The Masked Ball

The Masked Ball

You see them everywhere.
They pass you by and look you up and down.
Then they either sneer or smile.
You wonder what goes on behind their mask.

They all wear masks.
If you ask them to take off their mask,
sometimes they comply.
All you see is a black hole that goes on forever.

That is where they live.
Everywhere and nowhere.
Life is a masked ball.
Without the Ball.

I want to see lights.
Lots of lights.
The brighter, the better.
Because that is where I want to go.

All the stink, disease, hate, and poisonous people,
will be somewhere else.
Love and Peace will be there.
Everyone you have ever loved and who has loved you will be there.

Take off your mask as you look in the mirror and see
what is behind your mask.
Nobody will be watching, except you.
You may like what you see.

If you are my friend I think you will.

© July 29, 2012 Philip G. DeLoach

Larry's Not Home

Larry's Not Home

Larry's not home today.
He is in a dumpster behind the fancy restaurant
you know, the one on the other side
of town.

His cat found a rat to eat so he's happy.
He's sleeping now so don't wake him.
Larry has a college degree.
He used to have a family.

He recently found a nice blue blanket.
It was fine except for a couple holes.
Blue is Larry's favorite color.
He got some candles from the homeless shelter.

Larry tried to live a normal life.
He couldn't find a job.
If he found one he couldn't keep it.
Hard to get a job with no address and no phone number.

People think Larry is lazy.
Larry is not lazy.
Staying alive every day is hard work
when you have nothing and nowhere to go.

Some people give him money.
Some give him scornful looks.
Some don't even see him.
He is like a ghost walking around the streets.

Some people yell at him, "Get a Job!" they say.
Larry doesn't say anything.
He knows it doesn't do any good.
He would rather be invisible than be a target.

Larry knows the best dumpsters in town.
The hard thing is finding a restroom
or a place to take a bath.
Restaurants won't let you use their restrooms
if you are not a customer.
Larry is not a customer he just needs to use the bathroom.
He finds a doorway in an alley.

People don't like for Larry to urinate in their doorway.
The cops will arrest him or beat him up if they see him.
Larry doesn't know how old he is.
Or the last time his home was not a cardboard box.

He still has a small photo of his mother.
At least he thinks it is his mother.
He wants to believe it is her anyway.
He thinks he had a brother once.

His shoes were falling apart.
The soles were coming loose.
He found some duct tape
and taped them back on.
Duct tape is good stuff.

I went by to see Larry the other day.
Larry wasn't home.
His cat was gone too.
I looked around for anything that was worth keeping.
I don't think Larry's coming home no more.

© May 16, 2012 Philip G. DeLoach

Time Before Time

Time Before Time

I can remember when I was not who I am.
I can remember when I was not somebody else.
When things were as they should be.
When skies were blue and the air was clean.
When days were long and time did not rush by
like a speeding freight train.

Apples were given time to ripen before being picked.
We took the time to notice one another.
To get to know one another.
We took the time to actually talk to one another.

I guess we have more time to remember
when we had more time, and less time to make
more memories to forget.

Do you remember when you were someone else?
When we were somewhere else?
When we had nothing to do and all day to do it?

Times and Tides Change and we swing like pendulums
in an ever increasing clock.
We smile as we pass as one heads toward the future
and the other heads toward the past.

Nothing changes, but nothing stays the same.
We are unconscious Chameleons.
Evolving, devolving, discovering, and losing,
all at the same time.

Sometimes my memories seem more real than the present day.
The Past, Present, and Future sometimes merges
into a confusing blend of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Where are we now?
Where will we be yesterday?

You see there actually is no Past, Present, or Future.
Everything that has ever happened, and will happen,
already exists every moment of the day.
We have already done everything we will ever do.
We just haven't realized it yet.

They say it's not too late to change the future
but, it's also not too late to change the past.

Our lives are spread like a layer of peanut butter across a slice of time.
Some blends, some overlaps.
Some lives end and others begin but it is all the same ball of energy just changing it's configuration.

The Emperor gets a new set of clothes.
Then he dies, and is buried in them, only to wake in another time and place
with not only new clothes but a new body, a new face, a new life.

At every point of decision in our lives we create an infinity of possibilities.
Each of those possibilities continue on separately creating infinitely more possibilities.

We are on one strand of that network of possibilities.
Our perception is what defines who and where we are at the present moment.
It can all change in the blink of an eye.

The end of the world has already happened.
But the beginning of a new world is happening also.
It is a constant dance across infinity.
We dance until we all eventually learn that we don't have to go anywhere
to get to where we all eventually will be.

We are already there.
Love and trust in life is the glue that holds it all together.

