• Counting stars on a warm night.
    I swear I knew Scorpio
    in days when it mattered.
    If you asked me, I'd be Orpheus
    and sing you from sleep.
    But today, I'm only me
    living on the frozen side of Mars
    where life is a funny, frozen thing.

    Yesterday, I was a young man.
    Today, I am a young man with an old heart
    hiding a troubled mind; vexed and overly complex,
    worrying about things it shouldn't.
    Things that seem a momentary matter;
    a minor infraction to some.
    And to others, the pattern
    of a life worn thin by disappointment.

    I feel like a kid who's waiting for his ride to come.
    Come on and pick me up from the back parking lot.
    Behind me is a field of endless orange merrigolds.
    I'm standing with a back to beauty,
    listening to disonant bells chime and waiting for 10 to pass.
    Come on and remind me that time
    doesn't stand still for anyone.

    So I, like a restless wanderer
    do wonder and dream
    (But even dogs do dream)
    of a field of azure lilacs
    that open beneath a sky that blooms too;
    a deep, rich, amber hue
    that bleeds into red,
    into purple, and back into blue.

    I dreamt last night that the ocean
    was a blue china plate spinning on a long thin rod;
    teetering on the brink of disaster.
    The fish held their breath
    each time the juggler left
    to see to another world that was turning.

    We all watched too
    as the ocean of blue
    china on a long thin rod
    tumbled and flew
    like the acrobats do
    only landing with all the grace
    that a cat at the end of its nine lives can.

    I rushed to wake up.
    And looking back, I thought I saw
    the mermaids shake their heads at the mess
    like one who's resolved not to be upset
    at the ocean of wet
    blue china on a long thin floor.

    There are loud people
    and there are short people...
    There are tall, proud people
    and there are short people...
    I've walked that road, alone in the sun
    in the middle of everyone.

    These dreams are but a passing thing.
    And love, the end without a means.
    But if you asked me, it would be sunset again.
    If you wanted, I'd be Leo...

    At twenty-two minutes early I'm sitting beneath
    a shadow I'm convinced I'm fond of;
    on the frozen side of Mars
    where life is a funny, frozen thing.
    On the frozen side of Mars
    waiting for Venus to rise.