The Cruelty of Time

The tick and tock
How its hands do mock
Their movement slow and subtle

And slower still
When you’ve had your fill
The minutes seem to double

When a lovely day
Has gone your way
So has it, like the wind

But alas the strife
Of a glacial life
Til the joy returns again

Please slow your gears
Let me feel these years
As more than just a minute

But again I wake
And each tick you take
Feels as though I wasn’t in it

Grateful

As we gather our harvest
Of love and of life
As we lay out the plates
And sharpen our knife

We make memories and smells
That comfort our bones
We offer our arms
Our food and our homes

Our own celebration
To remember what matters
To share all life’s gifts
With hugs and on platters

And once bellies bulge
And eyes seek to rest
We feel the true meaning
Of what makes this day best

Love shared by a family
The ones you’ve selected
Regardless of the sustenance
It’s gratitude perfected

Corners

I have lost you to the corners
gone without a reason
a fresh and brutal pain
every sunrise, every season

Your face lives on the walls
regardless of location
from new to old I go
such a bitter salutation

You are heard, and seen, and felt
with each one of my moments
but in such a foreign fashion
the ache for you, so potent

I have found you in the corners
I sense that you stay near
An everlasting feeling
so present and so clear

In Fading Light

In fading light we rambled
Hypnotized by the stars
Washed clean by blue horizons
Unable to see scars

Just silhouettes in motion
Swaddled by the dark
The moon was just then rising
The world no longer stark

The dwindling warmth of daytime
Still comforted our feet
But the night air with its coolness
Made the journey long and sweet

We could see forever
In the multitude of night
We knew life was a struggle
But we decided not to fight

I Haven't Gone to Sleep Just Yet

I haven’t gone to sleep just yet
So many goals I have not met
And life is but a heavy net
From which I can’t be freed

I’m sure there’s tears somewhere inside
Still waiting, wanting to be cried
Or perhaps they all have dried
Before they’ve met their need

At moments when I should be sleeping
Tis then, my pen longs to be creeping
Scrawling as my thoughts start seeping
From my weary brain

So now I start to add the numbers
How much time left for my slumber
How thick a fog shall I be under
When I rise again

But truth be told ‘tis not a toil
To creatively burn the midnight oil
Another dream fate chose to spoil
In the name of something written

So now i’ll end this incoherence
But surely meet new interference
When sleep at least makes its appearance
I’ll be absolutely smitten

Where the heart lives

Through lips shall pass
Both vows and lies
And eyes will twinkle
And will cry

Hands soft with touch
Or hard in fists
And cheeks both bathed
In tear and kiss

But deep within
Your throbbing chest
Your sweetest dreams
Shall come to rest

With love, like water
To hewn it so
And need, like fire
To make it go

So lips and eyes
And hands and cheeks
Can wear your strength
When heart is weak

And as it’s pounding
Finds its pace
You shall reveal
Its truest place

The Prettiest of Ponds

The frightened pheasant flutters
Flying in a burst
Startled by the panting fox
Who came to quench her thirst

The female fox is furrowed
Shorter are her days
Lacking will and drive to hunt
On eggs and fruit she’ll graze

A fearful fish feels furtive
Peering at the shore
His gills grow still and silent
For he’s met a fox before

The frog floats on a flower
Singing strong and proud
From time to time he nabs a bug
From the thick and buzzing cloud

The flys all flit and fumble
Done in by graceless genes
You could say they move swift
Though more akin to a careen

The flourishing fans of ferns
Reach widely with their fronds
They add their rich green hues
To this, the prettiest of ponds

Oh Sweetest Soul

Oh sweetest soul you are released
To wander far and wide
To do the things you always wished
That your body once denied
We picture you ethereal
And dancing in the sky
Smiling, laughing, singing
We’ve no doubt that now you fly
Your lovely face lives in our mind
Your sweetness still resounds
Your open, carefree, loving heart
Your bravery profound
Though life will never seem the same
Like a song that’s lost it’s rhythm
So many hearts will carry forth
The light you lit within them

The Jester

The jester appears with his harlequin sleeves
The crowd has now gathered up to the eaves
They await his act gasping, then holding their air
His jingling hat ringed with fiery hair

He tumbles so drunkenly, yet never falls
He points and he sneers, looking sad then appalled
The spectators grasping so tightly their sides
The laughter it floods like a leveling tide

He hands the girls roses and coyly he smiles
The men see their maidens blush all the while
They shake their fists sternly then laugh just the same
The jester he revels in a common man’s fame

He once had such promise, born for the stage
Yet his backstage transgressions elicited rage
He used his coy smile to coax many a patron
And finally soiled the name of a maiden

Her father a powerful town benefactor
He glazed him in red as he hung from a rafter
Once he was cut down his beauty was marred
His body was bloody his face was left scarred

So now he would dance and play to the masses
Joke with the lads and flirt with the lasses
He could conjure a smile that gave all folks their jollies
For not one here knew his most wanton of follies

National Poetry Month 2017!

