My muses, beloved tortures, gone!
Stolen, or withered away.
With them has wandered my lexicon
Of mem’rable things to say.

How now, sweet demons? You leave behind
Your hatefulest loyal slave.
Please it your graces, how shall she find
The burning that once you gave?

What’s this? You grant me a grievance yet?
Oh, gracious, wonderful, cruel!
Torment me, my choice is set
To live for this poison, your tool.

Face me, Last Muse! O, sorrowful name,
I write thus at your behest!
My final divine inspiration;
The absence of all the rest.

The brink, the edge, the verge
A blink, a step, an urge
Teeter-totter, drum kick
A heartbeat, think quick
Life's a puzzle, death's a riddle
Here I hover, in the middle

The verge, the edge, the brink
An urge, a step, I blink
Teeter-totter, heart rasp
A drum kick, quick gasp
Breathing, breathless; sobbing, voice-crack
Inhale - exhale, inhale - I'm back.

Frankincense, hot cloves
Smoky perfume, like alcohol, gasped
Smooth, heavy, an intangible gravity kissed onto eyelashes
Covers and spices in flower, alive
Gasp after gasp of sweet tropic smoke
Eyelashes fluttering, started birds returning
A haze as purple as blood, or nightingales, or blood.

Spreading darkly from within
A cloud filled my breast
And slowly pulling me in
Ground me into the dust, depressed

On the dead earth below me
A dripping black hand
Struggled fiercely up to free
The shadows of the demon band

Others nearby glanced my way
Smiled at me, or cursed
With a venomous red spray
Fed my dark and demon-made thirst

Looking behind them I saw
On great poison wings
Creatures, crimson mouths all raw
From speaking unspeakable things

If we had courage to boast
Allied, we could beat
The hellspawned, bloodthirsty ghosts
That hungrily follow our feet

The other side of the coin
Fearing the unknown
No one dares to join
We each have demons of our own

This wall is for drawing
No writing allowed
No tags from the gangs
That wander this town

No poems, graffiti
Just sketching is all
Poorly drawn things are
Erased from this wall

The art of a child’s
An ugly scrawl
No verbal expression
Be glad you may draw

This wall shall become
A great work of art
But none of these drawings
Will come from the heart

It seemed I looked on a world all round
Where Hell with mortals heartlessly toyed
I turned away for I had found
The Chaos globed dark amidst the void

I stood watching the sky disappear
And writhing Terror coiled and bound
I knew it was there since I could hear
A deafening Silence full of sound

The starlight burned out, lost in the deep
Yet I remembered always my name
Though the world was dead I would not weep
Triumph is what the Dark cannot claim

Hardened glue is in my brain
Stickily I play the game
Happy faces cause my pain
Gleeful as I rise to fame
Captured since they know my name

Tears in eyes slowly misting
I discover they are mine
All my dreams they are twisting
Throwing pearls before the swine
Stepping out, I toe the line

No, I won’t, not any more
Throw my talents to the ground
Calmly walking out the door
Heart is suddenly unbound
Swimming bravely to the shore
Feet are firmly on the floor

Dark street diner in the town
Quietly the cards laid down
Oh those eyes you look at me
Burning through
What do you see?

I’ve heard a new sound
I’ve got a new song
Oh, I’ve been unbound
And you were all wrong

Can’t you read it anymore
All is lies in love and war
Turn it over quickly now
If I asked could you say how?

I’ve heard a new sound
I’ve got a new song
Oh, I’ve been unbound
And you were all wrong

Oh, look down, this is me
What is it that you see?
We’ve been apart too long
Why am I now so strong?

Halfway spreading through the sea
Paradox in prophecy
Always swimming almost there
What if I took Zeno’s dare?

I’ve heard a new sound
I’ve got a new song
Oh, I’ve been unbound
And you were all wrong

Oh, look down, this is me
What is it that you see?
We’ve been apart too long
Why am I now so strong?

Oh, look down, this is me
What is it that you see?
We’ve been apart too long
Why am I now so strong?

