what were the means by which
they came to wear a uniform
it is meaningless now

what was the color of their skin
in what manner did they speak
what was their music
what place was home

all that made them who they were
overshadowed now
by why they are gathered

wearing that uniform
standing in ranks
standing for their fellow
warrior beside them

giving to the final breath
for the most precious
gifts they themselves
had been given

family
whether family was
10,000 miles away
or next to them in a hole
in the dirt
so close each could feel
the others pounding heart

they are in ranks still

at Arlington
at Leavenworth
at Miramar
at Normandy
at Belleau
at Manila
at hundreds more
and unseen graves in
jungles and mountains
all around the world

ranks that will stand till
the earth itself changes

in each shattered fragment
of time
we are forced apart

there is nothing of me
that does not cry out
for everything of you

Place all my memories in a row
From old to fresh and new
There is one certain thing I know
From first to last they’ll be of you

From newborn cry to fading light
Each reflection which breaks through
Burns in mind's eye with image bright
And remembrance of you

To search the halls of Mnemosyne
To seek what there is true
From moonlit night to sun washed day
Each thought I find will be of you

Should I on life’s love reminisce
And choose each echo to pursue
All of my muse would come to this
My one pure dream has been of you

Tango on a tightrope
Argentine Cross vibrating the line
like the strings of a Latin guitar
playing our song
only a spider’s web for a net
if we fall

Waltz on a wall top thirty stories high
our story tops them all
traffic below doesn’t even see
top hat and tails, silk gown
cocktails in our hands
Fred and Ginger sit it out to watch

Rumba on a rope bridge
hips sway in time
with the windblown span
gliding past missing boards
waterfall below shouts up to us
can’t make out what it says

Paso Doble on a plane
faux bullfight on a wing
Matador and his scarlet cape
pose and sweep
turbulence tilts the dance floor
ten thousand feet to the ground

Quickstep in the quicksand
feet so light in rapid step
no time to sink
flow across the surface
to syncopated beats
shoes left stuck to the floor

steps we mastered long ago

now we glissade and sweep
only to the rhythm of us
most challenging of all dances
and most natural of movements
always in step
dancing on the edge of our hearts

how many tears must be shed
to baptize our parting

do I not cling
tightly enough
while the clock
ticks away life

are the marks left
on your skin
when I cannot release you
gone too soon

must the bruises
in our flesh
be as deep
as those in our hearts

shall I shatter my bones
and yours
in our last embrace

tear at our bodies
till we bleed out

give to the torch
the remains

so the ruin
of our outer selves
will reflect
that which lies hidden
within

words hanging out together
down at the corner

doing nothing
saying nothing

getting in the way
begging for attention

some spend so much time together
they start to rhyme

some just lay there
bad poetry is everywhere

glad I don’t write bad poetry
uh oh ….

the vivisectionist comes to call
when I am separated from you
his palsied incautious hands
removing the hours from my body

one

at

a

time

dragging his dull rusted scalpel
across my psyche
in his leaden deliberate pace
whistling
tunelessly
monotonously
in my ear
he will have no truck
with anesthetic

I am bathed
in the sanguine gore
of his butchery
which others mistake
for sadness

your tenebrous image enraptures me
future’s heat brands me with you
your silhouette fills my vision
but all your features are hidden

calling to me in a voice I know
but have not yet heard
a shout made a whisper
you are so many years away

always I have known you
sensed you by your absence

I chafe and fret, anxious and
expectant of your arrival
believing it imminent

eagerly I shut my eyes to
what little I know of you
trusting as only callow
youth allows that no
more is needed
than my open arms

