Salty spray and sailing trips,
Worries of simple things
Come close,
I'll take it all away while I can
Scraped knees and bad dreams
I'll cure any wound and chase the monsters away

As you grow life will change
I'll still be there,
To answer anything.
I'm not perfect,
But I've got strength that never fades,
Something I hope you'll gain.

I'll stay until it's time to sail away
By then I swear you'll be okay,
I'll have shown you how to love,
It’s from my mother and it's purer than any light,
I'll have taught you when to fight to the bitter end,
And when to have wisdom to give in,
I'll show you how to find peace
When all you feel is a storm within.

Little one,
You'll have all I can offer,
Today and tomorrow
You'll have my heart, mind, and this old soul of mine.

On the other side
There the energy keeps in stride
Where eyes light the sky
And the people never die

Gravity is a companion of mine
Weaved in cosmic lines
Calling me it’s beautiful crime
Letting me drift in the icy night

Voices from the other side
Seeking life in this light
Love amidst the battle cries
On the other side we’ll die tonight

Empty ride
My heart sits in the passenger side,
While my soul drives
Passing deserts with the occasional swath of life
My mind navigates while my emotions tune the radio
Sometimes it's just static and there's nowhere to go
I watch them from the backseat,
Like a child with no concept of distance or time.
They speak of an ocean not too far away
A place to bathe, Baptise some would say
I've never seen the water but I've heard the waves
Terrifying in their never ceasing might,
Why we drive to them I don't know
My soul knows why, always telling me it'll be okay
While my heart beats away,
Ageing with each pulse and quiver
My mind is busy calculating, though someone should give it a break
While emotions can't be satisfied,
They know why we need this drive
Peace in the journey, we were never meant to stay
In the rearview mirror I see all the cities we've passed by
We never belonged in them and they let us go without a goodbye.
The water awaits
I know it'll be my final fate
A breath to end all days
Flood waters to fill my chest
This body of mine, it follows
Even to its demise it knows
My soul will lead us home.

I’ve knelt to these blows

Taken my lumps of coal

It’s hardened my bones

Scarred my soul

Now they say it’s time to go

Rise above the smoke

Though my fire burns cold

The mask is gone that hid the old

Wet slime under my feet
Mud in my teeth
On the jungle floor
While you sit in the canopy above
Watching over me
As the stars circulate

I'm lost below
Searching for a path amid the vines
There's too many trees
And I can't take this **** heat
Eyes glow as the only light
Sounds rage above the quiet night

You know I'm lost on this plane
I don't remember the fall
But I recognize the jungle sounds
My body aches and my blood seeps
I crave those lights at night
Peaceful empty skies

But here I am
Roaming the jungle floor
Looking for my place
Though you wait
I don't know how long it'll take
Before I can leave this dark place.

I go where you go.  
I am  in your pores.

I am woven into the  curls
of your red hair.  I push memories
daily through your substantial
mind.

You are host to all the

years of our exile.  I am the
itch you wake to in the
long night.

I will be with you and
when you make love to
your wife I will be beside you.
It will be the secret you can
never tell.

We are the dreams in which
we play when night comes

and the cigarette smoke twins
memory forms, ephemeral
as the love which wraps the past
into the omnipresent

We.


Caroline Shank
12.3.21

Drop the beat
Whistle that final wheeze
Blow the ram's horn
Strike matches on three

Hangman's knot
A fine collar for mortal decor
Ends hanging those ****** cords

Heaven above
Watching as soaring souls are freed
Lifted from mortal coil
At the hangman's drop
Chanting gallows horns
Deep chords of aching hearts

A dead man's walk
A final trudge
Whether sinned or not
Fate has been ordained

If I hang from that noose,
Will you meet me one last time?
Under dark skies
Before my gallow walk?

It's better this time,
Last time they set me alight.
I still smell ash,
The sickly sweet burning flames

Kiss me one last time
Before my drop
I'll carry our love to the final swing.

Don't look when my eyes turn grey
Glazed and faded away
I'll have left,
Freed to the skies
Where I'll roam and breathe free
Waiting for my captors,
So they'll see they could never **** me.