(You said I was full of sin)
I said I was full of crime

(So somehow you have changed over time)
I replied I am still of my kind

Like lightning in sky
Thunder up high
I am determined
someday to die

(Why?)

I will not hold on to sunsets anymore
There came a time to open and one now to shut the door

I no longer ask for any more
I have more than the nothing I need

I wish you agreed

Let it go

Take your time

Learn to let it go

Take your time

Seeking the flaming reds
Weeping on frames of bed

Let it go

Drown me in sympathy
Excite me in electricity

Smoking skin in desires
They say I'm hardwired

Drop to your knees
Learn to let it go

Let it go

Keep it off my way
Backed up the bay

Deracinate the life
Fall down the fife

learn to let go

Dirt

Block

Wood

Basic definition

Plus space always between

As a boy always inviting

The dogs liked it

Spiders liked it

I liked it

I could see feet come and go

Hear the car doors slam

Someone asking ,Where's Tom run off to ?"

That day ,

The fight inside spilled out

Angry steps  

Yells and screams

Shouts

The sound of fists hitting flesh

Breaking bones

You crumpled to the ground

Vacant eyes staring at me

But you couldn't see

Blood began running

Hands picking you up

I could hear you

Bouncing on the back seat

The door slammed

Another opened

"Slam"

The car roared angrily

Gravel flung everywhere

Dust settled

All's quite

Did I tell you

It's cool under there ?

The little girl is crazy or at least she tells us she is

She like's to upset people . She does all the wrong things in the right way

I say you will never be saved . She smiles because she knows that is what she made me say

You will destroy yourself
And she smiles even more at all the attention

She does all the things crazy . She studied hard and learned how to get her way

She is notching another victory over the fear she so loves to create

But sooner or later she must put up or shut up . Then her wheel of fortune must stop

And now she will act out her rage
or face the humiliation instead

So she will cross the line of demarcation . Between the living and the dead

And we will be relieved
So let's not pretend we cared

She will join her ancestors
In her already forgotten  grave

Yes she is truly crazy but that no longer bothers me

After she is gone another one will take her place

"HELLO DARKNESS , MY OLD FRIEND"

As the radio spewed out the words
To the "Sounds of Silence" an old
Simon and Garfunkel song

"I'VE COME TO TALK WITH YOU AGAIN"

And Mary would turn the volume down
Quickly and explain

We were maybe upper teens but Mary
Had an understanding
Beyond the prophets vision
She would explain the hidden meanings
Of the songs to me

"BECAUSE A VISION SOFTLY CREEPING
LEFT IT'S SEEDS WHILE I WAS SLEEPING"

At the time the Viet Nam war was raging
And our friends were dying for nothing

Jake my best high school friend
Had died at nineteen
Mary's brother was listed as missing in action
And never came to a conclusion

After that Mary sort of lost it
And acquired her nickname
But we both learned to cope with it
And music was the cure we both sought
For healing

"AND THE VISION THAT WAS PLANTED
IN MY BRAIN STILL REMAINS"

Mary grew up , older and married
Some pseudo fake frat guy
Who remained 18 for the rest of his life

Mary turned into a pill dropping alcoholic
And one night went to bed and never
Woke up again
And I can hear her saying ,

"DEEP WITHIN THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE"

She had a chest of drawers
Longings from ankle up
Paper chips of lips
A made up mind of shells and nuts

She was unceremoniously
civil
Quick to  wink
Hand chilling icebergs
An immitation belt made of mink

She sang blues in pink
While spitting out punk
Indifferent to age
Pure as road **** skunk

"It's my life , I'll do what I wanna!"
As they put her in Paddy
Drove her insanely station
"Come now my Laddie!"

