Blown up into black on white
So calm against the darkness
Daylight gone and the curtain down
Lights off for the rest of life
Haunted house and nameless thought
Blackened mind and foul deeds done
On the floor and locked indoors
Last rites with the lonely wife

With nothing on and standing stark
So bold against the emptiness
In nature’s state and body white
Leave the bone and bleach the flesh
Underneath she’s black
Once the bride to be
Now an exquisite corpse

No more Polyfilla face
Behold the plain and naked
Made up in poor taste
Death mask and masquerade
Poor state of nature
Tarted up and raw

Fight the flaccid face
Tighten up the lines
Stretchmarks are stripes
Jowls hang and flap façade in crisis
Out flicks the knife
Smile for life with one slash

Round up the rings
Count up the crags
Callous with age
Horns on the hands
Petrified hags hard and rock like

Gnarled old bark
Woman tree wither
Roots left in ruins
Ends split and hairdo dead
All through and done for
Overblown and glory gone

Hothouse has no bed
Bare glass and empty bar
Haunted room for two
Old and lonely ghost
Vital flowers dead
Wilted heart and rose
The color of dry blood

Lonely light bulb naked
Just hanging by a hair
Put the shadows on the shade
Wallflowers standing bare
And whitewash on the face
Hardhat with a headlamp
Bright and diamond eye
Flick the instant switch

Never go out at night
Don’t live to see the stars
Seated at the dark bar
We’re locked indoors for life
Those who come to visit
Stay lonely forever

pain is a permanent marker
unremovable like coffee stains on carpet
undoable like stomach knots
unalterable like bad surgery
unwanted tattoos tell the truth

reminder of pain imprints in flesh
indelible ink writing on private parts
ingrained in memory like ***** rings around a tub
surgery scars reveal new skin

entrenched in the brain
pushed to the back of the mind
pain recorded, hidden, collated, undeleted
recycled every 14 days
triggered by foul smell, bad tastes and bitter tea

badly drawn with a pen
pain is a permanent marker
forever and binding

Mary made the monster walk
Taught the thing to talk back
Grew up wild and ran amok
Came back home to stalk her

Brainchild was no ****** birth
No mother on earth wanted Mary
Plays the father figure
Hate begets ogre

Antichrist or a gift of god
No justice by law of Sod
Nature made a botch job
When Mary met the monster

Red letter just penned
Ink dried up and dead
Like old friend and flower
Gone and no one to send to

Firebomb the dead letter
Say your goodbyes
Packed into a suitcase
Baggage on the last bus

Many years under the eyes
Bloodshot nights stay awake
Looks black in the sad bed
Rain sodden and head beaten hollow
Out in all weathers to be tarred and truly feathered

Lost rats in a maze chase tail
Masters deliver dead letters in the mail
No one to return no senders name
Let the post bags burn
Charred remains of dead letters in the urn

No one took the blame for the bomb
Unsigned and  nameless
Blew up the faithless
Your love is a dead letter

Balloons float across the firmament
Colored kites look like sky writing
Jet planes breathe vapor trails blue horizon
Thin wispy cirrus painted on an Azure sky
Morning sun smiling down
What a lovely day I thought
As I lay in the field
Beside bales of hay
While having a heart attack