Wednesday, March 27, 2024

IN BELIZE

What is this, I feel? Something so different something so real
Always searching for that path for that plan
Feeling the warm air and the smell of a Caribbean sea.

I want to think of you as you think of me
I want to dream of you as you dream of me
I want to pack up my past and  pray these memories will last

Feel the innocent touch of your hand
Reminisce of the warm breeze in Belize

What is this feeling that has eluded me most of my life
Always looking for that inspiring guiding light 
Laying back to look at a clear blue sky

I want to look in your eye and see that same sky.
I want to feel that warm sun beaming around your silhouette.
I want to taste that sweet fruit and imagine it is a kiss from you.

See the night sky, the bright stars, nothing like the ones in your eyes.
Just like the night sky in Belize

Copyright © Thomas J. Dooley 2023

Thursday, October 27, 2022

DARK PAGES

Complex stories are hidden in the past
Nearly forgotten in this journey of life
A pronoun shaved down to a one-letter acronym
When said, it is sharp as a knife

Dark pages of forgotten history
Taking offense through white tears
Dark pages of remembered history
Responsibility is hidden by unspoken fears

Praising a patriotic phrase only for political gain
Then become empty words spoken from a podium
But when spoken with passion on the streets
The evidence of true justice we all hope to see

Dark pages of common sense
A knock at the wrong door can lead to death
Dark pages of uncommon words
Uncommon thoughts lead to an uncommon world.

We march behind an acronym BLM just so as not to offend
But it should be shouted out loud BLACK LIVES MATTER
This banner proclaiming justice for one is proclaiming justice for all 
It does not matter who created this; what matters is that we all believe in it

Dark pages of thought
Original though lost in a social media post
Dark pages of education
No more will we hear the cracking sounds of opening a new book

The gentrification of our human existence with labels
With the cut of the scalpel, we can be anything
Stitched together, forget our original birth
No longer the same; your mother only knows you by a dead name.

©Copyright Thomas J Dooley 2022


Saturday, October 30, 2021

HOW MANY

The times are changing the times are getting crazy
The vision of many are getting hazy
Believing the random thought of one's imagination

How many lies do we believe before we see the truth?
While many yell and screen looking like a fool
Karen, this does not have to be you.

Fallowing another man's lie 
But you pray to God every night
How are those things alike

How many times have you played Rushen Roulette with your life
It is better to feel sick for a day
Then it is to lay a week at death's doorstep

The chicken nuggets you eat are programmed to track you
While on the cell phone, you watch housewives acting like fools
As you use pronouns to offend so why do you pretend

How many have to die because of the selfishness you hide
You have no community pride living a patriot lie
Threat to kill because of your ignorance as you act all innocent 

The right to choose offends you now you want to change the rules.

©Cpoyright Thomas J Dooley














 

Monday, October 25, 2021

CAN I CALL YOU HUMAN

Let me call you by your name
Why do pronouns have to get in the way
Can I call you a friend?
Without you being offended

Can I look at you as human?
Instead of looking at you all confused
Trying to see the real you

Let me call you by your name.
We all have a human experience in different ways.
An acronym shouldn't make the rules of my friendship with you
Claiming a few decades of discrimination does not compare centuries of racial pain 

Can I see you as human?
As you segregate yourself in social places and parades 
Selective of the attention you want isn't the way

Let me call you by your name.
We might not think in different ways
If you don't like what I have to say 
We can both go our separate ways

©Copyright Thomas J Dooley 2021








Monday, September 13, 2021

MY SPACE

Within and without in a place to understand what is it all about
Who am I when under all the lies from your lips and from mine
Secluded to the hill, I climb to the top to find what is inside

My space outside is the distance of life; infinite distance is inside.
This maze of the mind, this maze of life held in the hands of time
Never knowing what is beyond the turns, I will find

The guru says many words of truth and many words of lies.
What we think we are and what we think we have become, we hide
Throughout the world, we search for what has always been inside

My space outside is the distance of life; infinite distance is inside.
In my baggage, I collect many things that I have gathered over time. 
Collecting things will not make me free I have to understand the truth of me.

©Copyright Thomas J Dooley 2021


 
  

Sunday, September 5, 2021

EVERY THING BUT THE DREAM

The end has come; all that is left is stone and bones
Escaping death and pain in a nation built on hate
Rebuilding a new life, not knowing it will be taken away one day.

Pack up your clothing, pack up your photos and memories
Everything you think you will need
Everything but the dreams

Ike and Tina had a better relationship than the Taliban and Afghanistan
No one returning to Nutbush in that land, even if they can
Now controlled by men without any education or any soul

Pack up your pain, pack up your tears, and your fears
Everything, even a lifetime of deceit 
Everything but the dreams

A house and land, the building of a family, is the plan
So much to do so much to see the desire to be free
No one telling you it is a temporary thing

Pack up your religion, pack up your faith as you endlessly pray
Everything that helps you forget your sins
The ever-changing history of the word of God remains a mystery. 

The illusion is the inclusion of everyone going to a place you've never been
Everyone fights to be the president, as Prince rather be the Pope.
Looking for that formula that brings you some hope 

Pack up your peace, pack up your love and your purity 
Everything that the soul will ever need
Everything, and don't forget the new dreams

©Copyright Thomas J Dooley 2021

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

LOOKING AT YOU

Looking at you, you looking at me
Loving the summer; so free
With our feet in the waters of the Mediterranean sea

Got it now; you have to look at life, putting all your problems behind
In this mental darkness, you are wrong; got to get up, get out to be strong
Thinking in the sunlight, everything will be all right

Looking at you, you looking at me
Let us play together in the Chanhassen parks
Later, we can purify ourselves in the inspiration of loving art.

Looking at the world in a different way
Look at life differently; you know how to spell cool
Taking a page from Prince's book, *style is loving yourself till everyone else does too

Looking at you, you looking at me.
A loving friend will help you so the pain can mend
You might have a heavy heart; that is where you start; it will never end

Got it now; you have to look up as the sun shines on you
Deaf to the words of babbling fools, there is so much more about you
Take that talent in you and show those who love you what you can do

©Copyright Thomas J Dooley 2021


*Style by Prince from the album Emancipation 1996
Pasley Park Studio