Used Dream Salesman

I have got offer 

And I doubt you can refuse

It’s a dream I think you need

A dream you’ll want to use

Here’s my selection

Go on, take your best guess

You’re sure to find out later 

Which one would’ve been the best

This one is a vision

A vast and open view

It’s sure to set you on your path

And make you feel brand new

Here’s one with velocity

Like a rocket off the ground

You’ll leave the earth beneath you

As you’re soaring through the clouds

I sell used dreams to those who need them

A bargain just for you

Discarded by some dreamer

Might just be right for you

A childhood memory

Is a favorite dream of many

Or this dream of being famous

My inventory’s plenty

I’ll trade them for your lost dreams

Or those you wish would go away

The nightmare you had last night

I’ll take of your hands today

Even though it was demolished

And once had a loose screw

This second-hand dream now polished

Shines better now than new

A comfortable ride

A dream to fit you like a glove

Just slide right inside

And experience the love

I sell used dreams to those who need them

A bargain just for you

Discarded by some dreamer

Might just be right for you

Here’s one where you’re floating

In a river made of light

Through a sanctuary of whispers

Toward a carnival delight

Another one you might like

Takes you down a cobblestone path

To a glorious castle turret

Where you’re really good at math

They won’t all make perfect sense

but there are diamonds in the rough

unless you take some chances

It’ll never be enough

To fulfill your sense of purpose

understand the hidden soul

with both forward and reverse

wide-eyed and wonderful

I sell used dreams to those who need them

A bargain just for you

Discarded by some dreamer

Might just be right for you

Take a spin in this one

A bargain at this cost

It will remind you of another dream

One you thought you'd lost

Some may be disappointing

The gamble you must take

To uncover your anointing

Beneath the surface of the lake

Where depths obscure and stall things

and falsify essential

this key unlocks your calling

opens full potential

Share them with your friends

connect with the universe it seems

satisfy your curiosities

when you buy one of these used dreams

I sell used dreams to those who need them

A bargain just for you

Discarded by some dreamer

Might just be right for you

by Royce Waxenfelter

12/24/19

Blackberry Pie

On our little farm on Forsythe Road

We had quite a menagerie 

Chickens, rabbits, cows, pigs, and pets with names 

Like Nipper, Montenegro, and Fancy

A thicket stood along the back fence line 

It must’ve been ten feet tall

When it’s berries turned from pink to black

We’d try to pick them all

Those summers were fun ones

Without much supervision 

Baseball cards and Matchbox cars

Andy Griffith on television

Sleeping in, then cooking eggs

Sunny-side-up like mom taught us

Then straight to the Atari

Which Santa Claus had brought us

Defender and Pitfall 

And other games we liked to binge

Like Defender and Centipede

Galaxian and Yar’s Revenge

It was a summer free-for-all

We did what we wanted to do

Backyard sports and BB guns

Sprinklers and bicycles too

And just before our mom got home

We’d race to clean the place up a little

Or she might not make us brownies

Or her famous peanut brittle

But best of all was the unmistakable smell

Of buttery crust wafting through the sky

And the fruits of our labor realized

In mom’s delicious blackberry pie!

By Royce Waxenfetler

12/19/19

Introvert’s Lament

You spend summers in the cellar, drinking raspberry tea
The green above teams with beetles and life
But elusive cool shade draws you out of the sun
To a quieter place where you can be alone

Alone to think, alone to drink, alone to wonder toward the brink
Shone by the moment, stoned by the weight, moaning your woes
Alone to think

The logical hiding takes too much away
Dulling destruction in gray disarray
A swallow heard chirping tempts you out
But fear of unknown sends you back to your throne

Prince of your poems, king of your songs

Surveyor of stories, where do you belong?

In the light of the masses where critics abound

Or do you prefer the judgement of being alone?

Alone to think, alone with ink, alone to wonder toward the brink
Shone by the moment, stoned by the weight, moaning your woes
Alone to sink

Dichotomies drift and swell, plummet and muster
Of longing to live and yearning to tell
A story to someone when no one is there
Except the haunting of greatness, alone take the dare

 
An introspection tale, a whispering gale
The fright of the introvert, the might of shy shadow
What does separation bring to the table?
What inspiration to dreamers is being alone?

