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Blue house, yellow sky, black tree

Stone walls, unruly brush, goldenrods

The sun is round and colored a deep orange

Like in a crayon picture

The house has a red door and a red tiled roof

I think I am in Italy

Or I suppose it could be anywhere

And everywhere

Like my own personal mind

Drifting from one kaleidoscope to another

Tasting various cheeses in the markets

Riding rainbows over multiple globes of Earth

Letting the mind slip now

A yellow bird comes to the upstairs window

The air is spring

The garden is sprouting color

I don’t want to leave anymore

I don’t want to visit the big, strange world

Why do I have to?

Who made it so?

I don’t like the rules of living

They should be changed

To something more pleasant

I see a pheasant

Isn’t his plumage beautiful?

Alex De Large does not agree

It’s almost the day of pink hearts

I have been invited to a barbecue in the village

I don’t think I’ll go

Too many menacing souls

And I am a menace to myself enough as it is

I just don’t understand why you can’t just be happy for me…

Family turns distant

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I spent one of my birthdays at a Motel 6 in Laramie, Wyoming. It was so cold outside; the sky was a steel gray with white edges. The entire town seemed lonely and lost. I was lonely and lost. I was at a Motel 6 in Laramie, Wyoming because I had just gone through a two-day job interview. It was a brutal thing to experience with a wrecked heart and disenchanted mind. The bitter loneliness was like a chilled spike through the soul.

They had a Godfather’s Pizza in Laramie, and this was a real one like they used to have, not some fake crap in a convenience store. I got myself a pie, Italian sausage, black olives. I sat in the dim reverence of the restaurant. There was a fake candle on my table. It was black in an orange jar. Maybe it was a witch. Pop slop music played overhead. A few other tables had huddled people. Young punks chattered in the back as they made pizzas. I ate alone.

And why is life so brutal at times?

Why are we here… On this planet

Have we been created to merely suffer?

I don’t understand at times

The why of everything

I think humanity missed the turn

We weren’t made to be this way

A man left shocked and burned so many times

And now I am an elder

With a loving wife and a peaceful home

It took this long to get here

And there is still a restless, uneasy world.