Oh , I'd love to let my fingers talk to your skin
Let my fingertips whisper electric nuances
to the receptors within
Send shivers all over your body
Let my palms place the curves in the swerves
of my imagination
My breath saying warm subjectives
next to your ears
My lips pondering the distance
behind your knee
The numbness of your toes tortured
by my trembling tongue
The kiss counts upon the ribcage
of your breathless chest
As the sun wishes it could set
as beautifully as your best

Hey , come here baby
Let me touch you over there
Oh , my !
Your so cold
Let me warm you up
With some gentle care

Let me strip
Off your wrapper
Let me lick you there
Uum , you sure
Taste so good
When your stripped down bare

Oh , my !
Your melting so fast
My hands are getting wet
But don't worry baby
A couple of tiny licks
And one giant slurp
And you'll begin to quake

Oh , my popsicle on a stick
Your sugar tastes so sweet
Your doubled barreled
Swing lock action
Has got me come complete

I see her in hooded head
Walking by in the night
The dusked shadows dewy in thought

Rumors fill my inquirious desires
As she transcends the vacuous light
Dare not I to ask where you go

She fills me full of fright

But alluring to me like catalepsy
Mewing the cats-eye of my discontent
Then around upon the angled corner

My phantasmagoria bent

Mechanically he put out his best press
Straightened his yellowing pages
In spite of little pieces flaking off
Like dandruff

Ow !
His spine was not as strong
As in younger presses

He bathed and used aftershave
But still he had that musty air about him

He lay claim to nervous fame
As he fidgeted with the book markers
About to be given as gifts
For her , his blind date

She came in fresh in expectation
Her beauty made him full of dejection
Her cheerful voice proved
to be more than exhaultation

He fumbled for the first sentence
Of subjection , but
Managed only to say
"Please ! I'm just an open book to be read"

She eased over
And ran her fingers over his cover .
down his bindings ,
then inside his yellowing pages

She sighed ,
with pleasure ,
"Yes , this is my perfection "

Where collects the thoughts of the paraplegic
sitting alone in thoughts
of a past no longer perfect ?

The glowing red sun sets behind the hill
as life flows by against our will

Every step has a purpose
even when we are running away

Each cause has effect
but once motored
it is here to stay

Tell me of the sands of time
how fickle they stand

Against the winds of change
a dead man's hand

Everyday , so much the same
never the moment to be again
Such a little word
that means so much , "never" again

Blessed yet all are the same
taken for granted , a dance of denial
Catch us before our great fall
Parachute us . . . or we won't
be even able to crawl

The anger is a boil on my thoughts
You in so much and in so many ways

You have to pretend now to win
All your wins are actually losses

When it first was an actualization
I watched love slowly slip away
The so far turned into the surely near

In the end - yeah , there was one
All the boiling water left a crust
Around the inside of the pan of pain

We went through the motions
Until all went motionless

(The otter frollicked turning everything
into a game of joy to being alive)

Touch became accidental at best to our ways
Once we could touch but now nothing more

(The otter nipped at the turtle
flipped about as it played)

Words dripped from our tongues
Heavy like molasses as the intent fades away

(Down the grass the otter slides into the river
Over and over like a little child)

Reason lost to accusations , accusations took it's toll .
Accusations took our time , creating false crime

(I watch as the otter swims on it's way
Dipping , diving to where I can't say)

Now I sit in the darkness with full moon fever
Wondering how could something turn so wrong that once was so right

While I was rushing by
the old box caught my eye
Inside there's an illustrious past
All the medals
behind the glass
My father , a simple man
made his living with his hands
Who was this boy of seventeen
who left to serve for our country's gleam ?
The lad who rushed right in
Saved a pilot that crashed in wind
before the plane exploded in flame
Thinking of his own safety was so lame
His pilots , his planes , and his men
This was a war of will to win

I wrote you once
                 twice
                thrice

      But no more
              for you
        will I again

I loved you once
                 twice
          and thrice

But not anymore
              for you
            this time

I feel the space that I can't touch
You are invisibly everywhere
I see the way that you think
But I can't say it's real

The battle is over
my blade is broken
all of my arrows
have long been spent

Blood runs like a river
my flesh burnt ,
bones broken , flesh cut ,
stabbed and divided

And on my knees
I face my Victor
asking no grace
I the conflictor

Waiting for the inevitable
every second labored
would you do the honor
end it now and not later

My world is not of the written word
It cannot be numbered
held captive on a so called page