Alone to think, alone to shrink, alone to wonder toward the brink
Shone by the moment, stoned by the weight, moaning your woes
Alone in the rink

Burrow and bury, side-step contrary

Shield with walls and call it humble

Hoard your gift beneath the guise

Of sheltered care with a protective glare

Thoughts planted well in the wiles

Beyond meandering imagining miles

Intimidated by ideas to share

Will others care? Or should you remain alone?

Alone to think, alone to sink, alone to wander toward the brink
Shone by the moment, stoned by the weight, bemoaning your foes
Alone to wink

 
By Royce Waxenfelter
3/15/19

Pushing love back down

Soft and sullen

The girl unwilling

To give love a try

Creates her wishes on the ceiling

She climbs inside her mind

The perfect place to hide

A shelter from the feelings

Escaping to sublime

But the yearning pokes her conscience

his smile evokes and prods

nerves she wants desperately to deaden

she ignores his winks and nods

she tries cruelty,

emits anti-nice

flexing cold shoulders

beneath her pauldrons of ice

She climbs inside her mind

The perfect place to hide

A shelter from the feelings

Escaping to sublime

but he won’t give up, won’t give in

persisting through uninvited

how long will his attempts to love

remain so unrequited

She pretends not to care

to be unaware

the emotions she feels bubbling up

she chooses not to share

She climbs inside her mind

The perfect place to hide

A shelter from the feelings

Escaping to sublime

Royalty in her reality

She wears a single crown

The queen of singles

Pushes love back down

Her valiant knight is stubborn

Faces her denial like a giant

A test of wills

Him: unrelenting, her: defiant

She climbs inside her mind

The perfect place to hide

A shelter from the feelings

Escaping to sublime

The boy conscripted to another kind of battle

Never to return to his hometown

The girl cried on the inside

Then shoved the love back down

Take heed young worried ones

The hurt is heavier than the single crown

A cautionary tale of

Shoving love back down

She climbs inside her mind

The perfect place to hide

A shelter from the feelings

Escaping to sublime

Escaping… yet alone.

By Royce Waxenfelter

11/21/19

A Small Band of Woodland Creatures

A waxwing went whistling
sweet songs along the way.
A bullfrog croaking bass tones
joined his band that day.
A forest squirrel politely asked,
"May I join you fine sounding fellows?
I rather like the harmony
the chirping and the bellows."
"What sound do you make?"
the waxwing asked in interviewer's fashion.
"A swift staccato clicking noise
known as 'chattering with passion.'"
"Let's give him a try!" came the bullfrog reply
and he led them in a round.
They sounded just fine and the squirrel kept time
by dropping acorns on the ground.
It didn't take long for the sound to spread,
others joined the company:
A robin, a beaver, and the buzzing hum
of a big ol' bumble bee.
Soliloquies now blended
are practiced, shaped, and mended.
Some marching tunes, some waltzes,
both straight legged and bended.
The woodland creatures harmonize beneath the willow tree,
they put on a show that cannot be matched for listeners like me!


by Royce Waxenfelter
10/12/18

Knowing the Unknown

In the silence I heard footsteps

Scrape across an old tile floor

For a second, pensive shivers

As the sound came toward the door

In a panic, my eyes spastic

Darting all around the room

Searching for a hiding place

To escape impending doom

Why am I worried?

Why am I scared?

Do I think perhaps I’ll meet my maker?

And what if no one cared?

Through my heavy breathing

The scrapes became more faint

Like a haunting in a graveyard

By a wrongful murdered saint

Why do I worry?

Why do I care?

Ain’t there a God up there who loves me?

Isn’t Heaven waiting there?

When the doorknob turned I shuttered

My soul hid behind my bones

And I nearly let a scream escape

As the door crept open with a groan

Then I sighed and melted, sobbing

Believing I would face a ghost

And when the shadow came into the room

I learned right then what I feared most

Why do I worry?

Why do I cry?

Why do I let this dread define me?

Lord, I’m afraid to die!

When the shadow came into the room 

And turned on the old light switch

It wasn’t some old ghost at all

It wasn’t some old witch

My mother stepped out from the shadows

Rushed right over to the bed

Wrapped her loving arms around me

And this is what she said

You don’t have to worry

Your mommy’s here

And she has Jesus deep down in her heart

He’ll wipe away the sadness, take away the fear

No, no, don’t worry

Don’t be afraid

Trust the Lord, he’s got your back

It’s going to be okay.

By Royce Waxenfelter

11/3/19