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

take my hand and don’t let go
hold God’s hand with your other
give no attention to what you hear
it is only murmurs of lies
words which are of no substance
the sounds of phantoms
they want to destroy you
to cause unbearable pain
to everyone you love
do not listen
please


do not let go with either hand
so that you cannot take
the hand of Death
when it is offered

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

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

Leaving work I realized I had forgotten something
I turned back for it and headed up the stairs
I met a coworker coming down as I went up
He smiled and said “Hey, you’re going the wrong way”
As we passed on the stairs I said
“You have condensed my life into one sentence”

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

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

no matter the cause
of your tears

whatever the hurt
which bruises your heart

for any terror
that haunts you

it is a grief to me
that you should suffer so

I have a desperate need
to be away from here
but if I cannot be with you
there is nowhere to go

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?

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

                  Lovorsary                                               Lovotomy



                                      Lovamation




                     Lovevic







       Please, someone, help me











                     I can’t stop

Come to me with all that you are
Leaving nothing behind
Make no attempt to conceal a scar
Nor wound of body or mind

Bring all your lifelong memories
Whether fragments or complete
Your daydreams and your reveries
Your tales, your songs, your grief

Let old dwellings be deserted
Pack each and every thought
Allow no baggage to be diverted
Every aspect to be brought

Load up your darkness and your light
Make parcels of all you know
Wrap strength and weakness, wrong and right
Prepare them all to go

Make ready your heart for travel
Include chips and pieces scattered
Edges beginning to unravel
Even dust, from when it shattered

Be sure no detail is forsaken
Have no token to give in lieu
Delivery will be signed and taken
With all the love I bear for you

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

what is the measure of sorrow
is there a standard unit
against which we may rule
an overladen mind
and a heart demolished

graphing with infinite precision
each shattered hope
and marking the dimensions
of dreams ground to dust

are tears numbered
or more properly
and accurately accounted
by volume
or weight

shall we assign a value
on a sliding scale
to the mutilation
of a human soul

can we make comparison
among various torments
or attempt to visualize
in a chart of bright colors
splashed on a screen
the lifelessness of one person
to that of another

is despair loss
or hope denied
might it be joy withheld

does suffering
have weight and volume
that we might
determine its mass

is it instead a void
where something which
was present
has been removed

is it possible to create
an image of wretchedness

a ruined and rotting
playground of lost innocence

a charred and crumbled husk
of a home shattered

an arid uninhabitable waste
of aspirations unbirthed

with what pigment
shall we produce such art
which color wheel
will be used

in what earthly perdition
are the gauges found
reading the depth of misery
or the height of anguish

what is the magnitude
of the grief
the touchstone of devastation
against which all other grief
must be measured

do not hurry

let your shoes rest
one upside down
the other upright

beside the chair
where your toes
pushed them from your feet

your skirt and blouse
draped across the couch
as you dropped them
inattentively

leave them there
a little longer
reaching
one for the other
not quite touching

let your purse lay
undisturbed

fallen on its side
spilling your lipstick
and sunglasses
across the floor

stay

do not take the colors away
from the world
by your absence

not quite yet

please

give me a moment
to inhale you
one more time

close your eyes

and linger

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

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

there is warmth only in shadow
for there alone
do I find you

the glare of sunlight
pushes against us
and we are forced
to part

in the brightness of day
as the world luxuriates
drawing close to the radiance
being brought to life
I am stung by winter’s breath
shivering in the brilliance
of a summer afternoon

only in the darkness
is there life for me

only where the stars do not see
am I completed

only there
do we exist as one

hidden
from all the world
we shun the day

and embrace

mantled
in the welcoming
shroud of night

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

Even when I tried to deny it, you were always there
You are my hidden sunrise on a day filled with clouds

She sits by darkened hearth
No warmth now issues forth
Her tattered clothes look more like rags than a dress
But still she carries on
Even when hope is gone
For a princess is a princess nonetheless

If dancing at the ball
Or scrubbing floor and wall
In scullery or in carriage for a ride
Hanging linen out to dry
Or set on throne most high
None of that can ever change what is inside

For it’s not silken gown
Not scepter, sword, or crown
Nor poise to rule court with great ability
Look closer and you’ll find
A heart that’s good and kind
Are the signs of grace and true nobility

Of palaces she dreams
White horses matched in teams
With jewels agleam and in its place each tress
Though life may be unjust
She is regal in the dust
For a princess is a princess nonetheless

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

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

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

nothing hurts me
like your pain

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

wind shuffles
through the long grass

seeded heads
drowsy
in the percolating afternoon

broiled air
heavy and lethargic
laboriously ascends
its unseen ladder
into the barren sky

Arcady sings
from a place
of unimaginable height

the song
is a whisper
at the precipice

I am the wing
that awaits your breath
to take flight

among the lean and
narrow hours
when the brutal minutes
aggrieve
like the protruding ribs
of an emaciated animal

abandoned things shuffle
into dark unkempt little rooms
littered
with the manifested debris
of a life

unspoken thoughts
in rusted cans
stacked heedlessly
on overused shelving
bowing perilously under the weight

mangled hopes
kicked into the corners
stuck to the floor
foul and fetid
vitiated with wasted time

black mold
leaking from dilapidated hearts
creating pointillism art
across the sagging plaster
overhead

consuming an ersatz
Sistine Chapel ceiling

saints and angels
prophets and devils
sepia toned
in their water stain media
disappearing
into corruptions artistic virtuosity

only God remains visible
reaching out
to give life

if any are left
to receive it