CliffSongs

  Shinytown   There is a road that ends up almost nowhere, Around the next curve, beyond the sun’s glare. Is it a secret enclave or merely a safe snare? Not much is heard from those who have gone there.   Tales have been told here, yes, once or thrice: Of sugar and spice and everything nice. Abandon all anxiety and take our advice: Allow yourself the embrace of the velvet vice.   Shinytown! So far off the beaten track! Don’t forget your sandals, Don’t forget your backpack! Shinytown! Once you’re in you will never look back, Shinytown is the original switchback.   Lay your cares in the provided ditchway, Enter at your own speed no matter which way. Here it’s always find your own niche day, And maybe for the sales pitch, stay.   No altered allegiances you need to attend, No adjusted arrangements you need to amend. Just access the appropriate alleyway and You’re not prepared for what’s around the next ben...

  Near End   It is now very nearly the end, As down your rocky road you weary wend: Fallback positions you dear defend, Searching stony faces for a final friend.   The seeds of ruin spread in manure deep, Living off the backs of others, your return is cheap. You fear the judgement you will final reap, As off the precipices you created you leap.   Why don’t you remember where you came from? How will you answer the beat of your funeral drum? Your day of reckoning is approaching chum, Do you hear the beat of your funeral drum?   You show up in state in your soiled gown, While watching all your webs come unwound. See how your world goes upside-down, What an unwieldy fate you have found.   All of your plans go un-gelling, Every day more enemies need felling. Everything seems like it’s going helling, And yet you’re still the cat that needs belling.   Why don’t you remember where you came from? How will ...

  Flow   A standing stone, or just bare bone, A shadow beneath the trees. A fleeting song, we are not long, Merely faint notes on the breeze.   The rivers of time flow between the stars, Where are the islands of those streams? Though it seems in life we travel far, We may be merely our own dreams.   So, hurry, don’t worry as you scurry, Try to keep gaining in the chase! So, hasten, outpace them and outrace them, As the eons amass, we have but this brief taste.   Time erodes and thus leaves its mark. We so fumbling and eager in the dark. How will we manage the days we are given? We not so mighty under the infinite heavens.   We are moments that ripple barely leaving a trace. Years consume monuments, they erase the face. These aging hands, where does the time go? Nothing withstands the inescapable flow. Then hurry, don’t worry as you scurry, Try to leave a mark in this space! So, hasten, keep pace then a...

  Winner   What cold win have you got to now? Why does uneasiness still furrow your brow? How did the undercutting not work out as planned? Why has the victory left you this unmanned?   What are you chasing that never strayed? Was it yourself that you outplayed? What did you claim that would not belong? Was the knife at your back yours all along?   Who is inflamed with all your betraying? That is the shame of all your preying. Success you claim, but it’s loss you’re displaying, There is no game if you’re the only one playing.   What was gained at the end of day, Was it too little, will you not say? Are your actions too demeaning to defend? Was there ever a meaning to the end?   Why did the everything go sideways to the plan? You were the comic playing the straight man. How did the whole everything go so wrong? You were the fox in the chicken coop all along.   Who is inflamed with all your betraying?...

  Grapemine   Poison: The sweet perpetration. The societal sensation. A personal levitation. Poison ever the chronic conflation.   Venom: Some fearless flotation, Word of mouth mutation, Involved though no invitation, Your involuntary integration.   Prattle, tattle, What matter whose life is rattled? Chatter, ratter, Severed reputation on a silver platter. Hearsay, near-say, A small matter of peer-slay. Defame, inflame, The bodies lie shattered in the gossip game.   Scandal: Trade in titillation, Maybe fabrication, Some outright creation, Or oversimplification.   Rumor: Character assassination, Infamy without citation, Aspersion through fixation, Influence castration.   Prattle, tattle, What matter whose life is rattled? Chatter, ratter, Severed reputation on a silver platter. Hearsay, near-say, A small matter of peer-slay. Defame, inflame, The bodies lie shattered in t...

Loopback   Have you seen the sniping sabotage, Cryptic campaign camouflage. Petty plyings that go pale In the light of bared betrayals. Have you seen the misdirection, Self-inflicted prepared projection. Have you seen the galloping guiling Behind the superficial smiling.   Round and round, Who is it that you confound? Up and down, Isn’t the injury inbound? Pound and pound, Watch all the mistakes compound. Down and down, It’s just getting this lost… That you’ve found.   Treachery in ready residence, Capitalize on the captured confidence. Dare the duplicity dispense, Sellout is some sort of self-defense. Forked tongue duly doubletalks, Backpedal in sorry squawks. What more will you heavy hawk? Enough with the seedy schlock!   Round and round, Who is it that you confound? Up and down, Isn’t the injury inbound? Pound and pound, Watch all the mistakes compound. Down and down, It’s just getting this ...

  Player   The table was never level. Solitaire was never dealt. When the cards are shuffled, The losers ante in again.   The chips are soiled and broken, The players worse than that. The cards are marked but can’t be read, Until you already hold them.   Never asked and in the game, No seat at the table to reclaim. No winners, no hall of fame, Play or fold, it’s all the same.   Only the dealer touches the deck, Every player makes their own rules. Try to focus on the cards you have As the smoke fills the room.   Players drift in, players fall out, The drink passed around freely. You pay for the perks you never requested, The doors are locked, and how did you get in?   Never asked and in the game, No seat at the table to reclaim. No winners, no hall of fame, Play or fold, it’s all the same.   The cards are dealt in the endless night, The dealer has all the chips. You wait for the pl...