After giving a poetry reading tonight covering some of the classics from Swinburne to Shakespeare and from Burns to Longfellow, I watched part of a martial arts movie.  Watching the movie and thinking on the differences between the realities I’ve known and the dreams Hollywood sells and that is too often overblown, my pen found its way to paper and came up with this:

Ego Push
by Michael Romani

I don't mean to cause too much drama
But you keep on pushing the limits of karma
In this alleged accident that we call life
We keep cards close and find it rife
It's true that it's a long way to home
When you wake up and realize you're all alone

To live, sometimes you have to die
Sometimes you have to fall to learn how to fly
When you're looking to find out what's real
Sometimes you have to be willing to cut a deal
Pedaling that bicycle straight through Hell
Sometimes does not go all that bloody well

Turn until you push down your splendid ego
Sliding down the side of this cosmic flow
When a quietude of life becomes its own monastery
And where even the saddest tale offers hilarity
I have heard it told as a matter of legacy
That achieving your dreams is the greatest fantasy

Step on up but stick to the scripted page
Always remember this world is just a stage
A cosmic game of billiards that depends on its leave
It's really all about what you're willing to believe
It's a very long way to get back home
When you lose everything, you're no longer alone

Everything hauntingly familiar can be overwhelming
In your search for truth that can be soul revealing
Kindness it seems is the deepest eternal law
It's everyone's decision whether to obey its call
It seems that even easing-in can raise the dead
It may be best to let it be like the song said

(c) May 1, 2017  Michael Romani