Waiting softly

the girl sitting in the cafe
sipping slowly, so slowly
it's good for the soul
she can't help but smile, sigh, be sad
staring out a window with no glass
the passersby - the same old faces
an old friend, a tottering drunk
and the man she heard play drums
in an old band, in her childhood...when,
the springtime traced across her cheeks
she misses him
she's waiting for him
there's a woman she knew from somewhere
beautiful, sad, a voice like a mavis
a baby on her hip and a sparkling eye
she's singing, Hallelujah
she can't help but smile, cry, laugh...
it's good for the soul


(c) 2013

Rome

it was as if nothing had ever existed
who am i tonight, tomorrow or yesterday?
strange days and stranger nights,
spooked from the corpses, such scavengers
the tang of gunpowder in the air
shadows growing, ever longer

blank and broken - shattered by nothing
you're in the danger zone, a sweet destination
i can hear your rejoicing
gagging, choking, spitting out your venom
there are no magic words to save you

you sigh so prettily when your cigarette burns low
stubbing it out in the palm of your hand
just an excuse for pain
a wedding of heart and soul, musical, innocent
i remember your gasp of pleasure
sinfully exotic, touched by fire

you've always reminded me of fair Italy
burnished gold by a setting sun
unbowed you, you hold on, unbent, cling...and so broken,
your eyes speak of untold nights
where a mellow breeze kissed you
and tears made their way down your cheeks

the shirtless man on the bicycle waved to you
all you could do was cry and tell me
about your last lover, and how, like Rome,
you fell.
trembling in the cold night air, saying No...
he refused to listen.

(c) 2013

Wishes

glassine, shimmering, half-lighted wishes
mounds, piles, heaps of words
i wish, i wish, i wish, wish, wish, wish
lips tremble to expel them
and what is more, they lack the fortitude
to come true, truest, truant wishes
piled in a corner, chips and fragments, mile-high
in a room with no view
wish, wish, wish, giants, monsters and men
don't tell me about your women
sighs, sorrows, forget-me-not wishes
don't tell me about your wilderness thoughts
it's a lack of fidelity, innocence
too many mirrors
i wish, i wish, i wish, wish, wish, wish


(c) 2013

Lose

caught in darkness nigh on death
solitary slumbering in utter blackness
emptiness, a void
dancing on the edge of falling
crying out a single word
echoes of a departed soul
all of this and nothing, but everything and something
what to do with all i have
and all i've had to lose

another thing, an amoeba
a lifelike semblance of culture
single-celled, inorganic, manufactured
round, around it goes
this thing, to remain in motion
feeds, feeds, continually gorging itself
on others' emotions
 

(c) 2013

Smouldering

they say you paid for me
cash for kisses, dime and dollar
each time i could i said yes
pennies for my troubles and they get
darling they get to stare
down the barrel of a smoking gun
each time i could i said yes
slipping under sheets, satin and silk
paid you in gold and love
you spend so much time thinking
and they say you paid for me
gave soul and heart, life for me
i wasn't asking you for a solution
i was asking for sympathy

dime and dollar, paid upfront
watching you sigh and gaze into the distance
down the barrel of a smoking gun
i'll always say yes, to the love that we swore
your heart is my bible
and they tell me you paid for me
silk, satin and gold
love, you're my devil

with your lips and your smile
i feel as if i could dive down
deep into your eyes
i'd sacrifice a life for you
my life for you, love would be the devil
smouldering

there's a song in my heart for you
and a quiver in my soul
i pretend i could make amends
but they say you paid for me
gave soul and heart, hope for me
i'm not asking you for a declaration
not a sonnet
don't say you want me, that you need me
that you love me...
it's no good - you bought me
i have all the time in the world
it's written in the stars
it's understood


(c) 2013

Waves

until the waves
rolling over still water
hush the shores that time forgot
with simple, salty kisses
along the pebbled line
softly, softly, gentle
passing in the shallows of a mind
hidden in the nowhere
where the devils romp
bitter with the tide
softly, softly, gentle
lonesome travellers fight
over their hidden prize
the waves hush the shores
and the depths of the water
softly hold


