New Sport

One foot after the other,
Step by step by painful step,
By backbreaking, heart-aching step.

My heart beats a thousand times a minute,
My mind speeds at a thousand miles per hour,
And you run even faster through it,
‘Cause I can never catch you.
But that won’t stop my trying.

Lady Luck

Black Jack never was my game
That’s sadly clear to see
It’s why dealer calls me “24”
Whenever she looks at me.

Hit me hit me
There, I bust
Chips leaving just like loves long lost
And still I hold my chair
Waiting for Lady Luck to sit nearby
And greet me with success.
Instead the empty chair is taken
By new love
I’ll know it later
And for now just watch her smile,
Meet it with my own.

Hit me hit me
Lucky Lady kiss me
There I’m at 21
Again again
With you I win
For I surely cannot lose
And arm in arm
I realize how you’ve always been there
While Lady Luck holds her lovers close

Now sudden realization dawns:
Luck has got nothing to do with it

Devil's Hill

Beacon beacon, burning bright,
Guide my winding path tonight.
Point me onwards to my home,
With glow recalling fires of Rome.
Haunting lights to kill my steps
While Hell’s light bursts beneath your depths.
It’s always been there, staring me down,
Burning reds of the Devil’s frown.
I watch it again and fill with fear,
While it stands as it has year after year.
And now from Devil’s Hill a cry,
As purged in fire, happiness dies

Windows

What if mirrors are only panes of glass
Windows into other worlds,
Only offering backwards imitations
Of our lives
By chance
When’er we happen to glance?

Would all those people,
Oh-so-vain,
Check their reflection
Again and again?
Wisdom dictates they not do so
For fear they fall in love and go
Through the glass
Like air
Then water
Air again
(The lake, just a film)
To be with a creature,
So beautiful,
That they could pass as a twin
Of those who gaze.

I might look more,
But not to follow the trail
Blazed by Narcissus,
Instead to guard,
Make sure my clone-
Reflection-
Does not leave,
Run away in fright,
To join the shadow
Of that other Lost Boy,
And also to watch
To see if I can
Catch it in the act
Of changing
Into one of the many
Me’s.

What if there are no mirrors,
Only looking glasses
That point to other realms?
I suggest you let them be,
Not calling forth reflections,
Under pretense of observation
In the vein of those great explorers.
Don’t give the reflections
Excuse to be vain.

Clown

I remember once
When I wore somebody else’s face,
It was bought in a store
And hid me in plain view.
I remember how nobody knew me
And nobody saw me.
Would you have recognized me for who I am?
Or was?

I had a dream once
That my face was a mask
That I made for myself
And fashioned in plain view.
I remember how I woke up
And looked in the mirror
And didn’t know if I was dreaming
Or not.

Re-runs, Reviews, Return

If they are the challengers of the unknown,
What does that make us?
It makes us alone.

For living in fear we all wear a mask;
A ball and a chain,
Shut in a cask.

Stubborn and cautious we put up our walls,
Keep love to yourself
Or else you may fall.

You the teacher and I apprentice,
And I the coward
Avoiding my wish.

If there is a lyricist yet we dare not sing,
What does that make us?
Star crossed somethings

Feelings leak out and threaten to erupt
Don’t welcome be back yet
I’m still waking up

Kevorkian

When caught up in “He said, She said”
Just eliminate the words
And you’re left with He and She
Which is quite enough to kill with.
All you need is love
And oxygen, water, and food
None of which is abundant enough
To be had by all.
I long for death but I can’t do it myself
Love lost, or misplaced, is assistance enough.

A man in a van
Once drove up and down my street
Helping people who were hurting
Stay off their feet.

Watcher

You, with your unfortunate skill for poetry,
And I, who can only recycle words,
Both watch the present become past,
All while Saint Anthony stands on his head.

I talk of my drugs, you obsess about yours
While despising me for referring to mine as such
Comparing addiction to that which causes it.
We two only speak of our quicksand in different terms.

Devils play out scenes
And I can’t help but watch
While you must dive in
And thus you are watched.

You push me away into void
And an object put in motion
Cannot be stopped in space
And all is fair on Venus and Mars.

I, Rodent

I am the mouse
And you are the cheese,
And also the mouse trap,
Look at me, please!
I am a cripple
I can’t get away,
I cringe as you laugh
And die as you say,
“You are the mouse
And I am the breeze
Untouchable, untamable,
I do as I please.
I am a god,
I am a wind,
You are a mouse,
We cannot be friends”.
I’m stuck in this trap
Pathetic checkmate
I hope that you smile
While I curse my fate.
I aimed too high,
Now stuck in this house,
For you are above me,
And I’m just a mouse.

Sphinx Without a Secret

Life is
Labyrinth,
A maze I am lost in.
There is no exit but one,
And you are its guard.
So many times I have guessed
At the riddle that is you
Never coming close to the answer.
Why can’t you let me out of this
Desert?
Riddles in the dark
Shed no light on the matter
And offer nothing but riddles
And riddles again.
I think you must laugh at me,
Poor pathetic pilgrim,
Pleasant to watch as I fail
And when at first I don’t succeed
Fail, fail again.
I labor to live,
To escape this lovely labyrinth,
But you block my every turn.
I can’t guess your riddle
For you are a sphinx
Without a secret.