Women are creators
              men are action
Women create action just by combing their hair
              men are instigators
Women turn the rough and jagged into silk
              Menbulls can be led by fingertip

Women can turn parcels of land into houses
with a smile , all they need is wile

Everything they touch ( that's  more than enough )
If you don't believe me
Just ask . . . their words
are creative enough

It was a restless night denuded of sleep
So since it was warm and windless
I hit the streets

Walking under ancient oaks draped in Spanish moss
My path inevitably led to where
Everything was at a complete loss

Crescent Moon Memorial Cemetery
For the dead
Where all lie below earthly care
Was where my feet had somehow led

Row upon row of forgotten names
In all of their endeavors
Have been eased of their earthly pains

And now as I trudged by at a quarter to three
A low chorus and chords of music
Through the mists came floating to me

It startled and intrigued
What now is this ?
So I had to go see for myself
And I silently crept to where came the origins of bliss

In a circle of bench seats and monument stones
The strangest thing I saw , that of the unborn
Ghosts and skeletons playing with bones and singing in moans

A see through piano , trombone , bass , saxophone and a silver cornet
And one wailing guitar completed the set

On the translucent petal bass drum
Was the name of the ethereal band
And to a catchy tune I began to hum

Crescent Moon Memorial Buried Blues Band
The epitaph on the vaporous drum stated
And I soon found myself a loyal fan

What seem like a lifetime they continued to play
Quaint rthyms and lyrics now made my day . . . and night !
As the sounds drifted across the river out onto the bay

But far off I heard the mornings ****'s call
Then phiff . . . vanished all into the fog
Not a trace as if covered by an invisible pall

And then a ray caught the gleam in my eye
And I knew that when the time comes
Here's where I want to be placed after I die

So now you claimed
your victory
In the name of
Our Father up above

Meanwhile you were removing the cross
from your shoulders
and raising it high wearing ****** gloves

You became an empire
demanding praise as if you were a God
All the while trampling down the insignificant and burying under sod

You pass a silver plate expecting food for your selfish thoughts
Without your permission Heaven can't be bought

You pray to lifeless idols made by mortal man
Meanwhile gathering flocks of gold and herds of mansions while flying your jets across the land .

Your fields of salvation
are stuble that fires of justice will race through

Not even releasing enough heat to warm your heart or bones
from the coming cold evening's dew

You were my cross eyed Mary
I was over on the end
We used to meet clandestinely
Anywhere we can

You fingers froze antifreeze
Always a cold shock to me
My hot hand poured
Out in ecstacy
You Said ,"Set my liberty free"

Your smoke swirled around your aura
You blew into the breeze
I blew a shotgun into you
You coughed and then you sneezed

You were my cross eyed Mary
"But Mary's not my name"
As you slid in frozen fingers
I heard you drop your ring

references :
"Cross Eyed Mary" is a song by Jethro Tull from their legendary Aqualung record/cd

Ecstacy is a drug

Shotgun is to reverse a joint and inhale and then exhale blowing the smoke into someone's else's lungs

sneeze is anything snorted up one's nose

ring is a form of birth control where a plastic ring is inserted over the cervex

Always enjoyed crossing bridges
Looking down to see what
divided the land so

I hoped to see rivers
their flow
I like the waters to be on the go

Sometimes there were
railroad tracks
Sometimes trains with horns blowing back

Then there were trees
sometimes
swishing in the breeze

I loved the bridges
connecting
the Florida Keys

And Ponchatrain
going on endlessly
or so it seemed to me

Never been to Brooklyn
no I didn't buy a bridge
I have a picture of it taped upon my fridge

I crossed the Mississippi on bridges that were high and sometime low
One bridge fell into the river and it's not there anymore

Too bad HP has no picture avatars
I have pictures of the pillars
Still reminding me and Willard

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

All those brightly painted ghost
that won't disappear
Plastered with bumper stickers marking down the individual year
With slow sighs of tyrannosaurus Rex's heavy heaving heartbeats
******* on airs of extinction
"Remember me ! ",
pleads Rex
I look at the bones
that remain
"Sure I will , Rex .
Why not ?"