I see you everywhere
impetuously I give my heart
only to find no synchrony
even the lineation was wrong
each time it is not you
you are still
far from me

yet I am wrenched forward
I lurch undiscerning, heedless
pressed forever into rashness
by all consuming urgency for you

endless, fruitless searching
confusion and despair
my constant companions
lost in a torrent of nothing

like one freezing
in lingering polar night
to stop is to die, helpless
I stumble towards providence

the breeze tastes of strawberries
and the sun
swaying towards the horizon
in the deepening sky
pleasures my metronome thoughts
like her hips
as the music catches her

rolling and tumbling
when the rhythm in the salted air
matches the one she finds
pulsing
in the place she goes
on moonful nights

where crescent beaches linger
singing in her hands
with mother of pearl choirs
strung around her shoulders

in the ashen light
waves roll in
cresting on her
powdered sugar *******

and coral reef lips
leave their mark
crimson stains
on a leeward palm tree

having run aground
under a sky spread map
of misaligned stars
I search for grace
in the shadow of her eye

I am formed to be yours
at the threshold of inception
we were molded together
bisected, to find rejoining

your every curve locks to me
as water flows to find its depth

my eyes are shaped
to see your face
my gaze is drawn to you
as the moon draws the tide

my lips are patterned
for your inimitable kiss
I can taste only you

my heart opens for your love alone

I am a bell tuned to a singular tone
reverberating with your voice
I resonate with the sound of your name

the key of your words
unlocks my undiscerning ears
that I may hear you
whisper to me of love

your scent perfumes my life
echoes of you in each fragrance

my fabric and yours interlaced
without seam or stitch
we fully encompass each
the other encircling

don’t make me write another poem
with fancy words cause I don't know ‘em

I’ll write a book or short article
make science notes about a particle

a brief speech or an opinion piece
type a travel blog of sunny Greece

I’d gladly pen a romance novel
if poetry’s asked I’d sooner grovel

I’ve lost the power of rhyme you see
as fork and spoon sound the same to me

but now I see what I have written
it reads like Edward Bulwer-Lytton

I’m stuck in couplets what a curse
but what the hell it could be verse

Lovamatious………...Lovatory………………...Loverillic…………………………

                  Lovorsary                                               Lovotomy



                                      Lovamation




                     Lovevic







       Please, someone, help me











                     I can’t stop

Oh my Love
Let us Lovingly Love
Our Lovely Love

And with our Lovingness
Our Lovicity will
Love the Love of Lovers

Love only Love
And the Love of Love
Loveraciously

With Loving Loveliness
And Lovitude Lovability Lovishness Lovaroni Loviquity

          Lovectomy

                  Lovelishment

                            Love……….

                                     Love……………...

                                             Love…………………………..

Where was I?

they said she was a dreamer
no clouds to veil her thoughts
a fantasy believer
her mind a maze of knots

she loved to live in make believe
talking to her porcelain kitty
thrilling stories she could weave
a pint-sized Walter Mitty

dreams can change as we grow
so it was for her
imagined prince became a beau
Oz became Big Sur

childhood fancies may pass away
with little pain or strife
but adult hopes, should they betray
can leave a wound for life

so many ways that dreams can die
some peaceful and humane
some burn out, or with a sigh
others outright slain

dreams can turn to nightmares
some live past their death
haunting those who called them theirs
once precious as each breath

but dreams can holy grace receive
and dreams can live again
hearts can heal, no longer grieve
and faith not be in vain

dreams can live on love alone
dreams shared grow stronger still
a dream fulfilled can be a home
or a castle on a hill

grasp the dark and take the night
ride the moon till morning light
set the banshees free in flight
and cover all the world with fright

seize the vale below the hill
bend the shadows to your will
bring the ghouls hot blood to spill
mist and fog the heart may chill

chant the spells to call the dead
howling beasts which must be fed
tooth and claw the streets run red
souls are shaken filled with dread

creatures prowl eyes gleam bright
victims scream at horrors sight
of devils heartless to their plight
till sunrise comes to bring respite

we are spontaneous
COMBUSTION
set me alight
your soul fuels my flame
boil, deep fry, and barbeque
char me bone deep
in flagrante corpus
we immolate together
conflagration
deflagration
don’t fear cremation
ashes will rise again
burn me to the ground

