Category: Uncategorized

That Place I Wander

My level of concern

  goes only so deep

 

I care only to there

  in meters or feet

 

Beyond that depth

  lies a hidden zone

 

Where beneath the caring

  what’s really known

 

In my efforts to hide

  from the surface again

 

My words shelter there

  immune from the pain

 

Below its demeanor

  I now call out to you

 

From that place that I wander

  —and keep out of view

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

 

 

One Last Memory

I thought that I had said it all

  but then—my world was changing

 

I thought that I had seen it all

  until the moment rearranged me

 

With the hourglass empty and clock run down

   leaves fall with the promise of snow

 

As I’m left to write a final verse

    inspiration still unknown 

 

I thought I’d always have in store

   one last memory for my pen

 

But the truth has spoken, my cupboard’s bare,

   and I’m left here alone—unread

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

 

 

Redemption Near

Did you waste your life

  just making money

 

Did you eat the bread

  and not the honey

 

Did you sell your soul

  as your children watched

 

Was your heart left cold

  in a tinderbox

 

Were your excuses rich

  and your reasons poor

 

Did you wake up full

  and still ask for more

 

Were your blessings shunned,

  as you scratched and clawed

 

Saying: “No harm done,

  I never broke the law”

 

Were your teeth all straightened

  and your motives bent

 

Were your eyes detached

  from what heaven sent

 

Were your memories lost

  in some dead refrain

 

As a lonely footnote

  to another’s name

 

If you had one chance

  to re-right these wrongs

 

Would you hide in silence

  or break out in song

 

With your soul imprisoned,

  the choice is clear

 

All joy awaits

  —redemption near

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

 

 

The Music Stops

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)