Darkness lies upon the land
like a chill and clammy hand
No breath does stir, nor fill a breast
Icy cold grips your chest

Eyes strain to see, familiar sights
here on this eve, this hallowed night
Whispers of my victims' voices
ask me why; they were my choices

You were deserving, I holler out
The graven-stones repeat the shout
Now the lonely windy sigh
makes me scream in reply

You did all those nasty deeds
and on your body I did feed
You are now and here immortal
I say to them and I chortle

Literally Me

I'm a literal poet
I write what I think
Some thoughts are dark gray
While others bright pink
Hidden meanings
Are locked in my mind
Don't bother searching
For what you can't find
My moods play a role
With words I put down
They may make you smile
Or wear a clown frown
Long story short
We all write our own way
And a literal poet
I'll most likely stay

Coveted...

touch not
this daunting facade
of polished steel
it is obscurely
out of the way
not on your path
make no detours
to investigate
this remote structure
you are not to know
the secrets
and mysteries
under the veil
of distant demeanor
she is an ice mass
of unbearable cold
exuding arctic winter...
and one indifferent kiss
would dissolve her
into a catastrophic meltdown

In the middle of my life, I awakened
My soul smelled of leather and brittle grass
Sun dried by loitering and simple inattention

The unseen currents from years of self absolution,
Trifling in each instance, but powerful when joined
Had secretly pushed me out to sea

How pitiful
To be convicted by mere common sense
Sent to stand in front of the jury in the mirror

How alarming
To come face to face
With the lazy liar that had stolen so much

Twelve times I had come and
Stood on mountains of earth
First the Aries Warrior
Last the Pisces Dreamer and
Now as the observer of time
I had cursed my last departure
Into this cave of darkness
Why had I come this time?
This time was not for me
This I felt instinctively
This I knew subconsciously
As I looked I did not judge
As I touched I did not love
I felt insanity tear at my reality
Twelve times I had witnessed being and
In being I rode the waves of time

Awake again with only this
Pen to place me back
To sleep
Slipping from a quiet majesty of
Velvet darkness --- I've emerged the
Half-sleeper caught between two worlds
While the night shift keeps on working
The honey of my mind is
Challenged by the drug of time
There is a time when all men should
Sleep forever or should have
Slept forever
I am still asleep
Or ---not awake
Sitting here pounding at
Keys with numb flesh

Run with glee down the cobblestone street,
full of youth's joy, never downbeat.
Football with all the neighborhood kids,
be a nuisance and bang rubbish bin lids.
Kicking a tin can and throwing stones,
childish pleasures and prepubescent hormones.
Mothers with prams and wailing babies,
girls in the park making chains of daisies.
A screech of brakes and slamming doors,
cricket on Sunday's and summer downpours.
Moths fluttering around the dim streetlight,
an adventure waiting at the building site.

Alice

As Alice arrives at the Hospital door
a couple smile and say hello.
The girl who is heavy with child
asks which way they should go.

Alice leans over to reach him
to kiss him for one last goodbye.
A silent tear rolls down her face
as with sadness she begins to cry.

They’d been together a very long time
thinking they had more years to come.
But illness came and frailty ensued
now their life together is done.

My faith was never a beacon of light
more of a flickering candle at night.
My Father’s beliefs were always strong
perhaps somehow I got it all wrong.
In spite of those hymns I love to sing
for me it’s more a borderline thing.

But I see things in a different way
I don’t spend time praying each day.
For me God’s love is practical too
shared with others in the things we do.
Through help we give to those in need
whoever they are, whatever their creed.

Call me Old Soul
For I have come long and far
An incorporeal Traveler
A human spirit drifting beyond mortal bars

Once I knew of form
Felt the warmth of Sun on skin
But then my Life and World ended
My eternal Soul this trek to begin

In wake of Great War's destruction
My mind survived intact
And freed from a Body's limits
I fled Earth's Tomb never to look back