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 Trapped...

Laughing out loud, we refuse to cry
Grinding away, we don't see the sky
So scared inside, we don't show a sign
Dreaming at night, that everything's fine

Hiding feelings, living a big lie
Following paths, away from our lives
Guided by others, who won't see our soul
Hoping someday, to escape the toll

---

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 Bureaucracy!

Slain by a pen
Just ink dripped on a page
letters to convey meaning
to be interpreted or changed

Words in thick books
so many dots to a page
these to become sacred
to guide our mindless ways

But the meaning turned one way
helps one but hurts another
faceless and unconcerned
a page cares about no other

While interpretors of books
seek enlightenment and sage
editors change the tomes
for their own personal gains

But we're all more than print
to be organized and read
more than just words
to be written but not said

A million years of freedom
with words uttered with lungs
binds us together more
than the printed tongue

And oral traditions
though lost with the breath
make us more human
than marks on a desk

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 SMALL BOATS

We sail in our boats not for profit or for fame
not to turn heads around or to kindle some flame 

We're in our tiny craft to explore our own world
to overcome obstacles that can't be foretold

We peer in the water from our low-sided craft
imagining all the secrets in an ocean so vast

Sunken ships and lost treasure and man-eating fish
we feel like explores; it's a childhood wish

We navigate carefully, reading the chart and the rose
we consult the GPS, then we wiggle our toes

For we take nothing too seriously, we're just out for fun
watching the endless waves and enjoying the sun

We don't rely on markers however well-placed
we listen to the boards when we enter a new place

For the sands shift around and sharp reefs abound
and it's no big surprise if we run hard aground

But little is  lost besides dry feet and false grace
and we rarely struggle getting off a low place

For sailing in the shallows can be the funnest of things
stirring up the muck and listening to gulls sing

And all this is possible because small boats are cheap
so more time can be spent on that long windward beat

While others enjoy yachts that the bank still may own
we prefer to cruise now, then to pay off some loans

For we're alive only once , to feel the waves roll the hull
to watch the wind billow the sails and for joy to fill our souls

This was written for all those sailors who have found themselves temporarily stuck on land.

Only in our Sleep

Still a prisoner on the land

With never ending plans

Making mortgages and paying taxes

Raising children and sending faxes

The responsibilities never end
And settling down is the trend

Yet we yearn to be free
Sailing on magenta seas

Moving with the changing tides

Rolling gently with every rise

Hoping someday to find an isle

Where we can land and rest awhile

But the anchor’s dug so deep
That we sail only in our sleep