My words echo back into tomorrow A half-life that's full of sorrow I'm often sorry for what I say The demons inside won't have it any other way
If these were the last words I said I wouldn't want them rolling in your head The truth of love for you is treasurable As proof of life, your imprint is immeasurable
Strong regret has led to my solitude Lost within thoughts that rudely intrude Of how I might have had better shown The new thoughts and habits to be grown
I see the pain that you are going through Wishing me ideal and feeling that I won't do What kind of father raises his voice Knowing that there is always a better choice
Don't let my brokenness serve to kill you Instead, rise above this dismal point of view Generational sins destroy the path of family I wish I had served to better your nobility
Sticks and stones serve to break one's bones But hurt half as much as the words that I own So many times I wish I had chosen humbly To undo my part in the hurt hearts of this family
The Bible I believe in pursues paths of construction Why then is it easier to choose ways of destruction It echoes back into a deepest pool of blood's regret Missed and chosen words feel like criminal neglect
When I see how deeply this all truly matters And see your brilliant mind angered until it shatters And I see that while I am steps above what I lived in It's so very hard to hold myself as unforgiven
Dear child know that if I could, I would only speak love And pursue the righteous ways given to us from above There are things I bite back against as I've stumbled But my love for you will never fall heaped and crumbled
Tomorrow is a new day for me to push on to the better And we are resilient, able to withstand stormy weather I ask you to please know words that don't build Aren't meant, and let it be the love that has prevailed
(c) August 17, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.” – Noah Webster (1788)
“It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.” – Jean de la Bruyere, essayist and moralist (16 Aug 1645-1696)
On the other side lies paradise The captain offers his best advice As his pirate crew readies for the fight Who knows how many will live until the morning light
Ready the muskets and say your last prayer As into eternity, the captain and crew stare The manifest speaks to the power of destiny As the steps are taken to make this journey
If weren't for courage, there would be no start That sort of faith begins in a pirate's heart It's the bravery that comes as a primal urge It's what gets a pirate through every battle and surge
At any hour might come the greatest trial That leads to a hangman's noose or bring survival It's a matter of timing, meaning no grave insult That leads to the struggle that owns the result
When the battle comes, it is time to fight To stand one's ground and not give into flight This is the truth of the pirate's way And it will stay with his soul until judgment day
If it wasn't for courage, there would be no start That sort of faith begins in a pirate's heart It's the bravery that comes as a primal urge It's what gets every pirate through battle and surge
The sieges that come, fall to the wise and strong Unless that is, they've been counted wrong As a man-o-war waits just off the shore The telling of this tale might lead to heaven's door
Sorry as we are for the lives we wantonly take There's always a way, make no foolish mistake As heartbreaking as the pirates are tired There's one more fight that God and the Devil have inspired
If it wasn't for courage, there would be no start That sort of faith begins within a pirate's heart It's the bravery that comes as a primal urge It's what gets every pirate through battle and surge
(c) August 16, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“I acknowledge, in the ordinary course of government, that the exposition of the laws and Constitution devolves upon the judicial. But I beg to know upon what principle it can be contended that any one department draws from the Constitution greater powers than another in marking out the limits of the powers of the several departments.” – James Madison (1789)
At the ends of bargains made Stormy seas leave reason to be afraid Wondering where it is that one stands And if a day is as profitable as it demands
Profits are calculated as life's reward As a new bay is marked to sail toward By tomorrow, we might be too dead to care This is the bargain a pirate wager is fair
These are the false moves a pirate fakes With each next step that he takes Each is made hoping to live another day Knowing death will claim him either way
Hopes are manufactured out of thin air And though fruition is in hand, there is care That all that has been given has been given for not Because with one's death, the treasure is forgot
There are no legacies to this life but the sea There are no monuments but the water we see There are no great truths, just a handful of tales Of mermaids, treasures, and giant whales
There are the false moves a pirate fakes With each step that he takes Each is made hoping to live another day Knowing death will claim him either way
The ocean pays us, claims us, swallowing us whole This is a pirate's life, and its God-forsaken toll Though it is that we may stand ten feet tall Eventually, this life will swallow us all
There is a lot of sorrow in a pirate's happiness None of it would an honest man ever manage to miss Let there be no regrets nor any trace of bitterness This razor's edge knows no taste of tenderness
These are the false moves a pirate fakes With each step that he takes Each is made hoping to live another day Knowing death will claim him either way
(c) August 15, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking.” – James Madison (1790)
Behind walls, guns, and men We knew our protection As a conspiracy of pirates knows sin In a violent world lived with instigation
Good souls should not live on this beach Under these kinds of circumstances Imperiled as Bermuda falls to the breach And is lost with a toss of dice chances
Felt in whispered rumors under fire light We dance the sacred darkness of the night And in its shadows are held the questions Pointing to those who kill without hesitation
We will take the risks and withstand the dangers Here in this company of stranded strangers To make such wrongs as we can turn to right With a blind eye nearly returned to the captain's sight
It is a time when those who come to pretend That one day they might just become friends Know that the ideas of an ordered world falls apart As a yoke of shame destroys the best of hearts
Brought to ruin as pirates on the open bay Live in a world where even the righteous go astray This is the pirates' world above all the forsaken And all we hold sacred dangles as if shaken
Shaken to the root of the stinking core Where a pirate howls and gives all for more Dangling morals as if waiting for a soul's suicide While desperation holds on for its final ride
This is the reason for which a pirate crew is signed To hold fast and it is further agreed as if designed They've joined ready for death and freedom's fight As they lay down to die in the dream of every pirate's night
(c) August 14, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along