My world is liquid
as sea , rain , snow or ice
It can be hot , cold , or entice

My world is cloudy
It thunders after it flashes light
My world is wrong , my world is right

There are no words that bind my life
I won't be delegated
to exist in the black on white

I will not be staved
by the limited sways
of the written words upon the page

I know you haven't heard from me in years .
I thought I'd write just to let you know that Tommy Faulkner died , you know passed away . I didn't even know it until it was all over . Don't even know what he died from . Heidi told me . Oh , you don't know Heidi , my fist and third wife . She and Tommy were good friends . Last I heard about you , you were moving to North Carolina , your home by birth . But your home was always with us  here on the Southside of Birmingham . Sigh !
I hoped you made a big splash back home when you arrived . Such a polar extreme . I kept your poems for years until Heidi threw out my box of poetry ,with yours included .
Also Steven Sedbury's . You remember him ? Last I heard about you , you had a brain tumor and you passed away . Now I stand alone with my ghosts and I have no address to send my posts .
      Love Thomas

Drifting in the shade
of Hello Poetry's grave
In archive (a kingdom's history)
the past has once been made

Stepping on the bleached bones
parade of dreams
Crunching fragments of sentenced themes

Epitaphs of honor
comments to poets 2010
Poems laid bare of praise lost in time

Great poems whose eyes
were never shed
In a broken aspiration
now lay dead

Cruch , crunch ,
the landscape littered in 2012
Oh what sacred feelings
not forthwith

Here ! lay my poems
to rest here
In 2014 my poems
of yesteryear

Tennessee Coal and Iron
Ensley Works , Birmingham , Alabama
Ensley Highlands , 30th Street

A turn of the century wood
framed house , sitting high on top a hill
Sitting on the front porch swing
in the sweltering August evening air

Playing "Your car next" , as cars ran
up and down the hill
Swapping turns , who gets what , laughing
at some of the outrageous wheels

Then as darkness descends
the dark skyline turns to Hell
Jets of forced blast air hits molten iron
and the gush of flames shoot high into the air

Eleven , twelve , maybe more
all the blast furnaces roared
as sparks flew up into the smoke
Surely these are the Devil's works
Where men are tortured so

As this for a backdrop now
it was time for ghost stories galore
Headless people and black drabbed ghouls
and little girls dripping wet that drowned in some unforgiving lake

We would draw up knees to our chest
in spite of the oppressive heat
And I would jump every time the breeze
would rustle the hidden leaves

So scared were we as bedtime neared
we'd ask mother if we could
spend "the night with you"
Ha ha ha , she replied , "NO !"
And then she went
Boo ! Boo ! Boo ! Boo ! Boo ! Boo !

Sitting for hours in the dark
even all night long

Two days didn't eat
I'll have that black coffee now

Days turned to weeks
Forty pounds gone , still no sleep

My mind's stuck , like an LP skip
Saying over and over . . . over and over

Inside the black is dimimg fast
Shivering my skin is as cold as ice

More coffee , my how fine instant tastes
Spins the wheels on mental race

The sun sets once more upon the stage
I bow acknowledging the audience

Thunderous applause inside my head

In a field of
grasshopper heat
        of
the pride
the prone
        of
the all that
is forever gone
        of
crow hops - hops - hops
down a bug
        of
a bridge I built
across a creek
        of
frogs that
take a peek
        of
overhead
an eagle soars
        of
a mouse
fast in the grass
        of
cattails
around the pound
        of
a snake , branched
hanging on
        of
upon seeing me
falls and is gone
        of
a sea of goldenrod
and green
        of
sadly seeing
yesterday's dream

Taking place where you calumniate
with hidden mask behind interface

An embolism hidden behind your lines
Where a falsetto lies your charm

How you create isobaric pressure degradation between your monodical screaming mee-mee's

Creator of sheol , abode of the dead poets
So supine in way and thought

Where will your Valhalla be
You valetudinarian
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Caluminate - to utter maliciously false statements .

Interface - a shared boundary across

embolism - a swelling of a blood vessel due to blockage

isobaric pressure degradation - lines drawn on a weather map marking increasing or decreasing air pressure

Sheol - the place of the dead

supine - failure to act due to moral weakness

Valhalla - Norse hall of God's where slain hero's are received

valetudinarian - one who shows unduly concern for their health

He died from a massive
insult to the brain
from alcohol poisoning ; Dylan Thomas

I say he was already dead
and couldn't stand to go on breathing
So he put an end to it the only
way he knew how

Poisoning : slow , so if your're reluctant
you can bide your time
and ease into it
You know , cross that line between living
and dead
You can do it and not even
be aware that you've done it
How easy

The only question is why ?

