When a highly respected man is trying to let out some anger
Step aside and give him a moment.
We all need one or two
We're all vulnerable to inconsistency and exposition
You know he would do the same for you.

I gave you the hour
you asked for
But you won't give me the minute
i need

You told me you needed
more freedom
Yet I'm still waiting
to be freed

I don't know what else
i could give you
Your love is becoming
greed

I don't want this relationship
anymore
But I'm waiting for you
**to leave

we twist and twist and twist
like dishrags over an empty sink
where do all the drops of us go
where do they go
where do we go
eighteen
and i feel like i’m running dry

From the innocence
That she portrays
You'd never guess
She'd seen such days
Of drugs and *****
And easy lays

You'd never guess
Upon her cheeks
Once lived the tears
That always wreaked
With self disgust
At its highest peak

You'd never know
Upon her thighs
Is where shes written
All her lies
And in those scars
Her hatred hides

-ARI

If I could watch you sleep
I would not have the heart to awake you

I am poor ... unattractive ... lack entertainment ...
Where do I find the nerve
To take you?

I hear the hum of the lake in your eyes
My bones revolt, break through my skin
To protect you

I will crawl to the four corners of the world
Alas, you have instructed me
To forsake you.

If I could watch you sleep
I would gather birds and hire instruments
To awake you.

Fly by night,
Or the seat of your pants
Hang on tight,
May I have the next dance?
Take a deep breath,
Or a load off your feet,
Hey pretty mama,
May I sit in this seat?

Snoopy and Sloopy and Sloop John B too
Don’t you know
I think I love you?
All night long,
Nothing else can compare
Mickey Mouse, Elvis, Frankie, Annette
Down on the corner, cool
Cigarette.

All grown up
With no where to go
I left it to ******
But he didn’t know
Wally and Eddie
Were out selling drugs
Popeye and Brutus
Were two vicious thugs.

In the Fifities and Sixties:
It was hard to keep up
“They” fed us the Kool Aid
We drank from the cup.
Kent State and Woodstock
And a man on the moon,
Kaleidoscope childhood,
Ended too soon.
Phil Lindsey 9/16/15

In the labyrinth inside my mind,
Sometimes my thoughts get lost.
I search down long dark tunnels
Where old memories are tossed
Like antiques in the attic, that
I can’t bear to throw away
Saved forever just in case
I need them again some day!

And as I age these memories
Show up at the strangest times
But there is no one there to talk to
So I turn them into rhymes
And hope some day that someone
Might discover them and see
That my poems are about my life
My poems are ‘bout me!

When age finally blocks the tunnel -
I no longer can break through
And I’m trapped inside with memories
And nothing left to do
But stare out through the window
Or at the closed front door,
Know I’m still inside the labyrinth
And I wish I’d written more!
Phil Lindsey 9/14/15

My name was a
morning coffee secret you
keep between cupped hands.

There I lingered,
up until I went lukewarm
and then you poured me out

onto the ground upon discovering  
the bubbling champagne of her.

There was never a story so happy or so
Sad
as the one written the day She
Left.
Our coffee kisses tasted like hot chocolate;
Bitterly
sweet because She always added a double shot of
Espresso
and never told me. Her hair was a frazzled
Mess
because we had stayed up too late and slept for far too
Long.
She smelled like my favorite book and her
spine
was just as familiar. The day
Previous
She hugged me until I shook. I think I
Cried
too. That morning her October eyes looked
deadened
by winter. Our season had passed, and now She's
happy.
I wish her well. I always have, but the espresso
stained
my teeth. Her words stained my mind, and She stained my
Soul.