The naive garden
is filled with snakes
To slither and nest
—where ignorance waits
(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)
The naive garden
is filled with snakes
To slither and nest
—where ignorance waits
(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)
A therapist skirts the edge of lunacy
like a priest engages sin
An evangelist disavows poverty and fear
like a snake that sheds its skin
Together they paint the corridors black
with a promised light to come
Their patients and converts alone in the dark
salvation zero-sum
(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)
The bridge to Satan
is paved with envy
Voices collapsing
in currents below
Its height entices
the moment fleeting
Perdition waiting
—with gate aglow
(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)
Stating a positive
about a negative
Knowing nothing
—and sure of the fact
(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)
Bars of misfortune
singing dark memories
Nightmares once stillborn
—beguiling again
(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)
The world is not driven by greed
it’s driven by envy …
Commandment 10 is carved in stone
positioned at the end
Where old injunctions miss their mark
a covetous reminder
Desirous of another’s place
—the devil painted green
(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)
“You play words like an instrument”
someone once said
Each vowel as a whole note
to consonants wed
High praise from a seeker
deftly looking for more
New songs in the making
—words singing du jour
(The New Room: March, 2023)
Star crossed love
a rocky shoal
Distant halves
—a different whole
(The New Room: March, 2023)
Do you have a secret
that’s never been told
Deeply within you
like long buried gold
Do you keep your own counsel
for no one to hear
While staying intrepid
admonishing fear
Do you treasure those moments
in spite of the time
As words born an orphan
adopted in rhyme
That one treasured secret
alive roaming free
Transcending the silence
—of what’s yet to be
(The New Room: March, 2023)
The jaws sing
As the drip, drip, drip,
Of the petroleum chorus
Dances across
The inverted aluminum
And the hissing starts
And the hissing stays
Its smell a warning
A final omen
Like the last rose
Of summer
Or the fragrance she wore
For that final goodbye
The teeth tear inward
Like the regret for today
And the regret for yesterday
And the lament for tomorrow
Its promise broken
And your khakis red
And baptized
A stigmata
To self infliction
As the music plays constant
And the rushing you feel
An emptying of sorrow
Onto the crushed ceiling
Of a dream in reverse
Of all life in reverse
Until two arms grab you
And you fall from the sky
And you fall from the sky
Waiting
For the ground
To coronate the outcome
And for one more answer
To a ‘why’ unquestioned
And to love you one more time
But the lights are now dim
And the voices muffled
As an organ can be heard
And store bought flowers smelled
And an old woman cries…
As a young woman cries…
And a stranger pronounces
What you feared the most
They didn’t know you
And couldn’t know you
The exit sign flashing
But there is no door
“There is no door”
—and then the music stops
(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)