Near heaven

The next column comes through
The next leaf buds open
Nature keeps moving forward
With the right water, soil and sun

Perfect shapes that emulate the universe's design
Whose fruit and flowers often allow us
to see and taste divine

The next ring in the trunk
The next crown of branches
Nature as royal and holy in it's habits as ever
Without pollution we live near heaven

Handed me the laces

The disorganized exodus
Houses in disarray
Vehicles stuck and arguments too
I left sneakers without laces

Without my souvenirs
or my California box
Through the small canyon
To the rear of some shanty town

Past the school kids who'd trained their sarcasm
And into a house
There stood a humble man who knew my doubts
Laces in his hands

He said those who go about tying double bows
Will harvest much when they are young
But those who have just enough to tie one bow
Will harvest most with what they know

Drying pants hanging off the pine

How deep and hungry is the devil's stomach, tell the truth
When he sends out killers to chase us down, we herds of humans
This field we've been left to run in, random trees and suspense
The cave man still in us running now cattle in a fence

Those drying pants in the wind
the man appears out of nowhere to master his sin
I looked up at the confident pine and saw the pant's size
They were hanging and swaying and singing goodbye

One blade, one man and a dozen people screaming for help
running through the field for their lives, every man for himself
unable to cooperate and overpower the maniac, fear in mode
The devil's stomach digested the whole terrible episode

And in the church where everyone forgot themselves
The knife was placed with care next to the alter bells
As the people and their killer prayed in silence
Soon to return to their hysterical running from the violence 

Gold did I seek

The small reservoir at the foot of the rocky hill
so silent and clear its water yellowy brown
reflecting the algae and the color of the stones
No fish just still clear water a meter or so deep

There is gold in there, I the punter said my thirsty wealth wanter
And sure enough there were signs, but I couldn't get it out in time
I'd surely dreamed of finding a nugget up that stream
The hill cutting the wind slowing it sharply making it pleasant as a park

At the foot of that hill rocky and calm
guava trees shading the muddy margins
That is where I reached in to get my handful of gold
alas nothing more precious than quartz did I hold