A Picture of Heartbreak (The Tragedy of Sibyl Vane)

Frozen in a picture of sadness
Captured at seventeen
And held as a memory
Forever.
Sweet Sibyl, I cry for you.
Beauty to beauty
Your brought so many to life
And with portrayal of Juliet
(Continuing the eternal cycle
Of death and resurrection)
You brought young heart
To love.
Oh Sibyl, why step from the stage?
Why leave behind shadows
That love you
For the shadow of love?
I cry for you
Sweet,
Silent,
Sibyl.
You did not deserve
Hope, love and life withdrawn.
Love is fluid
Not black and white
But for you, most certainly
Not Gray.

Words In Your Mouth

Speak gently,
Sweet angel,
Lace your words with poison
If poison is in your heart,
But let your hand not falter
As you administer lethal dose
To the words I drink in
Love will cover all
For it is blind,
Deaf,
And immune to what you may say
In attempt to break hearts
(I feel I need more than one
To hold all my feeling for you).
Swill your unvoiced darts
Before speaking them
And let them not be sugar coated.
But oh! how I wish
That these words might
One day
Hold love.
Though I not be immune to feeling
I would welcome a faint trace
Of any word I may call love,
Though it may be more deadly than poison.

Immunity takes more exposure
Than you or I have yet seen.
A heart is a terrible thing to waste.

Roses Remedied

The parcel lies lifeless
Set aside on the counter
The danger nearly passed
She could hear the ticking clock
Pounding out a tattoo
Over the still-shaken heartbeat
That whispers within her chest
The anatomy of feeling-
Grafted by romanticism
Onto the unwilling body-
In it’s supposed existence
Almost fell prey to the perilous package,
Now almost forgotten.
It almost was conquered
By the siege of pushes and pulls
On heartstrings
Photos became reinforcements
Lining the walls to repel feeling,
To prevent any twitch of love
From becoming the spark of resurrection.
She loses herself in the pictures
Of yesterday,
Oh so many years ago,
And remembers him…
And refuses to let go,
Because this baby’s in black
And that’s nothing new
Neither is the pain she holds to
Like a life preserver,
A last line to lost love
And love, now cold and bitter,
Like yesterday’s coffee
Is the cure for the hangover
That may have been caused
By the box full of flowers
And memories dashed to bits
Of nothing.
She’s found a cure for happiness...
And for roses.

Lines (composed thousands of miles from Tintern Abbey holding no relevance to it)

If you had every opportunity to stab my back
Would you occasionally dare to attack?
And if I had to trust you with a piece of my heart
Would you just once dare to tear it apart?
How dare you?
How do you dare?
What thoughts make traffic through streets in your head?
Is it selfishness, loneliness, or do you just want me dead?
Do you dare?
And if not, then why don’t you?
I hope you’re that good,
‘Cause if my death is desired then I daresay you could
Bring it about in the vilest of ways
So that I be heartless for the rest of my days.
That’s not my plan, that’s not my desire
For truly I tell you I’d rather choose fire.
‘Cause the option of lovelessness colder than ice
Is something I consider not half as nice
As death.

Synesthesia (Dazzler Explained)

Soft-spun melodies
Claw their way to consciousness,
Breaking through the barrier of normality
Into visible scope,
Explosion of color:
Disorder.
Dazzle me with your voice
I’ll watch it dance ‘round you,
The pinks and blues
Framing your silhouette,
While the greens and golds
Simply shimmer and pulse,
Proving no pattern recognition,
Instead, a snowflake.
I see now why people talk
And talk and talk;
The sound protects against the fury,
Your armor around you
Emanating blurry,
Replenished from all your discourse
That now makes such sense…
Sing!
And send me reeling,
Bombarded with the spectrum,
Consciousness fading,
Drowning in the color
I zealously drank.

Could she really use light as a weapon?
Or does the world just have a disorder?

Time

It is fluid
It is fast
It is dying
It won’t last

He woke up near death
And then bade it goodbye
Leaving it on its gurney
And he reached towards the sky

She had no hope
But she had a car
And so key hit ignition
And wheels hit tar

It is now
It is then
It is later
It answers ‘when?’


He had new life
And now he walked free
So he left his clean house
And the yard with the tree

She drove with no happiness
And only one need
Blinded yearning for destruction
And so she chose speed

It is vague
It is clear
It is far
It is near

His life was a miracle
A shining new birth
So he crossed the road
To spread the tale of his mirth

Her heartbreak made life
Seem not worth the livin
So eyes full of tears
She met him in collision

It is intertwined
It is a thread
It is alive
And it is dead

He had cheated death again
Yet it seems somewhat sure
His final reprieve
Was simply to save her

Death on her mind
Now clear before her face
She brought him what she deserved
And so she met grace