Upsizing is downsizing

 Burned the gas
The fire rose
An addict for the fresh
everything grows

Burned the fat away
Sweat blesses
The road intact
The way of life

Forward with fire
coal loads to embers
An engine roar
Smiles radiates 

Into zone five

 There are five zones inside heart
inside each zone
Inside zone two and three
It is easy to maintain a rhythm

In zone four
There is difficulty
But it's easier to gain stamina there

Zone five doesn't keep the rhythm
But teaches you how to know your limit

Reach your limit
Imagining there would be more
complicated feelings sap your strength

The world doesn't owe us mercy
so every now and then zones 1 to five
get flooded with sickly pain

And what does life demand from us
Rhythm and stamina
And soon as we fall short
 they stick the knives in 

I always thought I could make it
Into zone five
World calling into remind me to stop

But the world will be there tomorrow to knock me down
So I'll just continue to push through
every zone to know I have no limits

Please God 
No heart attacks today

Husbandry

 Otaki spreads over
Stands next to the old caravan
Next to the brick wall of the house
Showing his yard

Pebbles on the driveway
Leaves on the hedge
squints across eyes and brow
Roof eave relief

Michael nodds toward the river
behind his house
Every corner of man's existence
The holder of dreams

The shed full of tools
The covered area, bikes and lawn mowers
Hidden from the rain

Low stakes repetition

 Expand then implode
Slowly overload
repeat in cycles
Never trying to get to know
The repetition
That hides in your psyche
The routine is sandpaper with a dumbell attached

The reoccuring thoughts slip back into the same turning wheel
Hitting monday, accelerating and heating up the week
Same predictable arguments circling round
Same sense of lost progress or missed adventure
Same low stakes game of emotions
Expanding and imploding
Slowly overloading

Mortal elements

 The pain somewhere far back
Trust broken or a species of betrayal
It's like seeing the portrait from a far
Then peeking in close and realizing

Someone inside the brushstrokes was injured
One of those long overpowering injuries
That takes decades to heal
Maybe that person deserves more

The men that framed it were hated
And perhaps those who happen upon it
Staring at it's anthropomorphic nature
It's mesmerizing feminine hostility

As the color fade let it and it's evocative corporeal figues heal
A slow long cure that contrasts with the aggressive needs 
Of a fast chaotic fomo filled present
Where atention buys more than money

To ashes with my own interpretations
Maybe this piece of art will go on to value more in the future
Or maybe it will see zero value in anyone
I refuse to be the critic

Fuel ridicule

 A leaf of relief
getting on getting on

Childlike somewhere nearing thirty
but I keep imagining

Fueling the ridicule
Shattering my confidence

Keeping me where I am
Who should know better

I should
The older one

The leaf dries and burns
scorn in those eyes

The streets are quiet
gravity sets in

nothing seems to bounce anymore

Gumball creditor

 The gumball machine is full

take a quarter stick it in the slot

Listen to the coin register and fall in

then turn the cap and watch the gum ball come out

In the big globe you try to figure out

Where the sweet disappeared from

Eyes search, the little red balls aren't talking

The bulb keeps you dumbfounded gawking

You put it in your mouth and chew

The dry parts wrinkle up then soak saliva

The sugary flavor peels off and radiates

You smile and forget where the ball was hiding

pull another quarter out of the pocket

Metal to the slot nothing to stop it