Author: Derrik Lamb

Information Architect @ Microsoft. Father of three and purveyor of coffee, red wine and dark chocolate. Opinions are my own. he/him

Lies

Can’t believe you love me

Can’t believe you care

I hear those words you whisper

Behind that vacant stare

Dark thoughts skulk and linger

In the coldness of your eyes

My gut knows my hearts at risk

Your words come thru as lies

Time To Go, Joe

Hi Joe,
Hey. I get it. No one wants to admit when it’s time to go. That’s probably the toughest of all pills to swallow, especially for someone who’s achieved so much. As we ascend so shall we decline. Different people at different times… it’s the natural order of things. I turn 50 next week… and just typing that sentence makes me throw up in my mouth a little. I’ll soon be reaching a point in my life where they can no longer in good conscience even refer to me as ‘middle-aged’, which is a label each time I hear feels like a slap right across the face. So although I don’t know you personally… I get the resistance. Rage against the dying of the light, and so on. Politics is a tough and divisive gig, and after spending a lifetime doing it you’ve become one of the most powerful, well-liked and respected people in the world. You’ve accomplished great things, especially and most recently within your term in office. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say your candidacy in 2020 saved America. Now I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to do the most difficult, patriotic and self-less thing of all. Step down, please. I know it doesn’t feel right because you’re a fighter. You’ve certainly shown that, and we’ve definitely needed that from you. I also know the attacks and insults from the other side have gotten provocatively personal. Like most of us, you see this charlatan as the existential threat he is to democracy. I understand you want to stop him as badly as anyone else, I see how important this fight is to you… and that it’s not in your nature to back down from a bully. Unfortunately, the best way for you to fight him right now is to stop fighting. You’ve done enough, friend. Let someone else take up the mantle. I hate that I have ask this of you, especially after all you’ve done, but please know that I do so with great respect and deference. You climbed that hill. You are the light. Thank you for a lifetime of service.
Respectfully,
A Concerned Voter

Someday

The first to fall, the first to share

But someday you will meet me there

As falling leaves me up the path

I have not fear, regret, nor wrath

For I see your heart, such beauty, true

How could I not fall for you?

So please forgive my lack of grace

As I now stand vigil in this place

In strength, not weakness, due to care

And when you’re ready… find me there

S.S.S. [Happy Birthday]

Sixteen Just Arrived
But Soon Will Away
Where Tomorrows
Become Yesterday

A Grown Man, Now
Who Makes His Dad Proud
Sentiment, I’ve Too Seldom
Stated Aloud

But You Made Me Better
Right From The Start
The First Born Bloom
In This Father’s Heart

Up Ahead, All Those Dreams
Await Being Found
And If Bravely Sought
Good Fortune Will Abound

These Achievements, Unlock
But Don’t Grade By The Letter
True Success Is The Degree
That You Make The World Better

If The Journey Is Fraught
Stay Vigilant, Tread Right
Where Other Sparks Falter
You Must Be The Light

Lay Siege To Those Demons
Without And Within
However Dark Is The Night
Be Assured… Light Will Win

Sunrise

Crushed velvet
Your skin, soft
Fingertips dance
Softly
Gleefully
With sudden liberty
To explore and retrace
Each subtle nuance
Each supple curve
The sun, ever-curious
Peaks through the window
Engulfing and invading
Our crumpled fortress of sheets and pillows
With a warm, blissful cascade of
Impossible oranges and reds
Celebration for the new day, together
Your lips brush against mine
Tenderly
Eagerly
Your heartbeat quickens
As I feel you press against me
The world melts away
Nothing else matters
Just this
Just you
And when your breath catches
There is no reason left to hide

Climb

The faces are foreign
As with rubber masks
Caricatures, grotesque
Not wholely unknown
But seemingly apart
Blank, vacant, stares
Each visage bringing
Only further numbness
Their mouths, agape
Their eyes, hollow
Their hands, pale and cold
Ever reaching
Ever grasping
Ever clawing
Ever filled, but never satiated
Lost souls
Infected by desperation and woe
Wreaking of wretchedness and misery
I am, at once, repulsed
Yet…
Compelled to assist
Could I ease their suffering?
As such, a boon is offered
And then… accepted
Met not with gratefulness
But rather, the unfortunate and horrific subtext
Of ravenous and unsettling eagerness
Yet, compassion undeterred
By glorious purpose or barbaric sincerity
As doubts start to fester
When will it be enough?
Even as needs are met
Spiders of fingers, grasp
Refusing withdrawal
Angering as they’re lingering
Bitter pills, this shame
Choked down painfully, willfully
Leaving jagged scars of contempt, resentment
And as such,
In nightmarish turn
What began as giving
Goes over to taking,
Each hand filled
Each service rendered
Met only with further ask
More
Their wordless cry
More and more
Driven by callous, insatiable greed
Building to full and frenetic crescendo
Cold-eyed sharks, starting to frenzy
Scenting blood in the water
Winter dances down my spine
Sobering, the realization comes
This can only end one way
There will be no victory here
There’s no hope that will be given
There’s no hope that can be found
Just a bottomless cauldron
Of wanton, endless, need
Insight, admittedly, arriven
Perhaps a moment too late
For they begin to pull
Down
That they may climb
Rats on a sinking ship
Amorphic and anonymous
Twisting and seething
A garish collective of chaos
Furthering its own fury
Gasping and grasping
The shock, overcome
I reach out for stable footing
An action, I determine doomed immediately
Impotent in the face of such unpliable fanaticism
Fatefully swallowed by it’s tremendous wake
Revealing only the unsettling ease,
With which empathy abandons the hearts of men
Impulse conquers thought
Claws tear flesh
Teeth render bone
A taste of tears and blood
That I know to be my own
And suddenly, they’ve gone
I’m falling all alone
Down and down
Into a stark nothingness
Hope lingers, flickers and fades
Marshalling what purpose remains
I reach out for help
For salvation
For forgiveness
But there’s no answer
No one is coming
I gaze out into the silence
But the only thing left to see
Is the darkness ahead
And above
And behind