(c) 2013

Pinprick

you have your eyes in the wrong place
staring out of the back of your mind
contemplate and regenerate
your life is a suicide case

drifting ghosts and long walks at night
crack and break beneath the weight of the past
that kiss was your last

sorrow and a silence
a heart too big for your soul
a tiny life, pinprick
don't do it, i beg you

last time was the first time
for waking in the night
crying, screams and blood on your hands
i do believe i love you

all your cracks and sad eyes
add up in my mind
to create a perfection so flawed
sanity is overrated and waiting for the wheel
gets you nowhere


(c) 2013

Take

i feel like my heart
beating. beating, deep within
too big, it's too big for my chest
i can't hold it in

take my heart
take it. take it, it's yours anyhow
i ask you, share my burden
these moments alone
together

you've given me yours
trust. trust in me, and i you
fantastical creatures, both
scarred and marred by time and love
our stories

two and one, the same
differences proclaimed, contained
so much tortured gentleness
firelight and wrists above our heads
so close and yet not touching
closer now

hearts entwined
what more to ask, in limbo
two worlds shared
in limbo

(c) 2013

Passing The Torch: a short story

the keys to the kingdom rested in the palm of a mere mortal, so silent and still he had no breath to stand. he was weak with waiting for his heir to wake from sleep - a thousand nights and dawns spent kneeling on the marble steps, as flesh fell to dust and his son's bones were bare with time and white from his father's careful polishing.
muscle connects to bone, bone to blood and marrow...but his son refused to wake - he was incomplete, wrist severed at the base, flung aside after the fighting was done, to gently rot in a lonely gully beside the bare dirt track that ran through a meadow, long ago, when the species that had, so recently become Mankind was still young. the man stayed by his son's side, the keys clinking with every movement, suspended on their chain.
all too soon the rains of winter came to wash the ashes from his mausoleum and chase the spiders from their webs.
the devotion of the man far outweighed his shivering flesh, the fire within warming him as a city began to be built close by. two years passed thus, until the man quite lost his will to live, refusing the small meal his daylight-scented daughter brought him each day. in its stead he asked his locksmith's tools be brought, and sat there upon the steps, slowly crafting the most delicate final hope he possessed: a hand of shining golden keys, the kingdom's keys that would open the seven locks of the great chamber of clockwork that lay deep within the earth. days passed, and the hand was soon finished, tiny nerve-like wires threaded through the smallest gears and most graceful keys.
the final day, the man called his sun-drenched daughter to his side and weakly, shakily, tremblingly arose from the dessicated cushion on the marble steps, to fit the hand to the severed wrist of his son.
completed. finished. rain fell about them as the ashes rose to form flesh once more, and the torch was passed from father to son.

(c) 2013

Blood Red

 you're an artist
and all you paint is red
 red as a sea of blood
lapping at your feet when you walk
 this oasis
i'm blind with this blood i shed
 this ceremony
ending what could have been to
 what is this?
i'll just spend my life in my head
 retracing scars
turning them blood red
 you're an artist
paint me a portrait
 bloody with its brilliance
i'll provide the paint
 just give me a moment
reopen my scars
 dip the brush and heal me



(c) 2013

Seeing Ghosts

i still see your ghost
entrapped in the window shades
sighing silent in the sweet, sweet air
your mind, where is your mind
sitting still within your aged flesh

i still see your ghost
the kiss that never ends,
lips upon a window  chased in dew
marked forever with a dying breath

you linger on, and on, and on,
gentle in the deep
i miss your eyes

i still see your ghost
where you loved to walk,
dancing in the streetlamps lining the roadways
palm against the water
ripples spreading

i still see your ghost
such a rambling, wavering, sultry figure
waiting by the edge of the water
i miss you

you linger on, and on, and on,
soaring softly in my mind
graceful sighs
i miss you


(c) 2013