hold that whip swashbuckler

you're too judgmental

fried eyes at dawns early light

I've got something to tell you

we're all just passing through

you don't own the place

but seriously, splintered doors

cardboard covered windows

and the smell of stale dust clouds

do you really want this?

I'm onto something better

I've got a litigating bird outside my window

who apparently disagrees with my sleep

this bird sings so beautifully, I often wake just to listen

there's this friendly barber I over tip

when she tells me I'm handsome

maybe I was  once

but when she says it with a straight face

I am once again

and just the other day I reached up

the way a drowning man reaches up

to help a short old lady get some cereal

at the supermarket

what's that you say?

"these are minor, little, trivial things

that are best left on the bottom shelf

for the rats to pick at when you're dead"

"no way" I say

I can dance my way across traffic

I can catch a secret whispering away

I've even been known to coax a budding rose

with a smile

but I never met a trivial moment

I didn't like