack your way through dense forests
For weeks
To finally arrive at a half-rotted log
Find a single ant
And stomp on it
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BLESS YOU
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What if we treated another person's anger or irritation
With us
Like them having a sneezing fit
And we kept saying "Bless You" to them
Until the hissy fit was over?
Of course, I mean to say "Bless you" silently
Only in your mind, while looking serious
Because it would be quite irritating
To have someone smiling benevolently and saying
"Bless you" while the angry person still has steam
Coming from their overheated brain.
In fact, to keep in practice, we could silently say "Bless you"
To any number of people for any number
Of things throughout our doo-da day
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LOVE CON
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Sometimes you are handed a glossy pamphlet
Offering a romantic dinner
With candlelight and roses
On a vine covered balcony
Under the intoxicating moonlight
While swelling music drifts in on a summer breeze
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But once you have paid
In full
What you get is a prison sandwich
A thin slice of baloney
Between two slices of stale, nutritionless bread
Served on a battered metal tray
Under a harsh bare bulb
While people scream curses through the stale air
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Do not believe the fancy words and glamorous photos
The promises and flattery, the con
Because what you are being handed
Is a bunch of baloney, not a banquet.
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WOLVERINE
If you found a wolverine in the wild
Caught in a leg hold trap
In great pain and dying
And you sedated it
Brought it home
Dressed the wounds
Tenderly fed and cared for
The wolverine
With great compassion
(Which is virtually indistinguishable from love)
Until the day the wolverine was healed
What would you have?
A pet? A grateful companion?
No, you would have a healthy wolverine
Ready and eager to get back to doing wolverine things
Which do not include you
The only realistic outcome would be to set it free
Let it go back
To the risky wolverine lifestyle
Your repayment is not aquiring an exotic pet
No, your repayment is the knowledge that you have saved a wolverine
From suffering and death that one time
You helped a wolverine regain their freedom
To go on without you
Your repayment is watching it disappear
Into the woods
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SPIN
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When the merry-go-round isn't merry
When the carousel horses turn scary
When again and again
You recycle your pain
And you end up being treated unfairly
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How can you get off this ride?
First get off the fake horse you're astride
It is going nowhere
It's just a trap and a snare
You can see this when you are clear-eyed
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At first the merry-go-round looked like fun
Joy and laughter when it had begun
But now it is played
So don't be afraid
To stop the music and declare yourself done
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THE ACHILLES ZONE
Cars and trucks have a blind spot
Our visual fields have a blind spot too
(Althought our clever brains fill it in)
Our internal perceptions have a blind spot also
We can sometimes see how others are oblivious
To what is glaringly obvious to their friends
I imagine others can see what is in my blind spot
As I can see what is in theirs
Blind spots
Like those sightless pale fish that live in a cave
Are very sensitive to light
They stay hidden from our sight
However, they are a vulnerablity
That can cause reoccuring issues
If the same dang problem shows up
Over and over, with minor variations
Realize you might be dealing with a Blind Spot
Become willing to lift the veil and take a little peek
At what we have been hiding from ourselves
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NOW WHAT?
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We develop coping skills
By coping
With the painful slings and arrows we can barely cope with
Right now
Our weak and feeble coping muscles
Grow stronger
Day by day as we go to the gym named
"Now What?"
To build strength and endurance
Resilient perseverance
By sheer necessity, effort and force
Of will
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DWELLING IN THE NOW
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Where are the folks who knew what the fox said?
Who danced the Macarena?
Swiveled a hoola-hoop on their hips, sent a Slinky
Down the stairs, smelled a Strawberry Shortcake doll for kicks?
Those folks have evolved, moved on, lost interest
Those things seem silly or quaint now, perhaps a vague nostalgia
When reminded of them
What about a failed relationship? Unfortunate investments?
That great plan that fell through?
Can we evolve, move on, lose interest in those things?
Other things will come to take their place
If you let them
Nobody dwells on how disappointing life is without a pet rock
So, out with the old, in with the new
We are moving on, as individuals, as a society
Our dwelling is here now, where we currently live
Our thoughts must dwell on the journey today
Our past outdated interests are in a big imaginary junk drawer
With the troll dolls, the fidget spinners
Beanie babies and lethal lawn darts.
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