THEY WANTED SOMEONE

To be like them, born

by custom and raised

in safety, learned by ease

---they were looking

for someone with no

life-lacerations, hidden

scars---someone polished,

sterling, a golden boy

---they were looking

for someone else, a

sports car, dollar-sign smile,

hands stranger to the ground

---they wanted

someone

with no grit

AN UP-SIDE-DOWN CROSS ON A GUITAR

Honesty and kindness come out

in your strained singing—trying

to match emotion with sound

in an articulation fit only

for your chosen style: Punk

Rock. Loud and fast and

hard, yet melodic—chords

banged out from the white

Telecaster—your medium—

with a flat broadside top: opportune

Place for your own message:

the symbol of Good and Love

in distress—a signal of one

whom YEARNS to be accepted

or placed with something GREATER.

It bothers you like hell, deep

from within to say something,—I just can't let it go.

Two pieces of crossing black

tape show your Recognition;—

Not letting it go into the crossing black

shows your Faith.

The Ampersand [&]

Use this only in a title between two names. Otherwise, if we are to use symbols of words then we should learn Japanese.