Rewhined

 +  rewhined +
Those backward glances
Through rearview mirror
Considerations of what could have been
Almost denying what was
A hollow echo ringing
Off stone of past lived
Looking back and wondering
No good ever came of that
Except if wisdom gained
In moving forward not to leave
Fresh regrets as vinaigrettes
To draw our vision back
Obscure the present with a film
Of all those might have want a beens.

Fear

 + FEAR +

I am death and destruction
Pillager of dreams
Creator of nightmares
I am out beyond your sight
Or close enough to smell
From your sweat I pour
In every miscalculation wait
A shadow to your bravery
A meaning for every war crime
Send tremors through your core
I undo the notch you set
Consume draughts of courage
cold and heavy as lead I lie
In stomach heart and breath
Set your joints to quaking
Dry your mouth of words
Unsettle every nerve
I am the one supreme
If opportunity you give
Inside hesitation and commonsense I hide
Wield these rods on your body
Riddle thoughts with holes
The bravest men know of me
In night hours and in cold
Before every redoubt you might storm
On eve of every doubt
There I lie awaiting
For the moment to let me out.

Small island

+ small island +
On island small
Upon river broad
Nature continues
For Man ignores
Habitat small
For fauna broad
Ducks and swans
River rats found
Finches flit
Escapees all
From lands of Man
Reeds and grasses
Untended flourish
Wildflowers weave
Tapestry unbordered
Here wind and rain
Sunrise sunset
Passing seasons
Occur as once did
Before Man sought
To rule Nature
Only here untouched
As Man ignores
On river broad
Wild island small.

On the slab

 + on the slab +
Lay out my wrapping cloth
The oils for my head and feet
Take two shiny pennies and place them
Where my eyes are set
No more the hills and valleys view
No more conversation find
I go beyond
To a much more distant shore
Into a night without dawn
To a cold so bitter
My bones shall turn brittle as ice
And for all the Time of the world
My heart shall not return to beating
Silenced and laid
A viewing thin and lesson
Mortality is our curse
Our blessing time we have.

Sympathy

 + sympathy +
I have sympathy
The collector said
Stretching out their wings
Holding them in place with pins
I find them so beautiful
Would preserve forever
Colour of their lives

I have sympathy
The entreprenur extolled
Plucking another bottle blonde bride
From the anorexic herd
I find them so screwable
With a pre-nup preserve
Mastery of their lives

I have sympathy
The writer scribed
Selecting another friend
To dissect pitylessly in print
Skewer foibles remorselessly
Make an immortal laughing stock
For as long as literature should be read.

I have sympathy
The general bombarded
For those brave loyal men
Who by shedding their life's blood
Bring greater glory to our nation
Make others fear our might
Who in death become immortal.

I have sympathy
The mugger hammered
For those from whom I steal
The working man and his wife
Leaving them in debt or bleeding
I ask they only respect my right
To take their goods to give me a proper life.

I have sympathy
The adulterer joined
For love and all its rings
It is just I find myself
A mortal in a weak and tired body
And the heat in those arms
Warms me for eternity.

21st C Juliet

 + 21st C Juliet +
Another day of faked expectations
Tan dabbed from a bottle
Scrubbed bright white gleaming smile
Tights chosen from the good drawer
Skirt borderline suitable for business
An extra button popped on blouse
Teetering on ambitiously high heels
All clothed around tight perfection
Gym engineered by a focused mind
Aerobics tai-bo jazz-cycling step
Done them all and sweated out
Cosmopolitans and late night rendezvous
Searching for the most perfect knight
To be honoured with this prize
Until then so many egotistical frogs to kiss
So many uncomfortable nights far from home
Is the hardened life of modern Juliet.

 + Time +
The death of Time
Does not exist
The death of our consciousness
This thing which thinks and feels
Cessation of our heartbeat
Halting of our breath
Only physical indications
Of the lights gone out
Consciousness is gone
All we were or are
What things we've done in life
And life itself a statement
Of the margins between greater flowing time
In which our consciousness lived
Does not impede or change
How Time does exist
Time is immemorial
All else is transitory.

Lost pathways

 + Lost Pathways +

Lost pathways open up
Unexpectedly rediscovered
A passion once held
An interest which had died
The many things beneath
The person you are today
The waters running deep
Which the passerbys rarely see
All those pieces making you
Who you are today.

Time travel flotsam
Treasures buried deep
Found in wandering sideways
Escaping heavy travelled ruts
Beyond the highways common
For the pathways you once knew
Covered in brambles and thorns

Pathway is not as once was
Has been neglected and ignored
Some heavy toil required
To cut away through to things left lost
Curiousities of days since past
When you were younger than today
When it was so much easier
To escape the road of life laid.

Enemy

 +-+-+ ENEMY +-+-+
I am the enemy
That much is very clear
Sighting me you change
As might a hissing cat
Knowing what I am
Though we have never ever met

To others I might be meat
To you I am a bitter poison
Should have been drowned at birth
For no value do I bring
Marked by my gender
As a bloody useless thing

You have met my kind before
Of this you are so sure
Fallen for the words and smiles
Unknowing these are the wiles
Of the cunning killer
The friend who is your foe

The one who will insinuate
Themselves into your life and light
Bring the coldest blackest darkness
Steal joy from every thought
Make rotten every memory
Cheapen every trust

Bruise your heart so thoroughly
That all who follow are the enemy
Despoilers destroyers and liars
Heartless fiends without souls
Mark them clearly by their gender
Those unfeeling serial offenders.

Darker skies

 + darker skies +

Skies above colour
Transparency is lost
World closes in
A gathering of rain
Weather soon shall toss
Mind caught between
One front and next
As darker skies foretell
Rain upon my head.