Shadow’s Edge

The path was cold and sprinkled white
Enwrapped in snow from head to toe
Aglow beneath the lantern lights
But vanishing at shadow’s edge
Into the black eternal night

A pair of soles have left their print
Along beside a second stride
Together there the two souls went
For reasons snow could not describe
Its melting can but leave a hint

Some shadow thrown across their trail
By sleepless trees with restless leaves
Obscures their fate whereon it fell
A cloak upon this evidence
To hush the stories, lest they tell

Of coupled hearts that took their plight
Along this path to part at last
Aglow beneath the lantern lights
But vanishing at shadow’s edge
Into the black eternal night

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Sweaters

Her sleeping is stuttered and tattered with dreams
Her wake is like waking the dead
Her nightstand is scattered with patterns of things
She struggles to straighten her bed
Her days are a film that has faded with age
Her eyes are the color of love
She’s never looked better but saw better days
She drinks but it’s never enough
Her hands are an answer like dancers on glass
For lines on an old window pane
She teases her hair in a mirror at last
And jettisons into the rain
Her angels are weary from keeping her safe
Her soles are in need of repair
She carries an innocent string of mistakes
Like weights in the shape of the air
Her jitters are bitter but covered in smiles
She looks for what she cannot see
Her dresses are pressed like a fresh camomile
Her sweaters remind her of me

Shadow Box

In bended shapes
A woman takes
The scraps of all she finds
With smallish hands
And sewing thread
To fasten it together

Behind the drapes
A record plays
To help her pass the time
In other plans
Her tired head
Can see a world that’s better

The souvenirs
Of early years
Adorn a faded quilt
Awaiting some
Appointed time
In patient little piles

Her bottled tears
And casual stares
The treasures she has built
With baby’s hair
And turpentine
Above the kitchen tiles

The winter fox
Beneath the porch
Is hiding from the hunters
Her picket fence
Is broken where
The tree line meets the field

Her shadow box
And story boards
Will hold her through ’till summer
In finger dance
The rocking chair
Beside her window sill

His Fault

See the man in the corner
With a sad sort of shape
Keeping hands in his pockets
Like he’s keeping them safe

See the man in the corner
With the monochrome eyes
Little shadows beneath them
From the things on his mind

I know what you’ve heard
But stories get told
He’s not quite the person
That I used to know
They say that he’s guilty
But I know he’s not
He’s the man in the corner
And it isn’t his fault

See the man in the corner
Playing hide-and-go-seek
But the world never found him
Like they never found me

See the man in the corner
Staring out at the room
Like he sees what is not there
Like he’s looking for you

I know what you’ve heard
But stories get told
He’s not quite the person
That I used to know
They say that he’s guilty
But I know he’s not
He’s the man in my mirror
And it isn’t his fault

Vespers For Solace

Flickers of flame for a soul in the earth
Vespers for memories past in the night
Sounds in the silence now signaling birth
Echoes entombed

Wake for the dead in a sacred parade
Solace for love laid to rest in the cold
Dwelling unearthed on the edge of the spade
Warm in the womb

Sealed in the chambers that gather the lost
Marked here with etchings of deepest remorse
Laid under velvet and satin so soft
Eternal room

Moonlight as traced on the white of her dress
Sprinkles the roses in watch on the wall
Distance and dissonance sadly confess
Somber in tune

That somewhere in unison life is emerging
Somewhere in harmony death meets divine
Mourning bereft of it’s power in purging
Withers in bloom

Suture

Piece by piece
Needles repairing me
Faded from sight
Drawing a line
Crisscross the wound

Stoke by stroke
Strings pull the edges close
Sealing the gash
Healing at last
Here in this room

It won’t take much
To tear this all apart again
Sensitive touch
To save a broken heart again
Sometimes I slip
And bleed from all these scars again
I bite my lip
And go back to the start again

Maybe in time
I’ll hold together well
Toughen my skin
Harder within
Fend off the world

Stitch by stitch
Coming together now
Struggle to stand
For all that I am
Spirit unfurled

This therapy
To exercise my thoughts within
Is there in me
To reach out for a closer friend
So bear with me
The stains are all on accident
I tear and bleed
But one day all these wounds will mend

A Solemn Reminder

Ashen remains lost to the wind
Traces of life now passed
Papers and symbols
Desk chairs and windows
Swallowed in flame

Pillars of hope crippled and broke
Giants we laid to rest
Faces of lovers
Children and mothers
Life without name

The enemy is elusive
Not a race or kind of people
We can hunt him or become him
We contain a kind of evil

The marks are ever present
On the surface of existence
The thoughts are evanescent
How the meanings tend to twist us

Innocence stained deep in our minds
Faith painted violently
Cultures and visions
Choice and decisions
Driving our fate

