Cast Reflections

a mirror stood
before me

i hesitated to look

for fear of seeing

the ugliness
the weakness

the shame
cast to seas of sorrow

the skewed mouth
and squinting eyes

the furrowed brow of condemnation

the cowardice of complacency

the body
time forsook

the heart left to bleed
on sleeves of insolence

wincing reprieve

i strained to raise my head
to actually look
at the abomination
splayed supinely
before me
for all to see

but foreign was this frail affliction
that watched my fears
fade into light

through windows
of my own humanity

to see the world within myself

as myself within the world

Astral Assimilation

as i peered
behind the veil
of black damask
a plundering gaze
deconstructed me
allaying consequence

all realms succumbed
to the crucifixion
of time itself

a relevance entombed
days past
to find my countenance
content

at last

reason itself was redefined

as blissful semblance
enshrouded my listless senses

precious sands
sifted into rifts

adrift, i stood
on shifting ground
as echoes torn
from lost dimensions
resounded

in a boundless burst
of cosmic influx
to lift the curse
of gravity’s crux
like dust
thrust
into blustery plumes
of ruminant sediment
strewed asunder

for Venus

her words give birth
to songbirds
arranged in strange striations

and when they call
all the heavens
start to fall as wintry feathers

into the mercy
of an erstwhile whisper

from pursed lips
pricked with petaline pigments

immersed
in otherworldly waves
she bathes the light
triumphant

without her semblance
all is but for naught

to doubt her tenor
fate should heed to falter not

for it is she alone
who shall usher in the dawn
auspicious

The Silence Reigns

the silence reigns
broken

a familiar smoke
potent with poignancy
awoke time
within itself

seeping through the rift
of heedless mind

every sense besotted
with tenses past
and present

disparity so stark
a nothingness became me

folding every breath of hope
upon an inward entropy

the truth thus revealed
through open eyes
omnipresent

had wracked my soul
in quantum rapt

of love i knew
will always know
will never be
again

A Friend’s Goodbye

my dear old friend
what end has come
by no means just
to live this dream
from which your eyes cannot awaken
who dares to rob this vacant hell
from one so true
we knew so well

who’s laugh was always our’s to share
by which i mean “our” family
you had scrapped your way
inside hearts sworn rigid without erring

a friend of genuine regard
protector of my sisters’ honor
our mister Jesse “Lame” Stamper
my brother time forgot to spare

such vital energy once coursing
through the veins as though my own
but yours was rife with staunch resolve
and none have since dared
prove such courage
surging taller than what heights
a man could bear to fall

cowardice lurks veiled inside
all stations of men ever known
no dignity near consequent
that could outshine your valor
all that mattered shone inside
the love for those you held

years have sunken silten seabed
whence we cried out “punk is dead!”
to myself, i have lied
just to say those words
and tears not shed

on that day, when first i learned
of darkness, that could not be heard
it struck me like a sun combusting
fulgurant in its static pulse

6 years ever as my senior
trapped in surpassing each one
tripped up in a past illusion
somehow ripped right from the stars

Jesse, you are with us always
like the ink that left its mark
love etched into the flesh forever
lives on within our minds and hearts

Embrace

Come the idle hour of midnight
Shadows rise into the hollow
Beckoning the toilsome plight
To reckon through the isle in wallow
Seas succumb to fate’s abandon
Churning brisk aberrant tides
Writhing in our indignation
Spindly wraiths with spiraling eyes
Ashen petals land subduing
Withered hopes of exaltation
Bleak as truth doth summon rue
Pray our embrace bequeath salvation

Expression*

each thought, a breath
of restless air
daring to breach realms consequent

separating sound
from silence
bound by ego’s blight
and sleights inferred

surrounding every word
that wanders
out of sight
out of mind
and wayward hope
for rote concurrence

Uncoiling

smoldering tears well
 
stinging grievous rain
as quietus quells chaos
 
composing in prose
of a melting maiden’s mien
 
to drown in throes of discord
and dreams sown stoic
of woeful implore
 
e’er whorling
like galaxies bereaved of light anew

Where Lovers Once Lived

time resigns
to dust
in blustery skies

for gone, is all reason
and life bleeds heavenly

with laughter
no longer

looms lingering night

where lovers
once lived
‘neath the shadow’s reprise

But Here I Sit

i should probably bathe

but here I sit

i should probably eat something

but here I sit

i should probably shave

but here I sit

i should probably go to work

but here I sit

i should probably tend to my ablutions

but here I sit

i should probably get out of bed

but here I sit

i should probably live…