And there you were, sulking in the corner of my mind A drink, a drink to salve old wounds Saying old sooths, with still beating hearts At last down at the center of you And old keys not rescinded out of tired locks Branches of a network never lost Let slip the bittersweet delights, in the corner of my eye A chain, a chain to rattle up old ghosts Poltergeists, with the hands of grandfathers Bitterly turning still and soft And old hills not made for perishing Roots and heaps an

River's Edge A mote of finest cosmic dust Shimmering in the starlight glow Trembling on the edge of a ripple Thrust along the river's flow Languishing in dark repose I feel the air begin to quiver A breath and then at last the fall The subtle touch and final tittle Warm exhalations caught on strings Of webs we'd weave to catch our dreams Hungry for the thunder's voice To set loose the path of lightning's choice And see in raindrop, see in sky A mighty bow that tints the eyes

I'm so tired Of the unequivocal drivel I'm still a victim dear Of the quiet and the rain And the shadow on my doorstep Of guests who never came Arrivals still postponing Bones still drenched in warnings Moaning out Such subliminal agonies Beneath fingers I can't feel Heights I cannot reach Feelings that can't be real Of when I held your hand And practiced in the mirror And what I meant was said And what I said you simply didn't hear Somewhere your sickness chokes me In that i

How quickly this dissolved With fires lit by gemstone wit And perspectives evolved Animated, yet left cold Thumbs unopposed to traveling...

Please dumb it down for me I'm tired of playing Pretending I have any clue what I'm doing What's going on? How's it hurting? Hands over...

What it's like to be again No longer a ghost A will, a whispered echo A memory of skin A texture barely rendered Still not focused in A...

Wolfing down Lapping up Hungry maw Open cup O'er flowing Tangle foot Brambles broken Tied in knots Roots below Sky above Crying out...

Migratory stories linger Across memories of a flowered love Not possessed of any human being But a fire like plutonium

Unequivocally I need your touch Your love Your lust Inhale me In burning lungs Soaring eyes Let me be lost Layered up Break my bones...

When I bury my own needs and my own feelings to try to keep the peace I am left feeling like a ghost.

Mealy-mouthed sub-optimal consumer Filled with a black bile tar heart Feathers fringed tinged dark with fear Red and Green with envy All...

Open up Dysfunctional Sacred devils and Fallen angels Wounded beasts Healing heads Rising oceans and Hurricanes

Unmake me In darkness discreet In sacred shadow In secret flames Undone Punctuated breaths Reaching equilibrium Between life and death...

A naked dread Silently built Preternaturally indwelt But seldom understood

Consumed Hazel blooms of arcing thunder Level me in awestruck wonder Bought and paid for by her touch Sinking in and swallowed up...

Bring me a horizon Made of sunsets and of sin And make for me an altar To lay me down again

I have built this place to get to her. Projected her like a shadow on my wall. A memory, a ghast, a shade, a thought. And from the fire...

Press me between pages Open like a book Turn me into fire light With nothing but a look

Bring it down Like fire on my tongue In places deeper Oblivion Vermilion In velvet flames Dancing darkness Invading veins Colors running...

I build my kingdom Out of all of these mistakes I steel my nerves for The coming of day All these reserves for The war that approaches...