String me up till my skin is taut
Move my limbs like paper things
A charade in a child's parade
The Library's afternoon puppet show
All the children are welcome to play
Bodies bigger than they used to be
Paying bills and buying groceries
Mechanical workings guide my days
Strings pulling sinews every week
But I never forget
This is puppet theatre
And I'm in a play
My child moves me
In the streets and in the bureaucracy
Taking joy in her puppet
That's all grown up
She still sees this as play
And she is not wrong
Sticks and strings with frilly things
Adults are puppets
The child guides as is only right
Do not deny yourself the pleasure
Of the child inside
Children remember what we lost in the Library's mytic shelves and keeps
And remind us every time we forget we're in a play on theatre day.

I turned to see their distant faces,
My heart wanted to call out to them.
In my soul, family is all
But this is not home
And this blood is not mine to behold.
I long to hear them and belong with those supposed to be home
But they are not,
My soul reminds me every time.
My blood I know is home
But today, in this life
The ones of this flesh are not home,
Though I love them dearly
I know this red that flows
Only runs here.
Some day I'll go home
My blood will call to me,
And my aching soul will answer,
"At last I'm home."

Cast upon the wall
In plaster and stone
Beauty written in sage's scrolls
Sirens calling out in a distant drone
Fools in love
Wise learned long ago
It is worth the tears to hear the heart's song.

Rivers run
Winding through willow groves
Casting light on the setting sun
Tears of dying light
Settle on horizon's night
Oceans come
As comets run
Tails of bliss to kiss the sun
Of glory's day
How simple it has become
Go down where the river runs
Bathe yourself in tears of those gone
Bits of light grace your eyes
A cycle of time
Through you it all comes to life.

Why do they hurt?
A morning of overwhelming ache
Of the day ahead
Cleansed with a shower
But the voices never fade
Afternoons bright with light
I've always hated mid-day
The evening brings some peace
But the fear of night lurks
Relax enough as eyes grow dim
Sleep permits some fitful peace
Dreams and nightmares await
The best go far the worst further
3 am wakes with a sweaty start
A song or a voice of another brings relief
The next few hours are a coin flip of sanity
By dawn the battle has wore me weak
From restless sleep
The twilight mists disappear
And the cycle begins again
There must be sweet release.

When the years have passed
After they have torn me apart
When I look down
And see my bloodied feet
I'll sit down and sleep
My wandering days no more
Or so I hope
Home is waiting
And I've been longing
For a place to rest my weary soul.

Vapors of breath coalesced as dew
Crisp pain sears the chest
Cold breath in the night
How I wish for some warmth tonight
A weight pressing down
Is this my dying sound?
Breath escaping in silence now
The burden of these days and nights
Proof of growth or pain, I don't know
Sensitivity blind
I am afraid and it's been heavy as of late
I look up at night
So the stars will blind
The cold inside

My lungs bent the air
Making my breath come and go
The blood in my veins runs like water
My heart bent it through my body
My bones stand like stone
They bend my knees to the ground
The fires of my mind burn bright
In imagination I've made the sky.

I was given my name
At the beginning of this charade
One for the dead
Another for a babe
The last is rarely said
But I'll answer to it all the same
Though it doesn't always make sense
It's my passage on this ship.

I wonder if the breeze moved slow
Would I know?
If the breath were stuck in my throat
Would I see my life flash before my eyes?
If you were to shout my name,
Would I hear your call?
If I died,
Would I know I wondered all these things?

Do you despise
What is wise
Empty your mind
Of thoughts of every kind
Blues and greens
In a ring serene
Eyes of crystalline
Gazing at the signs
Ask what you already know
To confirm what's inside
Speak of divine
The oracle peers one last time

Speak to me my love
In dreams and memories
Always in my breath no matter the divide
A grace on my lips
In summer's daze and winter's grip
A field of grass reaching to my knees
And waves of the seas rocking me
A feeling so serene
I'll remember the timeless melody
Through time and sleeves
Speak to me my love
For yesterday and tomorrow
I'll see you when I've run this journey complete.

