Standing Naked

Standing Naked

Standing naked
can be difficult
when shoulders are forced to shrug off
the addictions of psyches tawdry tumble
through this realm of flesh and failure
These dreams like love affairs
seem so fragile
and simple
that one can mistake them for weak
walk all over them
listen to the pied piper’s
lead steal our innocence
In the face of these Insidious insults
minor failures
semi-public melodramas
and self-induced hypnological deterrents
What hope and faith is there?
What impossible belief?
Do not accept drowning!
Do not go quietly into the new moon!
Bring the luminescence of the present moment
This one
Right here!
Right now!
Drums will be played to keep our procession
of footprints in time
Cry Hear Ye!
Hear Ye!
The persistent dreams of those too strong
or too stupid to be put off by the possibility of failure
float like morning’s high light
I Love You
I will not be afraid to scream
I Love You
To be naked and easily bruised
I Love You
I was once told
the most difficult of life’s tasks
is to be yourself
Honestly -Openly
To walk with love rather than fear as fuel
My reply was the buzz of a bullet
stopped by a hair weave
The fall from 20,000 feet
Screaming rush of wind
Visions of land
Careening faster Into the yawning gullet
Of an inevitable rush
All of it,
every last drop
of what it is to be human
The hate
the envy
the lust
the insecurity
Ripped away
tossed nonchalantly into the gutter
of this new realization
that to stand naked in front of the world
is to stop bullets
raise flags
and declare victory in the soul