I was one of the featured poets at the Pasadena Library yesterday. I read these seven poems:

Once upon a time
Short life, short skirt
I am the Boss of Me
Commonality
Betty
Good Better Best
Smell my success

I'll give you a couple of lines from each...

ONCE UPON A TIME
You ponder… what if he hadn’t rescued me that day?
I bet I’d be better off, I’d have found a way
To escape and be free to thrive on my own;
Instead of worshiping at the feet of his stinky throne.
...

SHORT LIFE, SHORT SKIRT
Could it really ever be possible that I could be that comfortable in my own skin –

a skin that I would later come to recognize wasn’t me at all.

It was just the house I live in on earth and maybe I shouldn’t care if it needs a little maintenance, the true me dwells inside there

...

I AM THE BOSS OF ME
I have heard experts say that you can create much more wealth
If you’ve your own business, and your employer is yourself.
What a good idea, I decided I would to apply;
Thought, “I’ll definitely get the job; I’m my best ally”.

...

COMMONALITY
Start today, start this minute,
you’ve not finished
is this your due deserve?
Your justice, your eye for an eye
Tooth for a tooth, Thou Shall Not Kill

...

BETTY
They had done their best in shelters and such,
But dismay, there’s a time limit on that stuff.
Mom couldn’t secure a job and a place to live;
She’d had “offers”, but some things you just don’t give.

...


GOOD BETTER BEST
My daddy use to say “Good better best, never let it rest
Until the good gets better and the better gets best”.
I didn’t start out at ‘Good’, so I had a long way to travel
To get to a point where I wouldn’t involuntarily unravel.

...

SMELL MY SUCCESS
Today I went to work hopeless and distraught, my wife is pregnant again; don’t buy your condoms from the 99 cent store.