Love was not a road to happy.

A mistake for sure, by me

The path showed what I could take.

If I could only see.

I am going to take the high road.

There’s a lesson here to learn.

I now know my own business.

Deep down those bridges burn.

I was awake when she said it. “I think you are off the hook.

I felt like I was floating, and so my time was all it took.

And some money and my pain, but I make that everyday.

Today they let me off the hook; at least that’s what they say.

I’m still a little frazzled, my nerves are raw and worn.

I’m not saying I won’t recover but I’m battered bruised and torn.

I’d like to thank the jokers and that Lady in my dreams.

I was dying there of laughter, almost bursting at the seams.

That girl offered me some happy. I said, “Got all that I can use.

When the pushing came to shoving, She was gonna blow a fuse.

I was in the bowels of the Bowery. A place I knew too well.

Where when your words are flowery. There many a wise man fell.

My baby, my Queen Jemma, she showed up just in time.

She sussed out my dilemma. Said, “Asking ain’t no crime.

There is going and there’s coming, and someone’s gotta go.

Took the offer off the table. Where she went, don’t need to know.

There are offers and refusals, there are yes’s and some no’s.

Not everything is good or bad, its just sometimes how it goes.

I could get no higher.

Then that summit that we climbed.

I swear there was a choir

Singing joys and words of kind.

There were trials, tribulations.

There was blue and fresh clean air.

Like some drug induced sensations.

No more need to stand and stare.

All over but the crying.

Now is the time to say so long.

I just got sick of trying.

It’s not the singer, it’s the song.

I tried to be a passenger, in this thing that they call love.

I couldn’t get too comfortable in what I knew so little of.

I know now, what I didn’t know, and for that there is a price.

I am just a little jaded now but I’m probably twice as nice.

There is a freedom in the knowledge that looks like you don’t care.

You look so cold and selfish, but you never learned to share.

I knew you, like few do, and there’s no prize for that.

Just older in the knowledge, that we’ve had this little chat.

It’s grey and wet on a Wednesday.

At least it isn’t snow.

I wanted change and heard a voice said,

“It’s best that you don’t know.”

I’m tired but that’s normal.

I think it comes with age.

It is wet and getting colder.

And complaining is all the rage.

We were sinking in the quagmire.

The dreams of silence didn’t last.

There were rumors of a rescue.

But the rumors faded fast.

The Lawyer called a banker.

The banker called his Mom.

They haggled on deliverance.

And handed me the final sum.

I’ve been working at the car wash.

I no longer have the blues.

Got that monkey off my back.

And my baby has new shoes.

The taming of the species.

All set? Now let’s begin.

All those fears have claimed your mercies.

And reframe your losses as a win.

They are talking New World Order.

Reset with Omicron.

You will be happy and own nothing.

You can wear what you have on.

No more Kings or Queendoms.

Just the smell of filthy rich.

There will be the talk of freedoms.

Just before they flip the switch.

You remember what the old ones said.

All your smiles and smug disdain.

What to do with such a warning?

With all this singing in the rain.

She was wise, but wasn’t happy.

I think she knew too much.

All that knowledge made her sappy.

Alone and sad and such.

She was searching for the common.

Someone plain and twice as thick.

I slid down from the tree tops.

But my sight just made her sick.

So I went back to the jungle.

God knows I really tried.

Left her reading at the library.

Laughed so hard, I almost cried.

The sun was brightly shining.

There was stardust in the air.

The Angel’s were all humming.

Broke a silence that was rare.

The whiners stopped complaining.

Twas still early, they were asleep.

Except for one Prince Charming.

And the Maiden in his keep.

You could see them at their window.

They looked down, but not for long.

The Maiden was far from satisfied.

The beat and rhythm were all wrong.

It was over before it started.

Prince Charming slept past noon.

The Angel’s went where Angel’s go.

No one’s expected back to soon.

Dennis Mantin