Sometimes I forget and the bells are unrung
Prayers unsaid
Hymns unsung
Sometimes I forget and the dirt is unstirred
Sky unrained
Birds unheard
Sometimes I forget and the worms are unfed
Bough unblown
Leaves unshed
Sometimes I forget and your face is unframed
Bed unseen
Stone unnamed
Sometimes I forget and your voice is unstopped
Flowers uncut
Life uncropped
Sometimes I forget and my smile is unfeigned
Nights undark
Days unpained
May 15, 2019
May 15, 2019 at 9:38 AM UTC
Maybe I'm a horseshoe
that's hanging on the wall.
Not the brightest leaf,
just the first one to fall.
I didn't even notice
when my dreams grew so small.
And I can't do it again.
I've lost all the books
I had when I was just a kid.
It's not that I don't care -
it's that I never did.
Maybe I never looked
where my childhood hid.
And I can't do it again.
I fell asleep on Broadway
and I woke up alone.
Anywhere I lay my head,
I always dream of home.
My past is writ on paper
but my heart is carved in stone.
And I can't do it again.
I went to the Moon
but my friends went to the stars.
I built myself a rocket,
but I only got to Mars.
Now I've made some mistakes
and I still bear the scars.
And I can't do it again.
My father told me,
when I was only ten,
"You can be the rose
that grows in Brennan's Glen".
But I became the briar
in a world of better men.
I can't do it again.
May 15, 2019
May 15, 2019 at 9:35 AM UTC
Sleeping in the conifers,
I stumbled on a rose.
Since trodden only yesterday,
Now carefully she grows.
Outstanding, still, the lilies in
The garden she forgoes.
I offered her my hand and knelt
To mend the earth and stone.
But gardener she needed none.
No meal. No collarbone.
And so I sang a quiet song,
And pat back down the loam.
O Spring when you, by skillful hand,
Affirm what I opined,
Awake me in the forest land,
That blushing rose to find.
By day I'll search the cedars and
By night the yews, the pines.
May 15, 2019
May 15, 2019 at 9:31 AM UTC