Once you had arms

that held me so tight

Once you had legs

that stood up for right

Once you had eyes

that could see in the dark

Once your strong hands

plotted courses to chart

Once we would walk

and the birds would proclaim

Once we would sing

and the heavens refrained

Once we thought time

was our servant and slave

Once, before war

we forgot and forgave

Now that you’re gone,

my memory’s gone dark

Now that you’re gone,

paths unwalked in the park

Now that you’re gone,

surname given and fast

Now that you’re gone

—my heart beats in the past

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Dying alone on foreign ground,
death grips his blessed hand

Never choosing time or place,
uncharted
—the Angels plan

An oak to fall on alien soil,
all seeds to heaven thrown

His words cast free to light the dark,
that ‘Good Night’
—now his own

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)

I swallowed hard the feelings scorned,

to finish off my plate

But filled I was in sated form

a glutton postulate

I bit off more than I could chew,

with meat still on the bone

My stomach full of fiery barbs

—leftovers unatoned

(Villanova University: January, 2020)

Religion in practice…

arms length from God

Close enough to see,

never to touch

Single lens focus,

vision for sale

Dogma as deity

—conscription at birth

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

To hide yourself in public,

and turn your back on fame

Choosing thence to be alone

—the fire without the flame

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

Eternally poetic,

terminally bound

Musing uncourted

—death for a crown

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

In Newtonian Mechanics,

the future is the past

What lags behind, what sits ahead,

the Jester only laughs

A one for one relation,

its truth in bas-relief

The numbers hail, the numbers fail

—empirical deceit

(Villanova University: January, 2020)

A gold mine under a closed saloon,

empty bottle on the bar

While we wait and while we hope,

old memories travel far

Its sidewalks float with the summer rain,

nuggets rising through the sand

What was once will be again

—each grain of time at hand

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Particles in the void,

memories in the stream

Lovers in the mist

—time caught inbetween

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

Science lays the trap,

enlightenment the bait

Tempting with its lies

—eternity a date

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)