The clock ticked back one
Backwards and complete

Water tips just above the glass
As spinning records skip
Cracks among the walls
Light is coming through
So are voices speaking strangely too
Radio set till electricity knocks it dead
You've seen this dance
Felt the sway and movement in your hips
Have you lived,
Until you've experienced the skip?
A distant call reminding you this isn't it
A calling card,
You're mind stretches beyond this.

My mind fizzled today
Hasn't been at it's best for many days
Thought I'd write and found myself rambling
Until I read the last line did I see there was a method to the disease,
I thought myself empty until I saw my face complete with neither love nor hate in my company.

Fear is love that's turned sour
It tries to poison your mind
That's okay
We all lose to it some days
Which fear creeps within?
The virus,
The economy,
Insanity?
Or perhaps all three.
It'll be alright
Fear just blows smoke in our eyes
Makes us forget we're the scary things at night
No one owns your life
Even if they behave otherwise.
If you break,
You'll get up just fine
You aren't alone even if it feels that way sometimes.
It'll be alright
Nothing lasts
Not the good or the bad
Only you
Making the best of both either way.
So write your words, speak your peace
Someone ought to hear it
They probably needed it today
So they know it'll be okay.

Walking on air tonight
Steps mere breaths of mine
Lights of all colors reaching out
Playing life like a dance
Come dawn this will pass
This gentle rise of floating mass
Will plummet back
To winter's sun and cradles dust
Slipping on skin, like a glove it fits
Muscles twitch as sleep lifts
Wake for another day
To work and play
Looking to sky and clouds drifting by
Remembering lights from far away
My soul wore a body today
But tonight it will not stay.

He walked in
Dressed to blend in
It was late, hardly anyone cared

She sat on the curb
Waiting for midnight to ring in
The days were getting too long

He sat down and ordered, coffee hot
A dingy cafe
With fluorescent lights flickering

She pulled her coat tight
The wind was cold tonight
Tomorrow she would take a bus

He didn't know where he was
Some little town with no life
The years were passing by

She knew this wasn't life
It was existance in its finest light
How long would she keep this up?

He had lost the will to run
Been going since he was eighteen
Joined the army just to get away

She walked down the dark road
Moving out of the way when lights came
When a realization hit her

Army gave him some leeway
Was a nice life till he was sent away
The sounds still plagued him every day

She didn't have to accept this life
Small town and a job that didn't pay
It was time to make an escape

He needed to find some peace
Not here though
This was a depressing place

They both left
Met in a different place
Strangers who chanced upon a similar fate.

If time were a fly,
It'd buzz around and die in 72 hours time
If time were a candy,
It'd be bittersweet
If time were a string,
It'd be crazy and go every which way
If time were a memory,
It'd never be complete
If time were a ship,
It'd be drifting in the horizon
If time were to slip,
It'd be but a tick of eternity
Time's arrow split,
Like a candle wick
What a trip.

Freedom unleashed
Took a shot or two to do
Pressed against the wall
Hot water soaking aching muscles as it falls
Breathing deep without a sound
Funny how you don't see the stress
Until it floats around
Let it down the drain
With the ***** water
Let yourself relax
Till the worries rinse off,
Into the ground
Where it's cleansed for another round.

No one comes along to take your hand
The path long left the map
Your footsteps are on an empty pass
Your shadow is the only company
On this singular path
Many will try and take you from it,
Offer safety in numbers in a broken system that long passed into yesterday's abyss
Fight for who you are
And take no one's word for wise
The guide is you and the path is only for your eyes
Embrace the life you have
The show will not last
And this illusion will have lost its chance
Learn what you can and make it last
The steps on this path are yours to find
Take it in stride
Leave the masses behind
You'll be alright

If you went to war over me,
Would you claim subtlety?
If you killed another over me,
Would you weep for them and me?
If you died in my arms,
Would you remember when I kept you warm?
If you must fight over me,
Know I'll accept you as I do with every child that's come to be
I'll cover you in the dirt and keep you safe hoping for the day you'll see you never had to die over me.

