Sly

A masked bandit crawling to no more sunsets
Lies within a dark corner of my home.
No longer will he search through my trash.

Instead I am writing his epithets
As his mouth produces a noxious foam
That ties into his spasms as his legs thrash.

The moment will pass when I am upset.
And his life will pass in the gloam
As I take the blade and thrust in a flash.

My forehead beads with sweat
and I fight tears knowing that his days of roam
Are over due to a quick smash.

The child witness has seen life's roulette
take this animal to become part of the loam.
But I will tuck my pain and anguish into the dark cache.

Foiled

When you look in the mirror,

You do not see me.

When you stare into the puddle,

I am not the face looking back

When you pass by the storefront glass,

your duckling gait is not my stride.

I find my opposite in reflective surfaces of their eyes,

not in yours.

A foil is no more than a fallacy...a false finding in your fevered hopes.

Find your own reflection, your own idea of who you are.

I am not it.

Search.

And if my image becomes your words, fall away.

For the damned don't need the added rage.

Grains

A grain of sand

Blowing in the desert wind

Cannot affect my vision

Despite its best efforts.

Eventually, however, it will find the...

Fallacies deep within my soul and

Get me to lift my eyes toward

Heaven.

I cannot save your soul,

Just push it along with my

Kind thoughts.

Leave this place.

Move out of the small corner of my heart and

Never return.

One time will hurt us both and give us a dull, everlasting

Pain.

Quickly and quietly, I slam the door to my heart

Release the key, and make sure the door is

Shut

To never be opened again except in

Unusual cases.

Voices from my past creep over my spine and

Wake the dead within my nightmares to invade the

Xanadu at the height of my happiness.

You cannot understand yet, but as the

Zephyr blows, you will see that in your life I am only

A grain of sand.

Tense

If you wanted to,
You could end this with a word.

If you wanted to,
A movement of your wrist would release me.

If you wanted to,
You could pull the drape of night over my soul.

If you wanted to,
A fanciful decision would expand worlds into infinite and enclosed spaces.

If you wanted to,
You could help me.

But the sand never finds its way...and I stop believing.

Vigilant

There is a soldier in front of my heart.
"Halt," he tells them. "You are not to be here."
As they approach faster, he curses and fires faster than
Goya on the 3rd of May.
Bodies lay strewn across the dark landscape.

There is a knight in the foreground of my heart.
He attempts to be valiant and guide them in, but...
I stop him with Saracens and green ghosts.
His guided visitors become lost in a maze and never find the keys.

There is a soldier in front of my heart.
I hear him talking to me at night when the demons come.
"I cannot be here forever," he whispers.
"You must stand your ground, " I tell him, and then force him to fight
A large demon made of past regrets
Reeking of apologies, stale beer, and burned out cigarettes.

There is a knight in the foreground of my heart.
He carries a banner of misfortune.
Though he attempts to help those around me, he never wavers in his duty
of penance and piety.
To search for the heart's missing veil and mystifying menagerie of memories.

A soldier and a knight patrolling the grounds of a fractured landscape.
And when the floods come now and then, they survive on the high ground of hope.
They guard the entrances and exits and maintain peace.

Until the children of the mind can defeat them forever.

Listing

Air

Fire in the night

Water

Umbrellas in showers

Love

Shoulders in desperation

Lucidity

These should be your saviors.

Quandary

The White Knight.

Pure

Innocent

Giving up his life for her, them, and anyone who needs it.

Wants desperately to heal.

The Black Knight.

Evil

Corrupted

Sacks cities for curiosity

Willing to push until all are conquered

Often viewed as the two sides of the coin.

So how did I end up in Grey?

Spur

Passion's problem.

A snake in the grass with poisoned fangs.

A euphoria

That turns to frustration.

Misunderstandings.

"Never thought YOU would be suicidal," he says. "Never meant to imply."

Passion's problem.

Words misunderstood.

One language with multiple meanings.

"I am sorry," she replies.

He hears a soul upset.

"Don't apologize," he intones. "I overreacted."

Passion's problem.

The simple is complex. The quiet is a cacophony.

Words on a page cannot carry the meaning of voice.

Stuck outside the tower and looking up, he says,

"A rock I might be...but I need firm ground to hold.

Even a rock can slip."

She stares back at his eyes.

The left with a fleck sadness and understands:

It was never his intention to push her, but she now sees

He has to help others for himself.

Ignosce Mihi

And that is not Passion's problem.

Flicker

You are the flower in the weeds
The bauble in the sequins
In a cacophony of sound.
You are welcome silence.
You are happenstance in a world of figures and logic,
A candle in a lit room
And in my mind...I'm a snowflake in rain.
The room left for me is wasted;
The heart kept underwater.
The mind creates reason upon reason....
The curve of her lips drips honey and vinegar all at once.

The happenstance?

I won't take that room.
The words ring again and again,
"Not in love with you."
So the walls get thicker and thicker, and I wait
Alone.
So it goes.
Yes, you can
Lock the door.
A gossamer awaits me through the veiled shadows.

Falling.

My soul drops,
And God laughs at me.
A hearty chuckle that reveals his plan for me:

Solitary confinement.

Charity

Quiet, hot thoughts slice up my spine.
A mark for each trip to Heaven.
A notch for each descent into Hell.
Pulling chords as the universal song reaches a crescendo
And silence fills the hearts around me.
Their songs become mine.
A cacophony of discord thrashes throughout my being.
Water cannot quell.
Multiplicity adds duplicity and
Animosity gives way to virtuosity.
A note.

And my soul sings in the darkness of fate.