It is all that really matters.
It is the only eternal thing that exists.
And there is plenty of it because the more you give away
the more you get.

© Apr. 8, 2012 Philip G. DeLoach

You Can't Get There From Here

You Can't Get There From Here

I was walking down a pretty winding dirt road.
The sky was blue, the air was clear.
There was a low rock wall alongside the road.
An ancient road from the looks of it.

In the distance beyond a green meadow I could see
a clump of trees with a small stone building in the trees.
I couldn't tell if it was an abandoned farm house or
maybe a relic of a long ago ruins of a castle.

I decided to climb over the low wall and go take a look.
I climbed over but then did not see the woods or the building.
I turned around and on the other side of the wall
there was the meadow, the trees, and the building.
This was very curious and starting to spook me.

I climbed back over the wall and, as before the
woods and the building were gone again.
Again I turned around and everything was as it was.
On the other side of the wall.

This had gone beyond strange into downright scary.
I realized that I must have crossed some kind of time/space thing
when I climbed over the wall the first time.
The problem was now I had crossed the wall several times
and I couldn't remember which side I was on originally.

Finally I saw a strange looking man walking my way.
I asked him about the stone house in the woods.
He just looked down at the ground at his huge feet
and said "you can't get there from here".

Well I sat back down and thought what in the hell
will I do now?
If I take this path I may end up in an entirely different world.
But I have to do something.
I can't stay here.

I finally saw someone walking my way from the other direction.
As he got closer I saw it was the same strange man with the big feet.
I asked him about the house and explained the mess I was in. I told him about the other man who looked just like him. He just looked at his huge feet and said "Pay no attention to that guy. He's full of Baloney".

And he went on his way.
I was desperate now so I just started walking until I saw a town.
It looked like my town, my home.
I went inside my house and everything seemed perfectly normal.
Only thing was the clocks all ran forward for twelve hours and
then ran backwards for twelve hours. Time was going nowhere.
I thought how can I get out of this?

I finally walked back to the place where I climbed over the wall
only this time I walked backwards. I got to the wall and climbed
over it backwards. When I turned around, lo and behold I and the house was on the same side of the wall!

I climbed back over the regular way. The house stayed where it was.
I walked back home. There was no way I was going to go near that house or that wall again. I heard that the wall and the house was torn down to build a shopping center.
The shopping center never got completely built. They would build something one day and it would be gone the next day.
They finally got so tired of that they just abandoned the place entirely.

So, now when people ask me how to get to the new shopping center I tell them
"You can't get there from here".

© March 30, 2012 Philip G. DeLoach

Old Scratch

Old Scratch

It's not but one hop, skip, and jump from
Akron to Dacron, to Polyester Preacherman
Who preaches against everything he can think of.
We are all evil and in the clutches of Satan.

And then when the Preacherman is so exhausted
He finally goes home.
Takes off his Preacherman Suit and is Old Scratch Himself.
Grinning and strutting like a Banty Rooster!

"Those fools will never know what hit 'em he screamed!"
And sadly he may be right.
If anyone takes any of these Proselytizing Pro Haters Seriously
They must have been brainwashed or brain dead.

But a lot of people do take them very seriously.
Enough to even vote for them as President of the United States.
It is Insanity personified.
The Bull and the Shit have come together as one.

And they boast and bluster like the Buccaneers of the old days
They will set things straight!
They will get our country back!
They will do away with the Sinners and the Terrorists.

How can anyone with a brain possibly take these
highly paid Buffoons seriously?
It is unbelievable that they have come as far as they already have.
What will it take to stop them?

This country already has ceased to be a representative Democracy.
The Foxes have killed the chickens in the Hen house and now
There is nothing left but Foxes.
Our Civil Rights are being flushed down the Presidential Commode.

The ones who are supposedly on our side are doing nothing.
They are either stupid, wearing blinders, or are so rich and arrogant
that they think the Republicrats will shoot themselves in the foot
and will be easily defeated.

Trouble is the Republicrats and their Evangelical hordes
have taken over governments on every level including State, County, Local.
They are making laws that to anyone who is not an idiot would know is
either illegal, unconstitutional, or Fascist.

A third of the people are waiting for the Second Coming, another third are waiting for the First Coming, and another third don't believe anybody's coming at all.
And some are waiting for the Starship to come and get the "Chosen Ones".

This insanity is leading up to what I think will be the most insane Presidential election in this country's long history. Also one of the most corrupt and illegal elections. The Republicrats have already given the Presidency to George Bush twice. He was appointed the first time, not elected, and the second time it was illegally given to him by ballot tampering and other crooked means.

Voting has become an exercise in futility.

What do we do now?

© Feb 27, 2012 Philip G. DeLoach