A nation great and strong we stood
The symbol of a dream
A city on a shining hill
A torch, a glowing beam

A statue tall and proud we built
Of copper and of gold
Its feet of clay away were cut
It crumbled into mold

Corrupted now our leaders are
And sunken into greed
An illness growing in our land
A toxic spreading ****

Now all the people stand in awe
From sea to shining sea
Fearfully they all behold
The tears of Liberty

The murk of swamps lies through the night
Weighing down on slate-blue wings
Raven cries in futile flight
Lifts his hopeless head and sings

Time and death, eternity
The afterlife, immortality
These are words that light a spark
These are the words that glow in the dark

This thought a depthless ocean floats
Of mute cries from many throats
The right weighed down by heavy wrong
Bodied in the raven song

I wandering walked
In a dream of a well
Soul shivered and shocked
For my hope shattered shell
All bravery balked
At the toll of a bell

Falling from clouds
To drown in dark lake
Crying aloud
I startled awake
Heart and head bowed
I felt my fists shake

Waking’s a struggle to drive
Away dreams of dark omen
Unwary, I close my eyes
They rise before me again

Why is the reward of my past
The return of darkness in my dreams?
When I thought I could rest at last
A new curse is cast upon me
I despair of the chance to ask
Why can I never be free?

In kissing the ocean
The old rivers dream
Of flying as clouds and
Reverting to streams

In drinking the river
The youth of the twig
Absorbs some small knowledge
Of trees that are big

In bleeding the mountain
The crack in the stone
Enriches the water
That springs from its bones

In breathing these pages
These poems I pray
Wish for me to become
A river someday

I was the last served from the dish of good luck
Where I sat at the table of life
The man before scraped the residual muck
From the plate with the edge of his knife

But the last shall be first, and so I was served
The primary course of mishap
I could not comprehend how I had deserved
Such a rich and luxurious scrap

How can one poor person consume such a feast
Of mischance as allotted to me
Others would sink in despair, at least
To see fate their forsworn enemy

The river is so hard to see
Rushing by below
The fog is thick, so none will be
Affected when I go

The water seems so close, so far
Reaching out a hand
To hold me near when life is hard
A grave of shining sand

The bridge, the wind, are hard and cruel
Silent to my pain
The world that takes me for a fool
Here taunting me again

The leap, the rush, the silent death
Dancing through my mind
Slow sinking as I take a breath
The suicide is kind

But then she takes me by the arm
Looks into my eyes
We turn and walk back to the car
I do not want to die

I spent my days crying, praying
That you would stop kneeling to the toilet
Sacrificing for a thinner body
You would sell your soul to see your ribs
And I would sell mine, to see you yourself again

What happened to the days when your favorite food was mac 'n' cheese
When you asked for seconds and didn't weigh your kale, adding every gram to your imaginary rolls?
What happened to your smile, the childish laughter in your eyes
I'm waiting for you to come running around the corner
Giggling

Please, forget for a moment your scales
Your toilet worship, your laxatives and long walks
Let's play like we used to
Let's be three years old and play in the garden
I want to see you one more time
Before it's too late.

Here’s a true story:
I was walking home one day
You whistled over at me
But I didn’t look your way

“Hey Baby, turn those legs around”
Crossing the street, you looked me up and down
“C’mon, angel, let’s go get a drink”
But I returned a frown

I’m not your angel, baby
I won’t save your shallow soul
Didn’t hurt when I flew down from heaven
But it will when you rise from below

You can try to drag me down
But my wings burn to the touch
If you ask me what I think of you
I’ll reply “Not much.”

Don’t try to put me in my place
I’m soaring high above
Your ideas of my purpose
And I don’t need your love

I’m not your angel, baby
I won’t join your sultry soul
Didn’t hurt when I flew down from heaven
But it will if you crawl from below

I’m a strong, proud, woman
I was created to be free
I’m not yours for the taking, baby
See, I belong to me

Leap from the rooftops, a burning town
Jump off a tower, we’re coming down
Hold hands through fire, together fall
Jumping and blazing, we’ll burn it all

Lightning and thunder, pouring around
Flash in the distance, show us the ground
Liberty ever, flying and free
Stop them believing, dying for me

Watch as they injure, they’re nothing new
What if they hurt us, least we could do
Wait for the impact, death will appease
Never ask pardon, not on our knees

Battles are lost now, victory theirs
Make it our triumph, deny their prayers
Jumping they lose us, win by the fall
Watching they know we’ve defeated them all

The blankness stared with huge white eyes
Some kind of monster in disguise
It threatened me with unknown harm
And strange, unearthly cries

My words came scrawling up the page
They reeked with tears and dusty age
I weakly scratched for meaning there
But all I found was rage

