A Salute to Tempest, Kate

Let's go for a ride
Alongside the beach and trees
to a place that lies
behind stop signs and guilty pleas,
one ways and wrong ways,
A maze
Of drug-infested alley-ways
Schools and "sober-stays,"
STREETS,
Lighted at the end-of-day
Only to start the PLAY

And THEY are playing tonight,
The performers shine;
Amongst liquor-stores and pizza-signs.

Let's go back in time!
When thoughts had no reason or rhyme
We were kids
Longing to shine
Amongst dogfights and rockpipes
With bags in our hoods
To smoke blunts in the moonlight
Drinking in the woods
With deadbeats and lost types,
The city was ours.
It was God-like.

Then years turned to clouds
Like planes over trees
We became too proud
To be the Inmate,
The Guard,
The Keys
That locked private dreams
Behind eylids
We bowed our heads to see
The Mess
The Lust
The Lies
The Dust
The Sex
The Stress;
Staring down the barrel
Of an empty bottle...

Liquor and pills
Is it pain or pride?
That hides us from the truth inside
We hold tight to that disguise
That separates us from our tribe.

It's rebellious zeal
Too romantic and real
To feel angry together.
But it passed
And we realized;
Nothing lasts forever.
The thing with dreams,
When they're free
Real friends are seen
And that person you kept secret
YOU ARE!
Face it;
Hear
See
Smell
Touch and
Taste it!
This life is for
Much more
Than getting
Wasted.