Ashen remains lost to the wind
Ghost of our history
Flickering embers
Gift of September
Whispers of hate

The enemy is elusive
Not a race or kind of people
We can hunt him or become him
We contain a kind of evil

The enduring testimony
Of a shattered false perception
We are living in the moment
Every life a fragile lesson

Are these numbers a reminder
I can choose my moves and errors
To be braver and be kinder
Or incite a certain terror

Are these numbers a reminder
We can all affect each other
To see hatred in the faces
Or embrace ourselves as brothers

Claw

Ah this skin I’m in is faulty
I can’t seem to get it off me
Claw away at my humanity
Still I lay here quite imperfectly

Ah this mind I own is broken
Too aloof and quickly stolen
Like the wires are untidy
And a meltdown is quite likely

1:08

Your reddish glow betrays me
Eyes awake and gazing in the dark
Counting off the phases
Minutes fast erasing from my sleep
I have memorized your numbers
Stricken from my slumber where I lay
Passing sums and figures
Every one a treasure I can’t keep
You tell me of the hours
When to wake and shower for my day
All the seconds ticking
Circling and tricking me to move
But your calculations falter
Falling short of altering my state
Count to everlasting
You will never task me how to live
There’s much you cannot measure
Pain and joy and pleasure in my heart
Passing times and seasons
Cannot steal my reasons to believe
I lie awake and thinking
I defy your silent blinking by my bed
You can age my frame in moving
But you cannot tame the love inside of me
So count as you are able
Power drawn from cables in the wall
Speak what is your mission
Tell me the condition of the day
But don’t sit there and threaten
I have no intent of letting you decide
These moments I inherit
I will do with as I choose and think is right

Arrogant clock

Along For The Ride

Urban walls cascade along the interstate
Old abandoned inns and shoddy bars
Corner stations keep their place like sentinels
Watching over rows of passing cars

I collide with feeling I am in another life
Maybe like an actor in a movie
Stealing glances at the faces as they pass me by
Eyes distracted seem to look right through me

But it’s fine for me
Because I just want to be
Alive on the street
With a sidewalk beneath
Nowhere to go
But that’s just where I want
And I walk with the thought
That this grey city block
Is home for now
And it’s good to be alive
With my hands and feet untied
I will take you in my mind
Along for the ride

Core

Turn the earth
My fingers catch the cracks
I know below the skin there must be more
Move the dirt
To peel the layers back
I’m looking for the warmth within the core

Fire keeps the axis turning
Friction far below my feet
Somewhere there a heart is burning
I would dig to find your heat
We can sense your deep disturbance
I can feel the way you move
As we dance along your surface
I have not forgotten you

Turn the earth
My fingers underneath
I feel your heartbeat pulsing through my palm
I know your worth
You are a part of me
And I will be with you when I am gone

Dim Perfection

Autumn ushers overcast reflections
Flannel wraps and woolen hats betray the frailty of
Skin and bones in all our dim perfection
Knit together, fit and clever, better made for love
Harvest sprinkles carpet leaves for winter
Tuck us in our crafted dens like hibernating bears
Bring us dreams to compliment the weather
Sleepy eyes for stormy skies ’till I can meet you there

Coming Forth

Close me in a warmth
Like a blanket in the cold
That never loses heat

Quiet in the dark
With a tiny beating heart
And your arms around me

All I ever knew
Floating peaceful in this room
As I rock myself to sleep

Every day I grew
Hidden safely in the womb
With my head between feet

Then it was the day
When my world began to break
Like the walls around me

Taking me away
To an unfamiliar place
How the lights were blinding

Pressing on my bones
For the burning in my lungs
And I cried for mercy

Suddenly alone
Skin exposed to all the cold
I was tired and thirsty

Somewhere through the pain
I can hear you call my name
And your arms surround me

Nothing I could say
But I’m grateful for the way
I was not abandoned

Maybe here again
When my world is caving in
And the walls collapsing

I am coming forth
In a different kind of birth
As I cry for mercy

Even through the pain
I can hear you call my name
And your arms around me

Nothing I can say
But I’m grateful for the way
You have not abandoned

The Hammer

Hear the ringing
Of a tiny golden hammer
On the steel back of a blade

How the confident and vivid echoes roll
As it strikes away at seconds in my soul

Every swing sends
Little shivers up my spine
For the name he carves is mine

Such a tedious affair to tell a tale
But I know those words and numbers very well

And the feeling
It’s the finitude of living
On the knife edge of a fate

Waiting patiently
In the wings of staying busy
For the last remaining date

While the hammer keeps it pace
In an absent sort of pulse
A rehearsal for the day
They will lay me in the dust
And the words will be my name
With the story of my time
Written deep within the stone
All the things that I have done

And the hammer keeps it’s pace
Such an unfamiliar friend
Like a harbinger of grace
For a swiftness of our end
All the words will be our own
And the story we have made
Written deep within the stone
All the things that we have done