A fleeting glimpse I almost caught
The creature taking form, I thought
My inner darkness then I faced
And saw what I had wrought

Fingers hard like rusty bone
It scraped my heartache out, alone
The verse seemed old; a hundred years
A wrinkled, deadly crone

This world is all an empty hole
Eternal falling, I descend
Into the dark depths of my soul
The pathless void that has no end

All blankly white, a blaze of same
Deadly joy that drinks my cries
My fear absorbed to feed its flame
No spot of dark to save my eyes

I’m crushed within the empty space
And powerless to resist
People here in this nothing place
Attacked for daring to exist

Oh lightning, split the solid sky
Make me flash some kind of light
Oh hurricane, come be my sigh
Earthquake, swallow the black and white

I name you Prometheus, for your eyes
And Aphrodite, for your smile
From your fiery sons, great wars shall arise
Your daughters Helens all the while
In love, you bring us the fire of the gods
Your children light it on the earth
Dare we, mortals, fight such terrible odds
As would then be brought by their birth?
Better, then, that your beauty perish
Or better that the world be torn?
Your face is a gift that all should cherish
Your fate, Pandora, cannot be borne

The dirt of dusty decades
Lies upon the lath
Beneath a piece of plaster
I found a photograph

They smiled from the centuries;
Those mysterious three
Sent the musty memories
A message meant for me

Sara’s grave is gone, I guess
So long since laid low,
Yet, despite her ancient death
She smiles and waves ‘hello’

I cannot tell Annie’s age,
The words do not say
The owner wrote only names
Her face has frayed away

The baby in the buggy
Lifts a lively hand
She sits between her sisters
Beside the shining sand

This will be the only piece
From the dust so brown
That preserves their memory
Once we tear this house down

Our reason is soon tested
By germs of gas
As we softly seethe among the flames
The nightmares of our pasts will awake
To hunt us through our older haunts

The death of our hearts soothes
The dearth of our souls
We lie
Drunk, unable to lie

In truth is ruth, but also
Joy
Maybe suffering is first, or truth
Second

Because the poem is another
Of my seeds
Another to grow into mushrooms
Of inhaled gas.

In the swirling rivers of forgotten times
Ancestors built a grave from above
For promises made on their long-ago crimes
I lost my once-and-only love

All their past mistakes and their pacts running deep
Are drowning in the murky flood
Treaties compiled in oaths they could not keep
Are passed down in our family blood

Her marble lips smile in the icy stone vault
Her love buried by old vows of hate
But her silent suicide wasn’t our fault
Her ****** caused by forefathered fate

They spiteful told me her hands never to hold
Their feuding sounds her funeral bell
Their path has decreed her white face should be cold
So I choose to die here as well

Her hair falls, the spring rain
Over her chest, rising
Like the hills of the world
Bright in the summer of her smiling face

She sees all the world like the clouds in the sky
Feels it with fingers like beams of the sun
Her laughter comes rolling
The wind in the trees

Her heart flows, all loving
Like salt to the oceans
I feel in the water the touch of her hands
The birds say she loves me
They sing in her voices
She hushes, with nature to watch the stars rise

I’ll tell her I love her
Through the world she’ll hear me
She sleeps now, like mountains
Our love will move on

Human, I am not your race
Here on Earth I have no place
Mine is world of moon and sun
Outside where the starlets run

Mind have I of different rank
Thoughts of mine to you are blank
Differently I see the sky
Than you whose mind cannot fly

Who am I to bear this curse
Not from mortal universe?
Why can you not understand
Dreams of mine that eons spanned?

Outsider though I may be
Everyday you speak to me
Think me strange, you never knew
I am human just like you

There was a brave and selfless knight
His armour shone, exceeding bright
And sworn he was, for all his days
To do what he thought right

When once, upon a whim, he took
A shortcut ‘round a little brook
He came upon a pretty maid
And promise he forsook

For came a dragon through the field
The knight his mighty blade did wield
The worm, with flaming wings unfurled
Crashed hard against his shield

Escaped the knight into the wood
When save the girl, only he could
For life he deemed more precious, there
Than doing what he should

The dragon ceased her attack, when
Pursued by braver knights and men
She turned, at bay, and died to save
The young ones in her den

Judge not the greatest nor the least
Until you see the soul in deeds
But now decide, of these two, which
Was nobler... man or beast?