Like a painter with a fresh canvas
Oils waiting and brushes ready
A writer uses words to convey,
The feeling of a spring day and the heartache of a lover gone away.
Stripping the feeling to write what is overflowing inside,
A writer writes.
On a later day if they chance upon their work they read what once was said
An emptier version of themselves now that the feelings are dead,
The words are hollow until they read the stains,
What wasn't said and left for imagination's sake.
To write and never know if you'll feel the same,
A hollow pursuit to tether a writer in place.
A reader becomes what the writer said and more importantly didn't say
They feel as the writer once did,
Passively undertaking words from another's heart.
A writer dies a little in each write but come the day when the body goes,
They come to life.

It was a difficult place to go,
Some old friends hadn't made it out.
Perhaps now they have. She thought as she set the flowers down and whispered their names.

A little boy came up next to her,
His face was smudged and his shirt was torn. She picked him up when she saw his tears. She asked if he came alone. He wiped his tears and nodded solemnly.
"Don't cry little one. This is only temporary." She said.

"Do you have any family here?" She asked. He shook his head as his lips quivered. She held him tight and hushed his cries.
"You'll stay with me until they come." She promised. He placed his little hand on the watery wall in front of them. Flowers and notes lined the vast wall as far as the eye could see.
"What if they don't come?" He asked
She smiled and looked at the roses she had just left. Yellow just like her mother loved.

"They always come. One guarantee about the living is they always die. We'll see them soon enough." She said as she held his hand and led him away.

A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth
A timeless laughter playing on her lips
Like she knows the answers to the questions you didn't think to ask.

Her eyes dance with fire
The flames rising to a silent rhythm
Dancing amidst the falling rain
A storm of the sun.

Her face is a mask
Of freedom untamed,
Grace touches her skin like a warm day
While a reckoning haunts her gait.

The warmth of a mother
With wrath in mind
A contradiction some say
But her smile holds life and death like one of the same.

If you speak the same to prince or pauper every time,
               Honor will walk beside

If you walk with dignity even when life is disgraced and your burdens are too great,
             Strength will be your mate

If you give your all even when you think you'll fall,
               Greatness is your call

If you are humble enough to think you are small but never kneel to a mighty man's calls,
               Slavery's walls will fall

If you love with no fear and let yourself experience tears,
      Regret will never mark the mirror

If you can have and lose without becoming bitter,
          Freedom will be in your eyes

If you look up, see the stars and wonder who you are,
           Curiosity will take you far

If you've seen the slave and carried all he gave,
              You've seen a better way
          
If you walked away from power because it didn't set right in your bones,
        The time comes for you to lead

If money never held your eye because the value never matched inside,
             Wisdom will have its day

If you fight when you've been beat too many times,
              Your spirit never dies

If you do not bow when authority becomes tyranny,
             Revolution is set to rise

If you've slept in the dirt and brushed it away the next day with no shame,
          Nothing stands in your way

If these are things you crave and they are your way,
      Humanity will step from the fray

There are some poems,
There are some stories,
I write with so much heart
I dump them onto the page
Hardly sorting them out
The way they came is already better than I could say.
They are beyond blood
They are little pieces of my soul,
Children of mine,
Should I let them go?
Let them free for all to see?
Something beyond words and philosophies
I feel them when I breathe
Gods, monsters, and prophecies.
Heaven and hell are within me
I see the lives in me,
And more than that I see them in you.
No matter the times the story never dies
See a myth and read it twice
It is your life
Your journey to find both hero and villain inside
I write not because it's a hobby
I write so I can breathe,
Would you like to take the journey?

There is a head over there
Careful where you step
Oh yes, watch out for that ditch
Horrid place, lost a night or two in there.
Mind the flying imagery
They'll pick you up and take you for a wild ride.
Like that skeleton over there?
I'm working on its flesh.
Books are scattered everywhere
Feel free to pick one up and read
There are copies of comic books, history and poetry.
There are a couple of dead horses over there, beat them if you like.
Don't let the ghosts frighten you
They are characters who haven't quite found their heart beat.
Don't stray too far
There are a few wars here
****** things you aren't ready to see.
Sit down and have some tea
Let me tell you how you came to be.

