Song of Myself

You tell me you know me --
The way the cogs and the wheels turn in my head --
When at night, I toss and turn in bed
Do you know what makes me sweat in my sleep?
Do you know the secret fears I keep?
You claim you know me
But I don’t even know myself.

If I gaze upon my reflection
Who or what do you think I’ll see?
Imperfection -- staring back and taunting me?
Is there more to it than meets the eye?
What demons raging within can you espy?
I demand that you tell me!
Because I need to know myself!

But I know you! I know your kind!
The kind that dragged me down into the depths of the ocean
With your pretty words
And your needs.
I was trying to reach the surface -- my lungs were bursting --
But you threw me an anchor
instead of a float.
And I sunk even further… Further and further.
And then I drowned.

Maybe that’s how it happened.
Though full of jubilation was I at my own demise,
Mournful, were the other parts of me that survived.
But that’s how the world spins upon its axle --
Ordinary people meet tragic ends in this fable.
“Disillusioned!” you tell me.
But still I sing this song of myself.

So tell me you know me
And I will sing to you a different tune and melody --
Of truths and untruths in discordant harmony.
My reflection is what I envision
Not the familiar figure that you imagined.
You may think you know me
When I’m not so certain myself…
Yet I will go on singing… this Song of Myself

Do You Still Remember? (Sonnet)

Do you still remember that night when we first met?
I was half-awake, half asleep --
Too long ago this dream I dreamed; the memory too far, too deep.
Was the prussian sky littered with stars that night?
And did Orion’s belt shine and gleam with mischievous delight?
Did you feel the rumbling of the trains beneath our feet?
Or was it just the tremors of my racing heartbeat?

The August moon might be laughing when Cupid let his arrow fly
But I was half-awake, half asleep --
Too cunningly he planned, too well hid; his shot had pierced me deep.
If now you recall, did u foresee all this from the start?
Or were you a victim too? Did Cupid prey upon your unsuspecting heart?
Yet how could I deny what the Fates had conspired for me
And in this half-dreaming, half-waking -- I submit to my destiny.

The Unbending Road

Sometimes the road seems straight and unbending.
Your horizons are clear; your eyes see lands beyond extending.
But where is the path now,
Where are the dreams that had you moving ―
Onward and forward through life’s journey, never-ending?

If only we could walk together, one step at a time.
If only our steps could never go out of rhythm and out of rhyme.
But we can only wonder how
We had committed such a foolish crime
And Fate has caught us, stealing moments from Time.

But what moments we had, do you still remember?
How the hours seem to fly whenever we are together?
But all we are left with now
Are memories to cherish and to savor.
Each instant with you is a precious pearl, to treasure forever.

Sometimes the road seems straight and unbending.
The conclusion is clear; this was never a race we would be winning.
But I know better now ―
The only kind of Happiness worth chasing
Lies not in the distance, but in the moments we were traveling.