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

I DON'T MATTER ANYMORE

Alone in this room with nothing to do

Thinking of the outside and the direction of my own life

Sitting at the window watching the world pass by

Thinking what are my dreams what are my goals

Questioning everything I know and am told

Finding a direction for me the soul

I don't matter anymore. 

Sitting here behind silent doors.

My values faded some time, never to exist.

My path is paved with cobblestones. 

Through the night and the day, I walk it alone

To a destination, I will never know

What am I doing here at this point in time?

Believing my own lies hearing them whispering in my mind

Am I held back by pride or the unspoken lies

I don't matter anymore.

Don't know when I am wrong.

Until it is wrong that I do

It is my choice to care when no one is there

But who is there for a moment singing my praise

Soon they just fade without a word to say

Searching for a place of comfort to rest the mind

Confidences is just a dried out seed never to grown in me

Just to dry up in the weeds

I don't matter anymore.

Waiting for a call that will never come

For some, there are conditions for love

Many take to the streets calling for justice and peace.

Individuals each one question am I truly free.

Marching in remembrance of the forgotten son

Insults are thrown sometimes, bruising the heart.

The ignorance hides the pain, just wanting to claim some fame

Even Karen hides thinking that she has a right to your life 

I don't matter anymore.

Behind this closed-door locked with the key of silence

A silence that is louder than any noise

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2021

TEA COOKIES AND LEMONADE

There she was sitting in her chair

The passage of time seen in her gray hair

She sits not in a chair but on a throne of honor

Tea cookies and lemonade the silent child ate

Cookies salty-sweet this is how she will grow to be

Lemonade just enough tart you can see it from her heart

Words of wisdom in a melodious feminine tone

Encouraging us to rise up and tell me you are not alone

As I listen to her wisdom I become stronger

Tea cookies and lemonade the silent child ate

Cookies that dissolve on the tung where words have yet to be sung

Lemonade cooling and refreshing to what she dreams

Still her voice echos in our minds

She has made a mark on the pages of time

I wish I could talk to her

Tea cookies and lemonade the silent child ate

Cookies filling a child's desires that she has yet to reach

Lemonade tart to those who don't understand but sweet to those who she inspired

 

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2020

BOY INSIDE

So afraid think I've lost my way
Every day in secret I would pray
Is anyone listening? what would they say

Some times I dream some times I lie
What I can truly be, I hide
From this boy inside

My darkest day my brightest nights
Looking at these words, I write
Will, they ever have their own life

Caught in a dream captured in a lie
Finding my way through life is the real fight
For this boy inside

Traveled the world to know who I am
Got to learn to be my own friend
This I need to do, in this journey with no end

Reasons I dream, reasons I lie
What in life can I say is mine
Who is this boy inside

I am much older now
Living with a lifetime of doubts
Still learning what I am all about

Is it me that dreams? Is it me that lies?
Too afraid to reach for that prize
To give to that boy inside

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2019

   

BABY GIRL

She got everyone talking
She got all the other girls jealous
She walks in a room like Cinderella

In her red velvet dress
Envoge didn't look nothing like this

Baby girl
Can't help but to stare at her
Baby girl
A look to stop the world

She walked by me
I couldn't say a thing
I almost couldn't breath

What is this feeling?
A soft breeze will knock me off my feet
She is all I can see

Baby girl
Why just kiss and tell
Baby girl
No one to thrill

She fills my vision
Of the woman of my dreams
I just can't say a thing

©Copyright Thomas Dooley