The past is but a distant flame,

with reasons there disowned

 

Where fire burns in effigy,

to singe that falsely known

 

The ages but a candle dim,

its wick burned to the quick

 

As torches rage from deep within

—all time a kindling stick

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

At the far end of the casket,

his girlfriend hugged his wife

 

And told her she was sorry,

that she had tried to steal her life

 

Their tears then ran in unison,

for a man who loved them both

 

The years they shared now testament,

to a choice he left unspoke

 

They never met before this day,

and would never meet again

 

But each knew well the other,

and they almost felt like friends

 

The mistress left, the children wept,

and the grandchildren played outside

 

As his wife looked down, saying: “Your hell has passed,

sleep well my love—goodbye”

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

Beyond comparison,

they rise when we fall

 

Uniquely divergent,

to impale and enthrall

 

No reference or genre,

descriptions confound

 

 Bowie and Jagger

—alone in the crowd

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

Hanging like a scapular,

your memory haunts my dreams

 

You clothe my thoughts in joyous warmth,

my lonely voice to scream…

 

“I live inside your shadowed love,

afraid new suns will shine

 

“The darkness my heart yearns to keep,

 all new light—minus thine”

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

I put a saddle on the wind,

and rode it through the storm

 

The bridle placed, the buckled cinch,

the reins, my horse reborn

 

Inside each stirrup passion spurs,

the present now in hand

 

Behind whose mane I charge within

—in search of who I am

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Clothing the world

in hate and destruction

 

Shame is the loom

 that weaves damnation

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

The bike broke down,

my money gone,

Beale Street calling

—Memphis in my dreams

 

The diner’s empty,

last quarter found,

the jukebox playing

—Memphis in my dreams

 

The waitress smiles,

she’s off at six,

her place a walk

—Memphis in my dreams

 

The kindness of strangers,

a baby cries,

the sun’s come up

—Memphis in my dreams

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

 

 

The Sage cried out these final words
as he rose from where he sat…

“There’s nothing beyond everything
—and everything beyond that”

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

“All you can be is all you can be,”

damning with faint praise

 

A lover, not a girl to wed

—left hand falsely raised

 

(Dreamsleep: March, 2020)

“Blood is thicker than water,

what we had thicker than blood”

 

All wounds long healed by memory’s salve,

divined from up above

 

Our bonding copper wire,

wrapped round a thousand times

 

Till fortune gets down on both knees,

and bows—our soul’s conjoined

 

                   

     (Listening To Bob Weir: March, 2020)