There once was a lad of good breeding
Whose claims of success were misleading
He boisterously boasted
While openly roasted
And became most acclaimed for his tweeting

The Palisades of Easement

Jutting from the shore
Emerging from the earth
Nigh to rising moons
Next to nature’s hurt
Yonder is the wave
Malevolent and fierce
Outside of the danger
Over where the rocks do pierce
Keenly she doth sit
Inside another plane
Subtly offering everything
Gently easing pain
Reaching depths of love
Elusive to the proudest
A place to turn my back upon
The world when it roars loudest

In Immigrant's Hands

Our mouths bellow justice
yet we preach to the choir
It becomes just a hum
As it travels up higher

They have shuttered the windows
While scrunching their faces
Making sure the wrong people
Stay in the right places

They know not the sounds
Of true lamentation
They care not that this land
Grows with each implantation

More people, More culture
More knowledge, more life
A yield that goes far beyond
Business or wife

What can truly be saved
With a wall or a ban
When our everything started
In immigrant’s hands

It's not me, It's you

My skin, my shirt, my skirt, my shoes
“Your begging them to look at you”
My hair, My ass, My mouth, My tongue
“It’s harmless, he’s just having fun”
My work, my street, my apartment
“You should take it as a compliment”
I’m scared, I’m angry, I’m anxious, I’m sad
“Oh stop whining it’s not that bad”
Refuse abuse, Detail the damage
“Go in the kitchen and make me a sandwich”
Fighting back, Taking a stand
“She just needs to get a man”
Target, Victim, Battered, Dead
“She probably shouldn’t have worn red”

Claimed

Sworn in blood
but not their own
the pact was sealed
the lever thrown
Slamming cages
securing chains
the bait has worked
we have been claimed

Good Music

It should sound like a wave or a swarm coming forth
With a resonant doom, unmistakable force
Hysterical laughter, equal parts joy and madness
Something to illustrate deep joy and sadness
Parts that seem wrong that could never fit
The thrill of the beast before it has bit
It should form the words for what you can't say
The truth that gets told in some kind of way
The peeling of laughter, of skin, and of paint
And a purity that could make Judas a saint

Restless

My mind was overboard and swimming
My heart, it raced as if fresh from winning
The end collapsed when it reached the beginning
and all I could think was everything

Future

Creep slowly or he'll hear you
your heart as it is thudding
Your blood rushes so hard
in your ears it sounds like flooding
Your skin so tight and anxious
that the air seems it could burn it
The front door handle looms
but there's too much fear to turn it
You think you hear approaching steps
certain he is lurking
The sounds that pour from quiet
leave you swiveling and jerking
Your stomach is a gymnast
your knees feel weak as straw
You grab the handle tightly
like the clenching of your jaw
You ease the door to open
and run forth toward your future
You may still hold the scars
but there will be no more sutures

Residence

I know it's not the perfect place
Perhaps you still could stay
It can get cold or blustery
You could get swept away
The hazards are innumerable
but it still does have some charm
It just needs a little love
though appearance may alarm
It's not as new as it once was
it has some scrapes and cracks
But it's the place I know as home
and there's too much to pack
So here I'll stay and you can too
if you feel so inclined
There is no posh here to be found
but I love it cause it's mine

Fledgling

Trembling, just a fledgling
to emotions so deep
Warming, to the swarming
butterflies, I can't sleep
Beaming from the dreaming
that my mind does all day
Swooning, birds are crooning
as I'm carried away
Present, I'm a peasant
to the richness of you
Crooked, what your look did
lost 'fore I even knew
Free fall, it has changed all
that my life was before
Splendid, I've been rended
by the joy you implore

Defeater

The gargantuan footsteps
I have made in my sleep
Turn into promises
I have failed to keep
I need to do more
I want to do better
but my heavy mind
is an anchor, a tether
Reaching and stretching
almost torn to shreds
I swear to reanimate
dreams that lay dead
a perilous ledge
upon which I teeter
My quivering mind
my greatest defeater