I could see right thru the fortress' walls,
I knew what they enclaved
Beaten by an ocean full
of canary-yellow waves
They glistened like the stars reflected
from a moon-lit sky
Scattered like a million diamonds,
it's beauty; mesmerized  
Tho seaweed dark as forest green
did fill the ocean floor
Both translucent, & befuddling  
I could only wish to explore
For I have never seen a castle
rest in a sea of grime  
& with its image now engraved
Forever in my mind!  
& tho it's walls we're callous; thick
I thought it could still work
If only I had persisted  
(Instead, I went berserk...)
But is love not an incendiary?
For those who've gone insane?
& so it's best to resist the urge--
Your heart you must contain!

Oh you tune of happiness and wealth
you make me sing and yell for help
For at this hour I must sleep
But you give too much good a beat.

I want to hear, to understand
The long and rhyming sounds;
But I must leave
And I must sleep
And I must stay away..

You give me hope you give me guilt
I crave the love
You keep well lit
But I know now without your words
I still will be alright

And as I leave and as I sleep
I lose those rhyming sounds

Long, handwritten letters that you wrote with an old dip pen, that is what I like.
Not lines scribbled on the computer screen, where I can’t see your soul or feel your essence.
A single daisy that you picked from a garden, because it made you think of me, that is what I like.
Not a huge bouquet of neatly wrapped flowers, too colorful and smelling of lost identity.
The simple thrill of our hands intertwined as we watch the waves crash on the shore, that is what I like.
Not a dinner at an expensive restaurant where we both feel out of place and can’t talk with our hearts or feel with our souls.
The sound of your voice saying my name, filled to the brim with love, that is what I like.
Not a ticket to a concert of some band, where I won’t be able to hear your words, drowned out by the sound of a thousand beating hearts.
The innocent smile on your face as you see me, or hear my voice, that is what I like.
Not a movie, where we will be too involved with the plot to spare time to care about us.
So, I beg you, keep those grand gestures for someone who thinks they’re all that matters.
And to me, and this is all I ask, to me, please give the little things that construct the fabric of life.

A thousand kisses touch my lips and flit away
Melancholic butterflies seeking nectar from other empty flowers
Delectable ambrosia? Perhaps —
But leaving the tongue fleetingly
Donating only bitter aftertaste.
No recollection comes to mind with ease
— I think I left cold beds with unturned sheets —
Most satisfied to bear the preface “tease.”
Mechanics are too easy to repeat:
I could write a manual; pen all the intricacies of
falsified intimacy.
Flirtation and coy downward gazes
— Pegs in a game I’ve mastered —
Then when confessions come of great desire
I bite my tongue so as not to repeat “I know.”
I use the piles of hearts to step upon my pedestal
Watching with disinterest as the numbers rise.
My captives swear so many hollow oaths
— and all I’ve heard before —
Uninformed adoration turns to white noise.

- June 07 2014.

Everyone loves the poems that hurt me the most. It's little wonder that the greatest writers, the ones whose works we lovingly praise, were merely lost, broken fools.

At this particular time I have no one
Particular person to grieve for, though there must
Be many, many unknown ones going to dust
Slowly, not remembered for what they have done
Or left undone. For these, then, I will grieve
Being impartial, unable to deceive.

How they lived, or died, is quite unknown,
And, by that fact gives my grief purity--
An important person quite apart from me
Or one obscure who drifted down alone.
Both or all I remember, have a place.
For these I never encountered face to face.

Sentiment will creep in. I cast it out
Wishing to give these classical repose,
No epitaph, no poppy and no rose
From me, and certainly no wish to learn about
The way they lived or died. In earth or fire
They are gone. Simply because they were human, I admire.