The narrow hall of mourning

pathway to my grief

Darkened by each memory lost

—there in stark relief

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

She is gone…

swiftly, silently,

like the fading light

 

Settling into

my memory

like a thousand yesterdays

 

Taking what I

would never give,

leaving only heartache

 

Crossing love’s

forbidden line

—never to return

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Conscience makes

the liars weep

The feeble strong

the dreamers sleep

 

It calls beyond

the thickest door

Forever’s shadow

—fate du jour

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Life,

but thread and thimble

—struggling with the hem

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

I wonder what

you’re doing tonight

Whose poking and prodding

my blue-eyed delight

Are you lonely and scared

of what nature has bidden

Are you angry and tired

of feeling downtrodden

Are you chasing the ghosts

of dreams thought forgotten

While praying for sleep

with the music forgiving

Are you looking inside

for answers forthcoming

Knowing only that you

hear the differences drumming

 

I wonder who

you are forever becoming

That boy in the woods

whose motor’s still running

The one at the shore

whose Sea Doo is flying

That man on the bike

where the mountains are calling

I think you will find

they’re protected inside

Sleeping together

awaiting your cry

And when you reach out

to embrace them again

Your world will be whole

—today to befriend

 

(The New Room: May, 2022)

 

In a bullpen of violence

—throw the first pitch

 

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Boredom,

the greatest vintner of pain

Aged in confusion

served with disdain

 

Moments gone fallow

dreams unfulfilled

Fatal perfusion

—doldrums distilled

 

(The New Room: May, 2022)

At nineteen

I wanted to live in Colorado

Till that first weekend I spent

in Cheyenne

 

At twenty-five

I wanted to live in Montana

Leaving Yellowstone

as Glacier took my hand

 

At thirty

I wanted to live in Alaska

Within Denali

where the Kodiaks roam

 

But as the years have progressed

I discovered

All I ever wanted to be

—was home

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)

Waiting for life to come to me,

the clock ticked down to one

 

With barely but a second left,

my tendency to run

 

With nothing left but one last tick,

all motion seemed to stop

 

Perspective changed, then rearranged,

a lifetime on the spot

 

My eyes won’t blink, the fear too great,

of staying closed for good

 

As from a distant galaxy,

I finally understood

 

All life had boiled down to this,

eternity defined

 

When everything that ever was,

together crossed my mind

 

I left the past and future mired,

to breed and then deceive

 

And took this present life unbound

—unto my soul reprieved

 

(The New Room: May, 2022)

A proprietary hold on God,

religion does proclaim

 

Defining what we know inside

our souls will they reclaim

 

The Cross or Torah, Buddhist lore

each ritual decries

 

What can’t be owned or scripted pure

through centuries of lies

 

Divinity a birthright deigned

for those who search to find

 

What God embeds in every soul

—that structure can’t define

 

(The New Room: May, 2022)