COLLATERAL

I feel like a casualty.

Did I step on a mine

Marked for martyrs?

Perhaps I lost only a limb

Or forfeited my brain.

So why do I seem so lost

And what is this boundless pain?

All that I hear is tuneless

Like the grating of dry chalk.

All that I see is formless

Like portraits by clowns and fools.

All that I smell is putrid

Like remnants of a flood.

All that I taste is bitter

Like soup stirred up by ghouls.

All that I touch is damned

Like the black soul within me.

RAMADAN'S HERALD

Here on the edge of this great southern land

The new moon takes a goblet’s stemless shapes

And not the crescent of prophecies grand

That gilds the flags of faraway landscapes.

Perhaps it mirrors a tumbler for scotch

Or bowls for the sweet fruit of our lush groves.

Yet it is a highlight of dark night’s watch

And bids the stars sparkle in glistening roves.

Above tiered layers of cerise sunsets

Our satellite seems oddly proximate -

Early human musings must have feared threats

From such a strangely changing astral state.

Tonight it rose above the winter air.

I could not fight the urge to stop and stare.

MOCK THE SUN

When the winds from snowy mountains roll through

River valleys and rumble to shorelines

Shivering skies turn seas a deeper blue

And mock the sun although it boldly shines.

Wet sand won’t dry as frigid chill factors

Dive to an icy low that snap freezes

The skin of surfers and other actors

Pretending to bask in balmy breezes.

Clouds rush to flee the western sky’s expanse

Before sunset’s rays can singe their extremes,

As if the roaring squall set up their chance

To search for beaches warmed by kinder streams.

Then dark falls crisp and heavy like a blow

Of midwinter air fresh from peaks of snow.

GLASS TURQUOISE

Sky looks like glass

There are gemstones in the clouds

Even our sweet love survives

This is a wondrous place

This is a masterpiece

Why do so few see it that way?

Eyes like yours shine

And light the dreary years

Making my old heart beat faster

You were a marvel

You’re this man’s delight

Break death’s chains and come back to me.

Sea turns turquoise

When the sun is streaming right

Only takes a minute to see

But they can’t stop

And they won’t pause

Waste their lives accumulating.

You are the end

Of a journey ‘cross the years

Can’t believe you’re no longer here

But I’ll find you

And I’ll love you

Where there is no right and no wrong.

LAUGHINGSTOCK

So carve my heart from the depths of my chest,

Slice it into pieces fit for your maw,

Then eat it while you feel so bloody blessed

And revel in the joy of your flawed law.

If then you have more taste for true regret

You only have to stand up tall and roar;

As long as dupes prefer to just forget

The baying crowd will open every door.

But fools who know they are not merely fools

Are surely the most cursed of all the clowns.

The day will come when your disgusting tools

Will make you the laughingstock of loose crowns.

So I hold up my lacerated head

Knowing I am a man untimely bled.

DERISION

Tears come when they decide you’ve tried enough

To make a way ahead despite the cost

And all around tell you that it’s too tough

Or more to the point you’ve just played and lost.

As if you could sow a field of delight

And harvest spaces to let others think;

Mere you, who comes from places bleak with blight

Where hearts are dead and spirits are extinct.

Yet there is hope always even in tears

That break across your wrinkled face in streams

And wash anxiety out of your fears

Sprinkling the greenest shoots amongst your dreams.

Derision never ever survived time.

How many did it kill before their climb?

LA PETITE MORT

After it was over
You just had to shower.
I preferred
To linger
In the aftermath
Of intimacy
Just a little longer.
I tarried,
Enveloped,
By the musky smell of you;
With the pleasant stickiness
Of our union
Still on my skin
And the evidence
Of your maidenhood
Still on the sheets.
And so I drifted
Into the little death -
That dreamy paradise -
With the fragrance
Of your perfume
And the sweet smell
Of your body
Still there
On my bedclothes.
When you kissed me
I awoke to another paradise;
Of your soft clean skin;
And I held you
Tight again.