Drowning in resentment on an endless doom scroll

March 17, 2025

Milton was right 
We make our own hell
You won't find salvation
In a wishing well

Drowning in resentment on an endless doom scroll
Thinking a mirage was gonna make your life whole


You weren't living a life
You were playing a role
Searching your feed
For a new heart and soul

Drowning in resentment on an endless doom scroll
Thinking a mirage was gonna make your life whole

Leaching off the shadow
Of a fancy façade
Staring into the void
And mistaking it for God

Drowning in resentment on an endless doom scroll
Thinking a mirage was gonna make your life whole


by Richard W. Bray

Regret and doom and wasted days

March 13, 2025

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,

T.S. Eliot

Persistent pain in memories
A cup, a couch and you and me
I'd rather howl and sing with trees
Than try and explain

What I said and what I meant
Tattered talk of betterment
Love was lost or was it spent?
Is anybody sane?

Terrified to close the mouth
Comfort when the words come out
Streams and streamers spit and shout
Alleviate the brain

There's no returning, you and I
Round the moon and by and by
Fog that fills the earth and sky
It leaves a dreary stain

Through the yellow nightmare haze
Regret and doom and wasted days
You can't fool fate in Shakespeare plays
You can't escape the rain

by Richard W. Bray

If somebody’s disappointed I don’t really give a damn

March 9, 2025

Cool sunny days
Unavoidable delays
Men in orange shirts
Keeping people safe

I'm alright
I know who I am
If somebody's disappointed
I don't really give a damn


Losers from hell
Ain't got no mental health
Complain complain complain
About everybody else

I'm alright
I know who I am
If somebody's disappointed
I don't really give a damn

Respect your neighbors
Try and love your foes
Know what to hold on to
Know when to let go

I'm alright
I know who I am
If somebody's disappointed
I don't really give a damn


by Richard W. Bray

You can’t go back to nothing even if you thought it was something

March 5, 2025


You can't go back to nothing
Even if you thought it was something


You can't resurrect
Something that was
Never alive
I got myself wrecked
Too stupid to suspect
It was a lie
The dream
I thought I had
Was so much worse
Than bad
How could she ever
Love another guy?

You can't go back to nothing
Even if you thought it was something


She stomped
On my head
Left my body
For dead
Half frozen barely breathing
In the snow
That's when I knew
The love
I thought was true
Was just
A dilly dally
Do-si-do

You can't go back to nothing
Even if you thought it was something


by Richard W. Bray

duped, dumped and damaged

February 20, 2025


I've been dumped
I've been damaged
I've screamed at slamming doors
Every man's a demon
I can't take it anymore

Decimating dreams
With their underhanded scheme
s
You can't avoid their stankage
From Omaha to Anchorage


They learn it
From their mothers
Who never taught them right
And their two-timing daddies
Out carousing every night

Decimating dreams
With their underhanded schemes

You can't avoid their stankage
From Omaha to Anchorage


I've been duped
I've been ghosted
I've heard a million lies
Dirty slimy scallywags
What is wrong with guys?

Decimating dreams
With their underhanded schemes

You can't avoid their stankage
From Omaha to Anchorage


by Richard W. Bray

careless stupid cruel

February 9, 2025


Carless stupid cruel
Lord I'm such a fool
To hurt the one
With love so true
In my glass
I darkly see
A cavalcade
Of misery
Line em up
This round's on me


Honky tonks
And dark saloons
Stumbling neath
A harvest moon
One night stands
Destructed dreams
Reflecting on
My misery
Line em up
This round's on me


by Richard W. Bray

All you coastal elites…

February 7, 2025


You got your PhDs
And your fancy degrees
Think you can tell me who to judge
I'm bored with your permission structures
And your values clusters
Cuz I don't need a nudge

All you coastal elites
Can suck my dirty old feet


I'm just a plain and simple man
But I still understand
When I'm being bought and sold
Take your algorithms
Take your marketing decisions
And just shove em down a hole

All you coastal elites
Can suck my dirty old feet

All you coastal elites
Can suck my dirty old feet


by Richard W. Bray

Dance because you’re not a dancer

January 25, 2025


I only have one thing to say
What are you gonna do today?

It's not a quiz
There's no wrong answer
Dance because you're not a dancer

Cook some eggs
Take a shower
Photograph the Eiffel Tower

Find a game
You like to play
Lollygag your time away

Have a beverage
With a friend
Read a novel to the end

Walk your dog
Smell some flowers
Sit around and talk for hours

Meet a deadline
With your team
Binge a show about a queen

Wax a roadster
Hike the hills
Debate the merits of free will

It's not about what others do
Do the thing that's right for you


by Richard W. Bray

A notion and a daydream

January 17, 2025

The world is a river
It sings to me in rhyme
Tiny specks of matter
Straddle space and time

The rhythm of the ocean
Berries on the vine
The universe in motion
Your body talks to mine


Vagrant spirits jingle
Clad in sundry hue
Everything that ever was
Lives inside of you

The rhythm of the ocean
Berries on the vine
The universe in motion
Your body talks to mine


A smile and a sunbeam
A moment and a prayer
A notion and a daydream
Your love is everywhere

The rhythm of the ocean
Berries on the vine
The universe in motion
Your body talks to mine


by Richard W. Bray

Crazy has its price to pay

January 8, 2025


History hurts and hunger haunts
Crazy is the right response
To bombs and guns and poverty
And men who trade in misery

Crazy has its price to pay
And it don't push the pain away

Photographs are flat and wrong
Profiles sing an empty song
Crazy has its price to pay
And it don't push the pain away

Wind and raindrops sun and snow
Watch the weather come and go
Fiddledum and fiddledee
I like the way you look at me

by Richard W. Bray