But I already know why

New York City . . . the where

I know :
The how
The where
And the why

He was really murdered you know
He was condemned by committee
Sentenced to death by poisoning

There was a general consensus ,
The refusal to mourn the death , by fire ,
of a child of London

I loved you once
but a long (timed) ago
When a moonlighted flood
awashed our naked bodies
lying so still in affinity


No moonlight now
no longer seventeen
Looking back it was all just impossible
A longing sweetened dream

Stand up , walking to the open window
Looking out , into the heart of midnight
feeling , reliving , lost eternities
Oh bye and by as I longingly sigh

Wishing emptiness would last forever
in the hallowed soul of midnight
No expectations or derivations
Midnight sheds her skin
burned by moonlight's  callous lies .

Ah ! If your blue then it's me too !
We can go to the Zoo
And see a blue back gazelle
Or go to Cape May
And get ***** that are blue
Watch out for those pinchers !
Those blue tennis shoes are paper thin
Then we can go to the show
And see "Blue Lagoon"
Then we can go for a drive
To the Blue Ridge Mountains
Stop and eat at the Blue Star Cafe
Then from a mountaintop
We can watch the flow of a river blue
Then you can lay your head on my
Blue corduroy jacketed shoulder
And I will sing to you ,"Love Is Blue"

I am not Phoenix
I will not rise from my ashes

When I burst into flame
Only my ashes will remain

I am not everlasting love
Just a memories horde

Of days and years of passion
laying in the ruins as ashes

I am not an eternity
Just a wiff of smoke and wind

Place my remains on a tier of wood
Set the fire as understood

I am not Phoenix

stair w
        a
        y stair w
                   a
                   y stair w
                              a
                              y stair w
                                         a
                                         y stair w
                                                    a
                                                    y stair w
                                                               a
                                                               y sta
No escalators to heaven , no free rides .
Just one long hard climb , one step at a time .

From the womb of the night
Births the Sun ,
Admist the wails of rays and light
Overshadowed in might the night
Slips away in amazing grace
And in good graces goes  
The last fleeting breath
of our last night's dreams
The epimonic clatter
We hear year after year
"Goodmorning to all far and near"

You are a hard ghost to pin down
my will-o'-the-wisp

If I approach you . . .
you recede
If I back up . . .
you approach

But you never let me touch you
My marsh lover

A light unto my heart
Burns where I cannot touch
Cold flames of blue leave me
No traces of heat upon my lips

My heart shivers from lack of loves inferno
The strength of my skin
Cannot be measured
The merit of my bones
Cannot be weighed

Nor will my love be finite
Caged or displayed
My lips seek soft wet kisses
That reign down on my soul

We were mixing our affections
Kissing Dixie cups of wine
Laughing at the passing time

Our fingertips touching
And wishing for another
Chapter to be read

We were down at the barn
Where the horses stay

We were hanging around
messing around in the hay

You dropped your Dixie cup
I threw mine away
You smiled and said what the hey

The moon came harvesting
The stars were laughing
And we had our day that night

You cain't go back
to yesterday's dawn
by adding another verse
to an old song

When time was by my side
we galloped through the years
Now the time shows and slows
and disappears

"Where has time flown ?"
is but an insult to youthful plea
protagonist to the old
and just echoes in me

While love was delegated ,
regulated , copulated . . .
it became sedimentated ,
heated , then pressurized

It became cold marble
entombed in ways
that now are just
memorried

Upon the shores of Malachite
Next to the cobalt seas
Under molten silver slivers of moonbeams
That shatter on the crystal icing
Covering the diamonded waterfall
By the golden sand . . .
Gather the Unicorns
Of Neptune , Uranus , and Pluto and beyond
Playfully cavorting between
Steel seas and emeralded mountains
On the frozen sands of time unchanged
For a thousand Earth's comings

But it's just a dream
A lunacy , a nothingness in the night
All my Unicorns have taken to flight
And were never there
Or were they ?

