If

If I could just walk
If I could just talk
If I grow just a tad
If I could join in the fad
If I didn't have braces
If I could go places
If I was first chair
If I could just spike my hair
If I had wheels
If I oozed sex-appeal
If I make the team
If I was eighteen
If I lived on my own
If I wasn't alone
If I had plastic money
If all found me funny
If part of a frat
If I just lost more fat
If I pass this exam
If I could just afford Spam
If I avoid being late
If I just graduate
If I get the position
If I bathe in commission
If I can just make her laugh
If I can just make this last
If I had more finesse
If she says 'yes!'
If she wouldn't char food
If she thought like a dude
If she would clam-up
  doll-up, wait-up, warm-up. . .
If we only had kids
If Junior just lives
If I purchase a mansion
If I survive the expansion
If I get out of debt
If I win the next bet
If I could afford my ambition
If I can outspend attrition
If my hair would hold tight 
If Junior'd get right
If I could retire
If I could rekindle the fire
If my joints didn't ache
If I could see straight
If she'd just outlive me
If Junior would love me
If I was still young
If I could just fill my lungs
If I could eat more than rice
If my bones weren't dry ice
If I could go back in timeIf I could re-live this rhyme
If I wasn't lead to the crypt
By if

Haiti

Beans and rice    chickens hung
black arms baking in the sun
banana      lime     coconut
the deep-ribbed sides of starving mutts
rebar     potholes     cinder blocks
bales of clothes    sticker shock
scent stories sliding from savory to sewage
“mesi”     “pad qua”      “bon voyage”
an orphan's cry from Canaanland
a widow's wrinkled    outstretched hand
papaya      mango      fried plantain
truth and lies      stomach pain
blackouts    vendors    honking horns
waves of love in pools of scorn
dust clouds     beggars      diesel fumes
tent cities     pigs      above-ground tombs
UN sentinels    razor wire
trash piles hosting goats or fire
coffee    thick as motor oil
the shade of palms in fertile soil
wet-hot winds whip tattered flags
over soccer fields with balls of rags
bright white smiles  sugar cane
a persistent  rooster's sharp refrain 
Tampico flowing      orange and pink
wells of water none can drink
nuns and crosses crescent moons
the echo of Voodoo shadows  too
scripture scrawled on cars and signs
evangelistic battle lines.

Convenience

Proximity
  is powerful
    psychological magnetism
somehow walking 
 to a restaurant
    justifies spending
 half-a-week's groceries
    on two meals
 (plus tip)
 when a five mile 
       drive
  to do the same
    seems stupid.

The Dam

When tears won't stream
 they scream
  caught in the folds
      of a numb dam
  with a chilled throb
        held hostage
     behind layer
             upon layer
  of renewed hope
       and determined love
  thrashed to callous.

Impending Stress

     Above 

The figurative
Stainless
Silver 
Spinning
Blades over
           head
Hangs a turd
By a hair
Begging
To take
    the
     plunge

Another "Well-Said"

A gem stumbled upon, origin unknown

Words to Live By

Via Piccsy