always leave room for me
in the margarines of your life

rigor eros braids our fingers together
sealing our hands, palm crushed to palm
inhaling your breath as you exhale mine
ravenous eyes devour all before them
rhapsody reverberates from hearts and walls

never ending thirst drives us always on
draining the sweet, deep red cup of libido
with fever induced voluptuous draughts
driven beyond the delirium of voracity
we ricochet off boundaries of carnality

lungs heated to ignition by bodies racing
to keep pace with limitless appetence
minds consumed by hearts desire
insensate to wounded and broken flesh
love’s voice shouts in deafening collision

time coils around consummation’s aura seeking us
we are hidden between a kiss and apogee
unchained from the somatic world
locked together in amaranthine embrace
ecstasy overwhelms mortality

aboard the aircraft metaphorical
bearing those employed
by companies large and small

a moment arrives when the cryptic
overhead lights instruct
that the time to leave has come

passengers are led to the open door
at the rear of the fuselage
where they will leap into the mist

the happy few will be strapped
into a designer backpack
filled with a carefully packaged parachute
of luminous gold

others are handed
a sturdy bundle which holds a
lifesaving paraglider of shining silver

a group somewhat more numerous
gratefully accept their sustaining dome
of spun silk and exit with confidence

the greatest number will be in a line
leading past a toilet paper dispenser
each individual to be ejected will be allotted
a single sheet

the one ply tissue will be printed as follows
“Grasp tissue firmly on opposite sides
hold tissue above head parallel with ground”

a hearty cry of “Good luck!” follows them
as they are assisted through the door
by a well placed boot

On Hallow’s Eve I bent my knee
Asked her to be my bride
I hoped her heart beat just for me
That love would be her guide

She said “It’s true I love you,
But there is something you must know
Of quirks and twists I have a few
Though you may learn them to your woe”

“I’m really not like other girls
Now get this in your head
Though I seem all bows and curls
I really am quite dead”

“You’ve asked me for my hand, and see
I can give it without harm”
And quick as counting one two three
She ripped it from her arm

“So now you know the truth” she sighed
“As grim as can be said
Why none would want a girl who died
Let alone one who’s undead”

She was bewitching in the full moon’s light
Standing there hand in hand
I was filled with love and not with fright
And knew I must take a stand

I cried “Our marriage plan we can fulfill
I believe in body positivity
Whether alive or dead it’s a body still
Regardless of morbidity”

We made our plans all through the night
Our thoughts like blood did flow
By dawn we knew it would be alright
I just must learn to sew

I held her close with all my might
Vowed to leave her nevermore
She asked ‘Please dear, don’t squeeze so tight”
As her left eye hit the floor

We celebrate our love each Hallow’s Eve
With ghosts and ghouls and witches
I love her laugh which you may believe
As I keep her all in stitches

I am adrift in shadow when parted from you

existing in a non-life and a non-death
caught between dominions of light and dark

my soul, disincarnate, hangs suspended
impaled upon the sundering hook of an obscene
numinous dismembering of the essence that is Us

twisting and battered in an enervating wind which
moans and wails like the wretched, suffering ******
filling a haunted and dissonant land with anguish
at the midpoint between rivened you and I

all aspects of me are halved, dissipated
I must survive with half a feebly beating heart
inhale for but one struggling lung, choked with ash
seeing only half the sky, half the world

My scattered thoughts incomplete and disordered
I drag myself, mauled and maimed, towards
the next transcendent moment of palpability in Us

Khronos, laughing, mocks all my efforts
drags the hours just beyond my numb fingers

I can only touch you if I reach inside of me

I no longer measure time in minutes, hours, days
I now measure by with you or not with you

She cannot see her beauty
It’s hidden by the lies
She cannot see her luminous skin
Or the starlight in her eyes

Her incandescent smile she cannot discern
Nor glimpse heaven with autumn hair
She finds no bloom in her rose kissed lips
The mirrors scorn she cannot bear

