#1: Let me in

Toes and fingers, count to ten
Whitewashed landscaped world of men
Gates and fences, secret sin
I have questions. Let me in.
Rigid marks, Aurelian
Tell your stories, Alien
Free your women, hear the drum
Beating those you’ve stolen from
European. Anglican.
All your roots are African
Tell your stories, where you’ve been
Hear my questions. Let me in.

#2: FOR EVERY WRECK I STILL BELIEVE IN THE GREATEST LIFE AND THE STICKIEST LEAVES

This is the answer to a question, but not in the usual boring and restrictive language. Someone asked me once, “well how do you feel about him?” And this painting is the answer to that question. The lyrics to the song “Sticky Leaves” by Linying are written on the sides of the canvas. If you’d like to hear what the painting sounds like, then check out the song. This was the first canvas on which I painted something years ago in New York City.

#3: She

And you became a dancer
The day you made your moves
Reveal the soul inside a song
And play with all its grooves
The melodies you sweetened
Percussions you obeyed
And how your body used the air
With gravity betrayed
And you became the music
Abandoned all the rules
Woke some spirits, saved some lives,
And rendered critics fools
So listen to those phantoms
And ghosts of long ago
The ones with stories, stylish steps
Who taught you how to grow
Stand alone and show them
Show how you survive
‘Cause when you dance, we know
The dead and living feel alive
And if you’re ever hurting
To dance will set you free
Imagine all the music that
Your body gets to be

#4: grindr

Suspended in electric space
Without the dare of face-to-face
We’re window-shopping, frisky gluttons
Choices made by pushing buttons
Alerted by addictive chime
We come and go at any time
Laser dating quick on screen
A big computer slot machine
We search for now, avoid the brakes
Of time and days it often takes
To try and learn another soul
Relating by remote control
Our oceans turned to shallow ponds
The scaffolding of fragile bonds
A landscape flat with movement stopped
A world that’s filtered, photoshopped
I stretch myself and reach for you
I wonder if you’re reaching too.

#5: Leaf ban

The suited crooks have listed books
They think belong in cages
They think that books have evil hooks
And poison on the pages
But books like these are made from trees
That grew to certain ages
Inform the thieves some books have leaves
Like trees in certain stages
What thief agrees they cause disease
Or killer avalanches?
And who believes in banning leaves
From growing on tree branches?

#6: Dragonfly

The truth is I tried
‘Cause a fire inside
Took its time
Burning all I supplied
I wish it had died
In the days I denied
But I lied
Thinking I qualified
For some room to reside
Get my feelings untied
But you hide
Always preoccupied
It is passion and pride
Overflowing inside
Ball of light
And it wants to divide
I’ve been so reduced
To a size I induced
And seduced
Ev’ry kick is a boost
I was kicked to the sky
So I had to ask why
Dragonfly
I was only supply
It’s the hardest to catch
To connect or attach
Not a match
Grab your wings and detach
I let go of some ends
And I lost a few friends
No amends
I’m a soul that pretends
But the moment I found
I could take off the ground
Not a sound
Just free and unbound
The little I’d known
Got me here on my own
I had flown
And it hurts, but I’ve grown
Finally, no bemoan
I am fire, I’m stone
I’m alone
Did it all on my own
I’m alone
Did it all on my own
I will roam
I’m finally home

#7: PAM

With color and humor, and future career
Our pennies were wishes. Our crayons were spears
Wounds on the rocks that we made souvenirs
They’d fade, over time, like how snow disappears
You taught me some magic, and magic must grow
Taught me the greatest of things I should know:

Learn to see people as one of your skills:
Some are investments and others are bills,

That radical kindness is found in a fire
Critical wisdom you’ll wish to acquire
Hidden by smoke and the thickest of haze
Remove the pollution, and study its blaze.

The number of problems we solved on those rocks
Diamond solutions I’ve kept in a box,
but…
How do I dance to this rhythm of grief?
Something so chronic, so far from relief?
‘Cause I didn’t think I would feel it like this
You’re not just a time or a person I miss
Your kindness is music that no one else has
Stronger than metal and smoother than jazz
And all of the features of oceans I’ve seen
None have the shades of your blue and your green
My pain is the earth and your memory, sky
It’s under this weather, I’m honored to cry

#8: quiet

I feel like screaming
Or howling at the moon
But then a song comes along
And moves the noises
Out of my head
And I’m quiet
I’m uncertain
But I’m inside a song

#9: sea of thoughts

Sometimes you sound like some thunder and rain
Flooding the ground after plugging the drain
Water that pools becomes hard to contain
With nothing, no tools to escape that domain
Don’t you hear voices inside of that head?
Sense we have choices like books we have read?
Thoughts in a crowd where some leave or remain?Some are much louder than all of that pain
You once saw me hurt and suggested some change
Thoughts to convert, set aside, rearrange
I keep your advice like fire on stone
It melts all the ice when I’m cold and alone
Here is a rule I no longer believe
I may be a fool, and you’re welcome to leave
I unlock the trap when I carry the view
That life doesn’t happen to me or to you
What if our thoughts are collections of knives
And we might be taught we are carving our lives?
What if, in dread, we selected a knife
Decided, instead, that we happen to life?

#10: harvest

Sad to see the summer’s end
Light retreats and colors bend
Pumpkins fall in recipes
Sweaters are accessories
Winds arrive and Summer flees while
Fall undresses all the trees