All the frozen seas . . .
Are now warm Florida Keys
Under a full August moon
And all the mountains . . .
Are impossible fears
That have faded into prairies
Swelling like seas
And there are no proof prints
In the sands of time
Of a far away race
Frozen in time

Broken glass
and dammits too !
Throw in yells
machine gun words
short-staccato
as vowels blow by
over you

It was your
Easter Sunday
Too beautiful
Two until two
and frustration

Wondering
where in Hell
do I come from
going nowhere
with pockets
full of sharp seconds
cold long and hard

Lock the door
but shut it first
Here asking
which came first . . .
the sun , the moon
or the fool

I was sitting in my white room
Sitting on top of the world
Where there are no cares to implore
Never worried about if there was more
Touching monsters that are made to laugh
Tasting colors , smelling every sound
Bite the dog of realities hound
All this in a way , without any
Hell has come to claim it's fair game
In the deserted cemeteries of the heart

Someone far off , I can't see ,
lives in a graveyard
in hopes of reviving
dead dreams .

Come down off your throne
Don't you mar my bones
Some body must bleed

Your crown cut's deep
You never sleep
Your the reason I need repair

Some body must change , twisting
the key of pain you unlock the door
Tell me you are free ?

I am wasting time
Tomorrow , always one step away
Yesterday causes a bitter aftertaste

Come down off your throne
Don't Mar these bones
Some body must be bled

In an age of emptiness
in the ways of nonsense
the meaning of life
has become meaningless

If we stand
do we each alone ?
Single thoughts under
single days and nights

"The fertile fallow furrow
fleeting under flurries of
freshly fallen snow "

. . . . . . for sure . . . . . . .

And we are the huskless stalks
shivering in the wind
row upon row
thousands upon thousands
going no where
and no where to go

I used to gather
where the bridge crossed the bay
Pausing in the ebb of
the changing tide .
I tried to capture
the moment of the ebb's decay

She came to me
with soft words of call
Left messages saying
she's not sure about it at all

The sea follows the
ways we know not
our separation was complete
we left our ancient past behind
to tread upon this land
on our own two feet

Shake the dust from your call
dress the shadows
make the sun fall
words of deliverence
wet the tongue's
parchment and thirst

The tide remains constant
demanding , relevant
with unrelenting presence
It is married to the bay
In a never ending struggle
of give and take

In to me
be the temple
to my heart

Day by day
we will see
the state of independence
to be

Bring to me
Breathe with me
Just like I fall to my knees
Time is truth

Hey , hey , hoooooooooo .
Love is like a signal
into the body of my soul
Hey !
To be in love and with you

It's truth from the mountain
The state of independence
Like a fountain flowing free
It's truth from the mountain

Love like a comet from above
Love let's me continue to survive
Love is a state of independence
Love is the temple of your heart

Love is being with you day by day by day
Love is my free
Love is my state of independence
Love is you and me

You left me twisting in agony
In the hurricane's eye of my mind
Where love goes flying by
Destruction , far and wide

Don't let me remember I loved you
Let me forget what I once held
Please don't agonize me
I fell from heaven , now reside in hell

Break the twines that hold me down
Cut the ropes of memories made
Release me from my sentence
Let me RIP in my grave

Coffee , cake and tea
Where are all the Jonquills
March has come late
Without a yellow promise
Without a breath of warm air

The sea is shallow
Without shells
Just goes on and on
Not even up to my knees

And she talks of heresy
Conjectures , probabilities
On and on and
On and on

Fools make mistakes
Wise men err
To one man  the sun sets
Another rises to the occasion

He dealt in tissue paper reality
Layered upon layers of issues
Of Nothing at heart

As empty inside as the wind
That blew his papers apart

He wore his emptiness like a badge
Futility was his halo
A cold empty glow of nothingness

And as his tongue wagged
The sounds were unintelligible
And when he stopped his eyes
Beamed with approval .

While I wondered . . . pondered
Without disapproval
Simply dazed . . . amused
Wishing I wasn't there

There must be a place ,
an origin for the space ,
One step above a stick and sand .
One of paper and pen in hand

One before the glaring screen
Long before that clicking thing
The subtle scratch of pen on paper
Gave us truth , revealed our maker

The affection when it was held
The value of it to tell
A creation that had a birth
One that grows and shows it's worth

Through the pleasure
When I discover the treasure
Of black ink mating maker
to pure white innocent paper

Yes , I let it go ,
my words will flow ,
cutting time in two

into seconds from minutes
from hours , even days
turning time inside out
so it is no longer real

Take me away to reason . . .
where time is a myth ,
a fifth season , a place of non-essence

Time falters , flakes , falls ,flatters , fetters
away into oblivion . . like
everything known to man

T - all TOMORROWS , are never to be
I  - in my INNONCENCE , my IGNORANCE
M- MANIPULATION of mind
E - ENUMERATION , numbering my way to
     ETERNITY

Today a part of me died .
Today I said goodbye
My core dreams took a blow
Goodbye my friend
Leonard Nimoy



Live long and prosper

if the clock says eight-thirty-ache

      or twenty-two tears to nine expired

would you believe ?

if my love begins with a r-u there
within my rhyme , r-you ?