Voices dripping off the walls
Music playing through the halls
The world's eye
Spinning around the drain
Insanity whispering sweet calls
Empty knocks at the door
Tick-tock of the handless clock
The curtain dropped
Haha sing the song
The world is gone, the future went so wrong.
Stop and stare
The show has begun!
Players basking in the rising sun
Let the circus run
In the streets and in your homes
They're watching to see what you've done
As they sharpen their butcher knives just for fun.
Hahaha
Dance down the halls
The joker has come to lead us all
Down the spiral staircase
The masters wait
For their puppets to behave
Scratch the walls
Tear them down
The illusions were meant to fall
It's empty towns
The minds couldn't cope to stay
Left the place
We stayed when the asylum has come to play.

I hear you calling my name
Looking back from some other time
I put the phone down and I'm not opening the door
I'm not answering anymore

You think you're a wolf
Stalking the prey
Let me show you something real today
When I release the lioness from her cage

I see them coming across the plains
Dressed in white
Pretending they are messengers of the divine
They are coming for me
Little do they know
I'm not clothed in sin or dressed in white

Hate never stood at the door
But justice came by and spoke to me
Claimed she saw me on the front page
Of a book long escaped
Since she's companioned with me
And now she's asking your name

I hear you calling my name
Looking back from some other time
I put the phone down and I'm not opening the door
I'm not answering anymore

Because if I do you'll be at death's door.

He washed his hands many times
He was finicky like that
Served him well
He'd seen what dirt can do.
Many thought him odd
A grave digger so concerned with being clean
But who complains on a grave digger?
After a long day he scrubbed his hands and face
Cleaned the dirt from his nails
And scrubbed his knuckles clean
A fellow laughed and called him a name
He didn't care and went his way
Walking through the neat rows
Till he came to a modest place
He laid down to rest his weary body
Glancing up to make sure counted right
All the white stones looked the same
He checked the name and was content
He tucked his hands behind his head
Reveling that they were clean
He'd had enough of filth
Of mud and dirt caking his face
He remembered it choking his mouth and nose
What a way to die
In a war at that
No glorious demise
Just a muddy pit
But now he was clean
He looked once more at his grave
It had been decades
No one seemed to notice who dug the graves
They only saw his clean face
He smiled and closed his eyes
'Such a better a place.'

A young girl wondered why there was so much hate
She hadn't known it till her family moved one day
To another town in another state
There the people were different
She didn't think much of it
But the other kids didn't see it that way.

Friends weren't easily made
And she learned to be without
It made her stronger in many ways.
As she grew older she heard many things
She began to question herself more.
She made friends with a few like her
Those who didn't belong.

She wondered why there is so much hate
She never understood when people asked where she was from
Her answer was always the same,
A few hours away.
It never stopped the questions or guesses
East Indian one said followed by Iraqi,
Jewish, Moroccan or perhaps the Philippines.
She would smile and say her family came a while ago,
It made her think she wasn't home.
Race never existed until she moved to this place
Where they were only familiar with their own names.

She's older now, not a girl anymore.
She saw some old friends one day,
Did you hear so and so was told to leave?
She nodded and said yes.
Perhaps it's because they were religious.
Lucky we were born here,
We'll never deal with such things. Said her friend.
No we won't she agreed.

She wondered why there is so much hate,
Too much ignorance she realized one day.
When another friend came and said,
Our old friends have gone away,
She nodded and said perhaps they'll come back some day
This land of immigrants has lost its way.

Deep and endless
Echoing out its haunting call
Beckoning all who roam
Promising silence of the demons
And anything plaguing your soul
It has many names
Each a shadow of its true self
Filled with daisy fields
And lazy skies drifting by
Dreams and hopes answered
Or crushed so you can die
Whatever your wish,
Whatever your desire
It can be found here.
We all see it
Some stop and gaze into it,
Some jump right in,
Others pretend it isn't there
The abyss calling our names.