She loathes her form, her gaze only shows
Repellent, gross, uncouth
But the Maker’s hand has glorious woman shaped
If she could only see the truth

Her splendor revealed is radiance unbound
Making others seem weak and pale
And though Elysium descried, she sightless remains
Concealed by a hideous veil

I’ll wage my war against hell’s deceit
That her vision could be set free
And one day her eyes would be opened
To the beauty she cannot see

It is not being without you, which I can never be
It is being apart from you, that always empties me

gaze at me and slight the moon
and all the stars in her company
then to your melody shall I attune
my love for you a symphony

come with me on silvered way
weave moonflowers in your hair
then to the bower we will stray
and long I’ll kiss you there

sit with me at basin’s bound
fount in your light agleam
with falling stars you are crowned
and in beauty reign supreme

give your love to me alone
though all may seek your favor
when they depart false lovers flown
Cupid’s grove we then will savor

cast your cares in fire’s heart
and dance with me till dawn
I’ll be your artist and you my art
our love goes ever on

when we are young we practice love
though we know not a whit thereof

each pang we suffer our heart askew
must be certain sign of love most true

each time our heart is cut and bruised
is a lesson taught of love misused

a stern instructor of teenage years
life keeps teaching through our tears

but pain and sorrow are love’s only school
we must attend if we would learn this rule

it’s not love itself which does us wrong
but the lying tongue and deceiving song

no love gone bad is not to blame
it’s a selfish heart to which love’s a game

there are too many Ifs in the world
If only I had made another choice
If I had thought that through
If they had stayed
If I looked different
If I could stop doing that
If and If and If and If

they fill my house
and my car
and where I work

I smell of Ifs
like the odor of cigarettes
on a life long chain smoker
the aroma of If emanates
from the cells of my body

we drown in Ifs

is If another way to ask why
without phrasing it
as a question

or is it an answer
to a question not asked
except in our
inmost places

what is the span
between one kiss and another
is it marked with clocks
or calendars

perhaps calculated
with breaths or
heartbeats

in that indefinite or infinite
time love may die
or be discovered

ending a kiss and
beginning another may be
indistinguishable
some kisses never end

a lifetime may pass
between one kiss and the next

a kiss may come in a dream
burning desire turns to
bitter taste of loss
as wakefulness brings solitude

too long
since I have kissed you

all heart and soul and love I gave
my life was yours a willing slave
eternal bond past death I crave
now call me forth from lonely grave

reunion lies in shrouded mist
memory held when last we kissed
for only thoughts of you persist
and pull me on to fearful tryst

I seek your hand in darkened hall
the walls twixt life and death now fall
your ballroom gown stitched from my pall
let music of beyond enthrall

dance with me when the moon is full
in dark of night dance with my soul
with shadow’s deep embrace console
stitch me closed and make me whole

I sought to pierce the astral screen
discover things which lay unseen

existence layers to strip and peel
all cosmic secrets to reveal

with book and spell I tore the veil
beheld all things beyond the pale

creatures that rule the land of Leng
ghoul’s midnight feast, the yellow king

fungi that steal and eat men’s minds
horrors made gods that sit enshrined

the gates of mortal souls open wide
to blasphemous things that crawl inside

I descry the future’s dark corridor
where the stars are an endless sepulcher

and now I know my folly’s curse
my reason slips, my thoughts perverse

I must escape and look away
lest in this charnel house I stay

but I cannot stop through act of will
my vision seeks, strains further still

the last recourse causes gorge to rise
I must be free from these hell born eyes

the knife clutched in my shaking hand
I gouge and stab my sight be ******

and for a moment I am free
but then I am brought to my knees

o’ gods of pain and fear abhorred
my sight but clearer than before

all vision now within my mind
I would bless who could make me blind

with eyes which cannot close or hide
forever gazing and open wide

nor even death will seal them shut
on these horrors my soul must glut

my body fades I cannot die
and eternally through madness fly