I agonize sunrise-sets
I galvanize my felling
in crystalline halos
and auroras of
dazzling magnetic lights
enveloping my love for you

come follow me
just to follow me
follow faster into
a following
do like I do
all the doings
that I do
love like I can
while love can
love like
I can
and kiss like
I kiss with kisses
kissed upon lips
of others kissed
and cry out tears
Inside and outside
as tears flow from
inside to outside
and die , follow me
like I do , like I can
leave a kiss , on the inside
a tear to the outside

Stone forest of forgotten names

Coffee . . . half a bottle of ***** and eternity

Blind faith : Do what you like . . . A sea of joy . . . Well alright . . .
Had to cry today . . . In the presence of the Lord . . .
Now I cain't find my way home

I have found an inner peace
free from the toils that never cease

far away the pains have past
free for once to everlast

listen to the wind blow free
I listen with my heart you see

I could no longer bear
the shedding of my soul to tear

the ceaseless pulmelling
the overbearance I could not fling

but now my returns are due
through a dark valley I made it through

for on the other side there resides
a lasting peace by the riverside

cross over the waters of life
come with me , put down your strife

let the river sweep away our past
let this river crossing be our last

Where have all the Unicorns gone ?
     the sun is down, in the on and off rain

"They were here just a memory ago"

The night is on. . . in maximum
The stars hiding behind
Blankets of cold clouds
. . . have nothing to say

"The Unicorns never have to pay ,
just go on their way ,
grazing by the sea Eternity "

Inside I am gazing
into the emptiness of the night
Wondering ,"Where has all the magic gone ?"
. . . away on the backs of the Unicorns

Restless are the words inside my world
You put your hand in and swirled cloudy
my emotional backwaters of love
My hand must hold you by your shoulders
My body could not be any bolder
as I wrap my longing lust around your shoulders
I fearfully look into your eyes as you are fearfully looking back
We are fast approaching the point of no turning back
My hands flow over your body
Your hands are holding mine back
As all of our lips go on the attack
Your chest pressed up to mine
My hand on your behind
The seconds are flashing by
as you let out a loving sigh
I want you and you want me
Neither one will deny
But we separate holding hands and
Like two ships passing at sea
We wave to each other
Then we must be on our way

I was of the South
Born in my ways I could not control
My path of rocks and stickerbriars
Led no where , I had no where to go

"I'm going back to Selma !. . . Selma !
And I had no reason just before
I'm going to Selma ! . . . Selma !
And I just don't know what for"

Do I really have the courage ?

Maybe love is a broken window
With cold air blowing in
Maybe salvation is just a desire
And it will be there at the end

Do I really know ?

Losing love is just the other part
And how do I depart
In Selma what is there to find ?
I'm sure it can't be kind

Take U S 80 , between I -20 and I -65
If I leave now I can be sure
To be there to see the sunrise
From the Edmund Pettus Bridge

****** Sunday , March  7 , 1965
Beaten trying to cross the bridge
God's rights marching upon trampled sights
Home to take back from the giver

Easy to forget Selma 1965
All to easy to forget the hate
Leading to Memphis April  4 , 1968
And to more than a simple mistake

Will the shooting ever end ?

January 20 , 2013 Jackson , Mississippi
Blackman shot , MLK celebration parade
The blood flows from Birmingham , to Selma
To Memphis and Mississippi's charade

Still I'm going to Selma .

"I'm going back to Selma ! . . . Selma !
But I have no reason why
I'm going back to Selma ! . . . Selma !
I think it will be just to cry"

written January 20 , 2013

Worried about all those gays getting married
Playing football , everywhere on the TV
Yeah , and all those dammed dessert rats
Chopping off heads for all of us to see
Shooting those Muslim creeps
Everyone of them had it coming
Now , that's just the way it's going to be

And all those porch monkeys
Cut off all that gimme
They need to get a job
And quit dressing like they were slobs

Kick all those wet backs back to Mexico
There stealing all our jobs
They just come over to breed like rabbits
So they can stuff the liberal ballots

And Damm the chinks , ***** , and redman
There no better than all the Jews
Ther're thieves that steal us blind
We need to get rid of every X , Y , and U
Now that would ease my mind

And all that hogwash crap in the Constitution
That doesn't apply to me
This is the home of the White man
All red , blue , and white you see
That's the home of all that's me ,