Prevention Retention Poem by Richard Phipps

I love the unintentional,
the teasing, unconventional.
Thinking always in rhyme,
unnecessary prose in three-quarter time,
but as musical as an off-key coyote.

Prisoner of my own intention.
Obviously of my own invention.
Locked in a battle for prevention retention,
Fighting to survive, permanent apprehension.

Questioning whether to rock the boat,
test soap that floats,
or wade in the wake of contention.

Empty-headed, trounced in dreams.
Empty-handed, denounced with screams.
Wrapped in a web of trumped-up schemes.

Living life without a net.
Taking awkward steps without regret.
Time to wonder, or more accurately, to forget.
Can’t avoid life’s evolving debt.

You bend that way, live life’s cliché.
You twist this way, get put away.
Look like a crook, earn an execution stay.
but luckily, the public’s mind won’t sway.

I look for you, see only me,
it’s not the life I want to be.

I’m sorry, but I’ve tried it.
No use to lie and deny it.
I've tried, but cannot shake it,

or maybe it can’t shake me.
An end that will never be.

July 24,2011