The sun is set now
Empty of our memories
Drained out with the day.
Stop Writing?
Can the trees ask the wind to stop
If ruffled leaves do fall?
Or mountains ask the cloudy mists
To descend, not at all?
Can the concrete slab
Stop tender roots
Caught in April bloom
Or shadows of the forests past
Stop the falling light?
When all torn down
Turned to parchment
Whereupon these words I write…
Imagery
Simple words with simple voices
Reaching out to touch
Brushing ears with fragrant music
Signals evening’s dusk.
Speak to me of untold whispers
Strengthen me with love
Hold me down with fervid wonder
Sing to me of touch.
Poetry in lines will mingle
Swaying hither still
Sleeping now in union’s slumber
Till morning’s rays unseal.
Scarlet Letters
Your fingers were scarlet
Tracing lines upon my back
Like letters to a pen pal
That never replied
Etching secrets like lyrics
Against the spine
Scars laid out in white shadows
Like a book you never though you’d read.
Our mouths spoke love,
But our ears were still ringing
From the internal screaming
To which we subjected ourselves.
Too afraid to fight back
Against the only ones
Who seemed to care about ourselves.
Muscle Memory
Our hearts are organs
And how they learn to love
Is ingrained each day we live.
The way we write or play
Strum or sing
Is built within our bodies
Motions etched in repetition
Repeated on command.
Unconscious obedience
From a conscious command.
Such it is with who we love
Though we know not why,
Somewhere we engraved a memory
A reminder to hold on
Step back
Keep an eye on this one.
Unarmed
I always thought her smile was disarming
But it couldn’t unload
The gun that took her life.
My anger lies not with the ignorant,
But with systematic ignorance.
Not with the sheep,
But with the false shepherds.
Not with advancing pawns,
But the hands that move them.
Empty
Sometimes apathy
Is all I have to offer
Once you’ve drained me so.
Breathe
Quiet the words that arise
Strike the record
Wring out in puddles
Ring out in silence
Echoing drops like rain
Reigning like pretender kings
Kinks and knots tying down
Restraining and retraining the mob
Crowding out the voices that sing
Singling out only those that agree
A greed unwelcome but accepted
Excepted from a list of sins
Not seen as wrongs
Against the unarmed
Unharmed by mere sentences
Sentenced to life in ignorance
Ignored by masses
Amassed in Mass
Masterfully worshiping reflections
Reflecting not
Seeing image without form
Unstructured observance
From without, not within
Withered stances
Decaying in the wind.
When I let you in you’ll linger
Even though the years pass by
I’ll try to burn you out
Leaving impressions instead
Ashes and dust
Where once were flames.
Moonlit Poetry 