Viper

The evening coils about me
Like a viper seeking heat
Shoving teeth beneath my reason
Until, overcome by venom
I succumb and cease resisting
And it swallows me in sleep

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Appointment With Dreams

Tuck your sleepy eyes into their lids
Unbutton your sense of reality
Slip out of the trappings of this life
Place your paper face up for the night

Hang your armored skin out on the line
Zip into a warm inviting mood
Let the tension fall out of your hair
Drink the constellations from the air

Still one more appointment made to keep
Don’t forget to meet me in your dreams
As your body sinks into it’s sleep
Strap your spirit, weightless, into wings

Brace against the early morning tide
Stay with me until we flee the night
Life is never quite the way it seems
Don’t forget to meet me in your dreams

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

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

Wrap Me

Disguised
As a fugitive bird
In the tall of her grass
When the foxes are out

With eyes
Like a kerosene lamp
When the wick doesn’t last
And the flame is burnt out

But I
Know a place to escape
Where the world doesn’t see
And the foxes won’t tread

Inside
There’s a labyrinth of shapes
And the essence of me
Like the words in my head

Wrap me in metaphors
Cover me in lines
Paint me in cadence
Cradle me in rhymes
I will find peace here
If no one finds me
So you be the rhythm
And I will be the poetry

To Banish The Dark

Wield the autumn leaves as weaponry
Recruit the trees and we will hide
Beneath the veil of certainty
Beneath an orange broken sky
So many others have succumb
To these devices so seductive
Catch the wind and we will run
To where the world is less destructive

We will banish the dark
Turn on the stars
I want to shatter the dawn when it breaks

With nothing apart
Living the art
These are the signs of a beautiful day

Shove Off

On the shore before a looming blue expanse
With a paddle in my hand

Under storms without a compass or a map
Leave a message in the sand

I lay down beneath a thousand burning thoughts
In the hull of my repose

And shove off into the ocean of my dreams
To a destiny unknown

Goodnight.

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

Blustery

Rain on the window pane
Whispers secrets like a friend
How it saturated the stains
Until all the colors blend
Rhythms patter me to sleep
Like a flightless little bird
Snuggled safe beneath the leaves
In the foliage of dreams

Emerging (a restless sleep)

Whispers crawl under my skin
In twisting rivets driven deep
Beneath the softened flesh within
A rasping catch of breath and wind

Voices creep behind my eyes
With words of faded agony
Enshrouded spirits of the night
Entombed in tongue of ardent flight

Echoes dance around my head
With vague and unrequited hums
In quivers faint of lovers dead
They haunt the covers of my bed

Every dawn as I emerge
Reluctantly they break their cry
And silence for a time their urge
To wait for me ’til I return

24,901

Twenty four thousand miles
The circle of this sphere
Surely somewhere there’s a place for me

Twenty four thousand miles
And anywhere but here
I don’t know where I would rather be

But I would like to belong
And I would like to be home

Twenty four thousand miles
Across this speck of dust
Floating in an endless open space

Twenty four thousand miles
The distance between us
I want to set the galaxies ablaze

And I just want to belong
And I just want to be home

I want to tear apart the sky
Rip the colors from the leaves
Burn the atmosphere to static

If we could light it all on fire
Maybe then I could believe
We could rise up from the ashes

I can’t feel anything at all
But I feel nothing very well
Someone wake me when it’s over

I’ll either choose to sleep it off
Or I will blow us all to hell
I guess I’ll go back to the covers

But I just want to belong
And I just want to be home

If Sleep Were A Flavor Of Tea

If sleep were a flavor of tea
The heart of the leaves like a drug
When taken in warm in the eve
Would dispatch the wakeful at length

If sleep were a color of paint
It’s qualities captured in brush
When spread on the canvas and seen
Would lull any eye into dreams

If sleep were a note on the scale
The sound like an ambient hum
When struck in the silence and heard
Could seduce and subdue with its verse

