Strange Flower

Oh sweet death, herald of silence
Pale defiler of the impassioned breast

Mocking lover's wounds
Like some wild Heartsease of minioned souls

Robbing thought and gentle touch,
Sweet scent and final breath

Stay the broken heart like that strange flower
Cold and still, casting pale silent regret

Regret

The stark,    stark,    voice of regret

                Cold and fierce the sweat

                      Of stark,  stark regret

            How sad,     to be lying here

              Full of stark,    stark regret

       I had my reasons.    Oh you bet!

         But none,   so strong as regret

          Once I felt warm and sublime

                        I saw not,    my duet

Now,  from where I lay,   out of time 

                  And, in such clear reflect

                  Of my stark, stark regret

          Except,

                                The stage is set

                 So this, is how I will look

              When, they come in to see

           My regret, has run out of me

Love's Dark Goodbye

Last night my walls were tissue-thin
There hung a vale of starry skies
The years dissolved, your smile slipped in
My heart repeats an aural delight 
Our words, anew, infeasible shy

We dismiss the words, our eyes reply
A thousand angels chant your name
You hold my hand, I melt inside
Novas shower through my veins
While thoughts exalt, our voices tame

How shall I ever avow your heart
When dreams are all that we now share
In nights demur we always part
A tragic love I shan't compare
How could you leave me in the dark? 

The Widowed Bride

A tremendous act of kindness, by him brought love about Then sprawled beside a glassy pond their passions acted out A sunny day did rise and swell that perfect April morn 'Twas damp with chill, one wintry night a tiny lass was born Her papa was a strapping lad, who never shirked from chore Upon her mother's aching heart, they sent him off to war Their hearts were locked in mindless bliss, that Spring upon the heath Too soon their deed tore all apart, mid silence bound to keep With sturdy limbs, bright eyes of gray and hair of tousled curl Much interest in the child turned, who'd fathered such a girl? The letters came to cheer each day, upon the sheath, no mark But day by day each soldier's fall, revealed his beating heart Sublime the day the war had passed and soldiers all came home But not for those whose caissons rolled, her secret love be known For in first days with lists at post of lads who marched no more His name did cut the paper white, with ink her heart it tore Still letters made it to her eyes a mystery hand had sent As only one could even know from whence their passage rent And on a day as fair as most with child by her side She wed the deaf mute postman, who'd wooed the widowed bride

Starvation

Last night I went to bed hungry

Hungry for your touch
Starving for your smile
Gut rumbling emptiness

Emptiness that won’t be replaced
Like knowing that you won’t
Have solid food for... forever

Looking to the past for nourishment
Nourishment that is like a diet
And a hunger that is never fulfilled

Sleep Wrinkles

Buttons from a Teddy Impressions of sound safe sleep Sleep wrinkles speak of my last nights A pen on pages wet from a weep Once, the lacey blouse Of a great date Then, beer-soaked laces of a football In the mirror, heading to work, late Sleep wrinkles may say If I had a good time, or not For the guy who sold me this lovely grave He's cussing those sleep wrinkles Two days old, looking like a 38

Natural Elocutions of Denial

Practically every meaningful word which I have uttered is wrong. How can I say this, don't I know what I am saying? It is exactly because of what I have said and not meant, That I can now say my words are fiction. Had I known what was most true, that is what I would not reveal. Somehow we are like frightened children, scared of the truth. All my secrets have made me a Liar, you and I are not alike. The cat and the dog hold nothing back, save for indifference. We speak in guarded undertones, hoping not to annoy. We save our feelings for when the time is best. But we have missed the mark, time has had its way. Another thought another day, and we are busy with fresh denials.

The Song of Sweet Taress

Truncheons of despair, surge within him
Wintry, his fist, and brooding soul
Assails, a sea of darkness solemn
Mind, a tangle of lost control

Icy, his blood runs shrill and sinking
Replete, within his veins complex
Brain, confounded truth denying
Completes, his troubled power vex

Loathing, rapine astride his trace
Vines and creatures wither there
Evil, profuse with no disgrace
Entwine, with sweet Taress's hair

None, could better know her timbre
Or sweeping curtsy now effete
His, was iced hard with rancor
For which, drowned out her fair express

Locutions, his hate for all this day
As late, the song of sweet Taress
Shall not, proclaim to where he lay
To wait, the guillotine's finesse

I am Well Rider

I am well rider
Many buckets have I known
They press my feet into my toes
The windlass whirls
The rope in hand
Scratches at my cheek and nose

Echoes fill my head
When down the rocky shaft I plunge
Bursting far below, the tiny sky recedes
As black cascades and icy numb
The bubbles churn
Against my ears like drums I am well rider

None can know my obsession
Many times Ive dropped down in
To see and feel my cold fixation
To sink into the deep
Below, where life is in cessation
But that is where I find the eyes

Long forgotten faces
How they hold you
Want to tell you of their stories
They have left our world
Each denied their places
I am well rider

Soon I must return
But here I found a solace
Here my ache and pain does churn
Her face and hair has bound me
My empty lungs now burn
Yet only here I see her

Her story is sad and tragic
Cast, she was in shame
Taken by a lovers anger
Her only sin was loving,
A man who would not Father