Captain

In wood engraved before the bow
Consider life before you board
This is the threshold if you dare
But if you fear then turn around

This vessel fragile though it seems
Has weathered travels into hell
No safety here is guaranteed
But you may pass below the beams

Uncharted waters as a course
Into the storm the captain points
The bow our weapon in the storm
In search of strange and distant shores

Against the elements we brave
And take our rest on troubled sea
Beyond the curfew of the light
Into the mist our bearings laid

By mended sail and stern resolve
We strike for capturing the dawn
Above the barriers we ride
Escorted on by ancient calls

So cast away if you desire
A place aboard this beaten craft
But stay for hesitance or care
While safe ashore you can retire

The captain has no will to turn
Nor sway for danger if it shows
The currents take us where they will
And we may never then return

In wood engraved before the bow
Consider life before you board
This is the threshold if you dare
But if you fear then turn around

To See, As Do The Birds

To see, as do the birds
I think perhaps would teach the world
To have a distance better witnessed from the air

To see, as from above
I think perhaps a view would give
To lend perspective on the lives in which we share

To see, as do the birds
I think perhaps would change the earth
And bring horizons undiscovered down below

To see, as do the birds
I think perhaps reveals in turn
A new perspective of the land we say we know

To see, as do the birds
I think provides a broader scope
With new solutions from a wider range of field

To see, as do the birds
I think could foster verdant hope
To rich expanses from the common man concealed

To see, as do the birds
When they ascend above the noise
To carve a respite on the gentle rising breeze

To see, as do the birds
I think perhaps can be our choice
To, with our minds, take flight in ways that make us free

Worth

What makes a diamond grand
Or a jewels fair
Or a pearl fetch a golden coin
Who takes a tag in hand
And places there
A value for an object made
Why do the buyers buy
Or sellers sell
Economies advance or fall
How do the critics write
And plan so well
Or judge on wholesomeness at all

Is not the value of a thing
Then based on what a man will pay
For going cost is all in vain
Without a hand with which to trade
No numbers wrote betray the worth
Nor volumes tell the gravity
The heart that longing chooses this
Determines what the rate must be
And if this heart determines so
That nothing higher holds it’s gaze
The price may seem impossible
And yet that heart will choose to pay
For worth above all else may ask
The last of breath or best of life
And when in love that value lies
Then nothing seems too high a price

Untimely

For hands that lift the fallen
Shift the heart from severed calling
Stolen love from life forsaken
So untimely from you taken

From the empty reach extending
From the emptiness unending
Shattered words now left unspoken
Silent packages unopened

For the ears where quiet settles
Dreamt of noises drowned and muffled
By a silken veil dissevered
For the seconds ticking ever

Lips unmoving in their slumber
Tides retreating pulled us under
And unwittingly we followed
Fears as one and joys as hollow

For the heart left unrequited
For the wrongs left still unrighted
In the bed your form indented
Now unfilled and unattended

And the music keeps it’s beating
For the world undone and bleeding
While the solemn angel’s finger
With no charge for which to linger

Moves to part the summer evening
Ray of hope for light deceiving
Drawn by fragile blossoms beauty
Trade the guardian his duty

For the eyes not understanding
For the mind as mine demanding
This our plight not yet determined
Not by sight nor yet by sermon

Tear these torrid shadows lurking
Out the rooms of victims hurting
Mend the ancient circle’s spinning
Set in motion from beginning

For the lifeless and the broken
For the remnant still and chosen
For the living and the dying
For these fleeting glimpses trying

To unravel this–the fabric
Of our stringed and stranger labyrinth
We are lost but not forgotten
Left to live as life our coffin

Extinct

I’ve seen the shiny little eyes
Staring out from under covers
In the shadows where they hide
Giggling quietly together
Little children of our past
Little places we remember
All the questions we once asked
Have we banished to the corners

Are we killing off the magic
On the inside
Are we killing off the children
With their eyes wide
Are we trading in the wonder
For the good life
Are we giving up the hunger
For the sake of having comfort

When the children are extinct
Our imaginations muted
And the eyes no longer see
Will the reasons be important
We were born with bigger hearts
And our heads still undeveloped
Don’t forget the other part
Please don’t ever let them sell it
There is nothing to replace
All the things that can’t be purchased
There’s a small familiar face
Waiting just below the surface
Every child will grow to be
Just a child in bigger skin
Do not sacrifice your dreams
Let the children live within

What Dreams May Come

I don’t know what dreams may come
I can’t see tomorrow
I may find a brighter sun
Or drink a deeper sorrow
But in these simple lines I know
The life will always linger
For in these lines I write to show
The life within my fingers
And if you wake to find me gone
These lines for me will tell
That though you wake to find me gone
You wake to find me well