If sleep were a kind of perfume
A subtle narcotic of scent
When tested and taken in breath
Could trigger the symptoms of death

If sleep were a texture of skin
A soothing serene sort of touch
When pressed against lips and returned
Could quiet the senses and calm

Then I should be perfect at rest
Asleep as the sleep of the dead
If sleep were as simple as this
And the senses alive in my head

But sleep is a shadow that fades
In the light of my wishes and pleas
Alone without sense and in wishing I wish
That sleep were a flavor of tea

But I have no tea and no paint
No music nor scent to imbibe
No kisses to take me to comfort
No help for exhaustion tonight

And so I have nothing to dream
And nothing in which to recline
No sense of the senses to sense
No picture for my frame of mind

Alone in the quiet I write
And wait for the final repose
Till near me you’re able to be
Or sleep is a flavor of tea

Safe Asleep

She curls herself on the couch
The TV glow and blankets out
She’s had some trouble resting lately

Dreams of things she can’t recall
It doesn’t make much sense at all
Tomorrow will be better maybe

Lie beside her as she takes the better part of me
Because I give her all I have to keep her safe when she’s asleep
Sometimes I don’t think she even knows when I can see
But i’d give her all I have to keep her safe when she’s asleep

Mornings come too early now
Everyday there’s more to do
She wonders when it all will go away

Still she makes it through somehow
And sets aside the things she doubts
Now and then she takes some time to pray

Lie beside her as she takes the better part of me
Because I give her all I have to keep her safe when she’s asleep
Sometimes I don’t think she even knows when I can see
But i’d give her all I have to keep her safe when she’s asleep

I don’t think she understands the way I feel about her
I don’t think she knows how much I couldn’t live without her
I don’t think there’s anything I wouldn’t give to keep
All these things away so she is safe when she’s asleep

Lie beside her as she takes the better part of me
Because I give her all I have to keep her safe when she’s asleep
Sometimes I don’t think she even knows when I can see
But i’d give her all I have to keep her safe when she’s asleep

Maiden’s Lullaby

Tap-dance on the window pane
Tiny silver rivers on the
Glass beneath the willow tree
Lady will you lie with me
Listen to the summer rain
I will tuck you into dreams and
Kiss you as you float away
Close your eyes and wait for me
Slip into a velvet cloak
Wire walk the lines between the
Galaxies and far beyond
Let my fingers guide you home
Gentle on your painted cheek
Angel breath in silent whispers
Warm within our blanket womb
Fast asleep in quiet rooms
Stir but only if you wish
Fear for nothing cradled here in
Arms I kept to pull you to
A heart that beats with love for you
Come to me with cloudy eyes
Wake and drink the first of light to
Draw you from the further realm
Take your body once again
Come to life within your skin
Tell me of your revelries and
Dream anew another day
And I will meet you there

Happy Face

I think I need time or space
Maybe just a bit of both
To bring back a smiling face
Tonight it’s out on loan
Not that I’m all that sad
I think it’s the aftermath
Of crying too hard too much
And they don’t make pills for that

The pillows I sleep with know
Oh when it rains it pours
I turned all my insides out
There’s nothing to say anymore
But I’ll get along just fine
And soon I will find a place
To translate these tears of mine
And put on a happy face

Trouble has come and gone
Maybe it hangs around
I don’t feel like checking tonight
It’s late and I need to lay down
The world is an awkward place
For being a sensitive type
There’s too many ways to fall
And not enough help to rise

But I’ve got a drink beside
The bed stand where I will sleep
The headache will fade by then
Along with the rest of me
I do what I can to believe
The choices we make will count
For something beyond these dreams
It’s all worth the cost for now

It could be worse I suppose
And that’s what I tell myself
We have to keep feeding our hope
We have to keep up our health
When all of these tragic times
Have turned into history
I’ll look back and say it’s alright
It’s still worth it all to me