THE HIGHLIGHTER

One day

you will be handed

a script

in which you must

find your part.

When you do

take a yellow highlighter out

hold it over the page

like a magic wand

and whenever you see

the moniker in print

illuminate the name.

Mark its every appearance,

emblazon it

with the color of the sun.

This is the way to begin

to own the role,
become the character,

learn the lines,

make them yours,

turn ink

into performance art.

LETTER OF SUPPORT

In this hamster wheel world of ours

you may just have to

play the ghostwriter and

impersonate somebody

that’s not you

to get what you need.

It’s darn near protocol

these days that

the requester write the missive,

and the advocate simply sign it.

What’s so wrong

with that arrangement,

really—

the taking on of

another’s voice

to pen your own testimonial?

In the process you become

the cheerleader and the champion,

the admirer

and the admired.

What a perfect paradox

and marriage that is,

the I and the other

are one,

praise and gratitude

are singularly sourced.

We should all write

letters like this

for ourselves,

so the idea of

acknowledgement

and validation

becomes less pedantic

and more prosaic, and is

finally accepted as the vernacular,

the idiom of the day.

AN ODE TO THE EMPEROR 

          for Stuart

It may take

going completely bankrupt,

losing your family fortune

trying to make a killing

in the rice trade,

for instance.

It may take this

or something else…

But the day will come

when you have nothing left to lose

and it is then you finally decide

to claim your sovereignty,

to live your life like an emperor,

and with the bravura and bravado

no city slickers dare dispute.

From this vantage point

you will see bridges 
and tunnels under oceans

that no one else can see.

From this regal ground

everything you say

is a declaration, a proclamation, a decree

that is your currency, the legal tender

that pays your way

from one day to the next.

Some may call you mad,

others may immortalize you,

ink you into the annals and pages of time.

No matter.

You are bigger than any slur

or fiction anyone can muster.

You are bigger than life itself.

Because you show us all

that the only Congress worth having

is the counsel with the Self.

And therein lies the true territory

worth prospecting and protecting.

This is the only claim worth keeping.

                                                                                           

THE GOD PAGE

At work

Only one person

Has access.

To the place

Where

Very high-

Level data

Can be viewed,

Changed.

They call it

The God Page.

I believe all

Of us

Have access

To such a page.

But I fancy

That it is

More like an

Invisible abacus,
As broad as the sky,

Where we,

If we care to,

Can record

Our gratitudes.

Have you

Slid

A bead

Across

Its bar

Today?

Have you

Dared to

Play God
With your 
Gratitudes?