I watched myself die that night
I watched my mother cry
It broke my heart to see her so

I struggled to get free
But the red dirt wouldn't let me go
I was trapped
Left to travel this strange place

When I demanded to be freed
He said I was dead and to leave it be
If I wished to leave this place
I must accept that I am no longer me

I looked at my mother
Frightened to leave her alone
But I couldn't return
And I was tired of the red
So I admitted I was dead

I found release
Until I woke
And thought what a strange dream
A few years have passed since

I see now the dream was true
I died that night
I didn't return
The girl I was died to the woman I became

I don't know if this person is better than the one before
She's hard and complex in many ways
My mother lost her daughter to me
I've been trying to reclaim my simpler days

Futile hopes woven into passing dreams
Choking on these words
They're smoother than they used to be
The darkness is no longer a shadow to me

I died that night
But I didn't realize it until today
I must have been a zombie.

I've written it this way
The words don't rhyme
The sentiment isn't kind
And the lines don't lie.
I've been told sorrow is in my eyes
It once bothered me but now I see.
I don't always wear the mask
I've thrown it out tonight
I'm looking forward with both eyes.
The world has gone awry
It doesn't surprise me
I think it should but there's something wrong with my eyes.

Fear sits at death's door
I sat and talked with him tonight
He's been busy as of late
Said it's falling apart every day
I asked if death had a moment to spare
And he let me inside.
I watched him with hollow eyes
As he sharpened a knife.
He took my eyes last time
Left me with these glass eyes.
"Tired of seeing this way?" He asked.
I nodded but said I'll keep them anyway
While I looked at my eyes.
Brown and gold with a hint of green glistening in the light.
They're watching a collapsing place
Long gone are dignity and grace.
Don't think me unkind
But my eyes, they know it's time.

A swath of fabric worn and old
Patches upon patches
The shoulders worn beyond repair
No protection from the bitter cold
Hardly a coat to protect the little man
Who hurries along the cobbled streets
Of his cold and clouded city
A denizen of little want
Serving mother Russia with little pay
Harldy enough to buy a new cloak
He douses his candles to save them
And steps lightly to save his shoes
To buy a new cloak to keep him warm
A necessity giving hope in his dreary life
Brightening his mood
He steps out in his new cloak
That he scrimped and saved for a year
Feeling like a rich man in his warmth
A few days of happiness bought
A great expense for a lowly man
Taken by harsh men of ill repute
So broken was the little man
He died very soon
Haunting the people of his city
For the cloak taken from him.

I write in my dreams
Remembering only lines when I wake
Stay away, yells one voice
Another laments some pain
Some speak riddled words
Or passionate rants
The voices fill my mind
I think myself crazy sometimes
But they're all mine
I've given them names
Each a companion of mine
Some are terrifying,
I recommend to keep that in mind.
This morning I woke with one thought in mind
From my dreams in the night
Hellish though they were
I can sum them up in one line.
Watch the sun, it's coming up and about to shine on this field of poison vines.

Black or blue
Iridescent feathers shimmering through
Scavengers with a noble walk
A raven squawk

Beauty in the sun
As it rearranges pebbles just for fun
A trickster, an omen of insight or ill
Beak meant to pierce old kills

The raven den was empty here in
But they still squawk
On a pole watching the world go
Looking for a shiny stone in the empty roads

Laughing without stock
To their friends and enemies aloft
Intelligence in their eyes
Claiming more than mere sight.

A whirlwind that demands attention
Overwhelming all in its path
A gentle breeze is swept away
To a tornado of fierce solipsism.

Living a life overrun by storms
Emotions of a dangerous form
Never finding shelter
Always torn from the healthy norm.

Can't you see what you've done to me?
Grown but still bracing myself
From winds I can't outrun
I can't yield to them anymore.

These feelings are yours
I don't give a **** anymore
I've knelt too long to your storm
I love you still but this raging sea does not command me like the child before.