My fortunes
deep and mighty
Black root rot
Leaf and blighty

Rocks feel not the pain
nor share the blame
when they've been instructed
to maim

So I got myself undressed
wiped away the blood
Bruised enough to suffice
Whose name now is  labeled Mud

Will you beat me in the morning
Will you beat me in the end
Will you beat me enough
until I call you friend

As reckless bound beauty
belies the exhaultation
of standing on the edge
of eternity
God ! There is freedom
in the temptation of the fates
One must kiss the lips of death
to live

Sharron had a "Cuda" and it
was hemi fast
We used to go out nights a "crusin" just to waste the gas

Jane was sweet before the song and always had a smile
I had for her a crush and hopes but we never walked that mile

Harold was crazy before his time and rode a Honda bike
He disappeared with the years and has fallen from my sight

Martha was a Lyon as Lion as Lyons could go
Did she become that teacher? I guess I'll never know

Our group of five lived and dived in the strips pits of the hottest summer nights
We did the things that fueled the gasps and caused outrageous frights

For that moment we had no fear and everyday was geared
To living life unto the fullest
with nothing left secured

But time has tumbled down the mountain and nothing is as was
As we aged we learned regrets and "I said now just because"

Now the "Cuda" is gone and only the memories of friends remain
The rest is as they say "History" for the beast has now been tamed

So I put my trust
in the hands
of man

Relied upon
the knowledge
he possessed

Testing the strength
of his flesh
I put the truth to rest


For what can grow
in the disidents
garden of desert ?

Void of living water . . .
only rock and sand and chert


Certainly not the truth
as it is claimed
raising their rights
to just desserts


Oh , the failings
of feeble man
Whose thirst is etched
on bone

Written with
diamond tipped desires
across their ******* of stone

For what
springs forth
from the wells of hearts ?

Torrents
of premeditated will

The defiling overreaching reasons
are passions fit to ****


Serpentine sin
denudes
the wicked heart

It twists its coils
around the truth ,

Bites !
then as soon arrived
it surly fast departs .


The heart
deceives the sightless mind
planting seeds of doubt

Producing moldy
grains of lies
decayed
within - without

How can one be
true of heart
when everything
falls apart

Hey ,
he's the old man
with a pair of mental scissors
Snipping away at the
picture perfect reality
he perceives as the truth
Hey ,
she's the old lady
hard of hearing
who clings to the unreality
that all is as it should be
Hey ,
they are the reasons given
for all the good intentions
that do more harm than good
Hey , hey ,
. . . . hey ,
It is you reading these words
in all your disguises
that are trimming the truth
to make it fit
inside the lies
Hey ,
It is me lastly ,
snip , snip , snip . . .
snip .

"A rose by another name , would still be just a rose " T. R .

Sleep my rose , your load so heavy .
Let the stars wash the pain from your memories .
Your battles fought bravely .
Let the soft black velvet of darkness hold you in her arms , sing ancient lullabies to you ,
soothe you with her charms .

Let the moon gaze upon you , softness in his glow.
He'll guard over you .
Said he just wanted you to know .

Let the Banshee's wail warn anyone that dwell upon evil deeds .
It's not lightly taken , best you turn around and flee .

Now then rose , your thorns  now protect thee .
And as stardust begins to fall , hush now little one for I hear the Sandman's . . . last call .

She sent a message to me
And I could feel her stroking my keys
She was clicking onto my interest
Next message if you please

If I could get you
between my comma
maybe semicolon you
I'm sure I could make
an exclamation point
wrap my parentheses all around you

I could ravage all your vowels
I could click into propend
And at the proper moment most intence
I would touch the "send"

Getting warm by the campfire
Next to the ghosts of my
mental graveyard
Following the ruling runes
and shallow hues
etched on the stone
hearts and tablets
of tongues :

Leave the schools
Get an education

Thrown into prison
because you were free

Live within your time
Die because of it

Light the fires of confusion
Burn down empires
of derision

Embers to ashes
smokey as ghost
Leaving only voices
in my head

Dancers must have two extreme qualities
Intense desire , gritty fortitude , and raw courage .
. . . one two three , OK  , dancers must have three extreme qualities .

Dancers actually do break a leg upon the stage

At parties they are the flight of the hummingbirds . Amazing what they do .

Their tight limber bodies often make me wonder how I would do in bed with them

My ambition was always tied to a rope that held me back
Because  when I danced (after twenty-four bottles of beer)
It was on my face I always fell flat

She glides unto my conscious
Twirling skirts
Flashing arms
Dancing with fireflies

Falling into summer time
Swirling waters
thunderstorms
Kisses in the corn field

Waiting on september's promise
Whirling ferris wheels
State fairs
Wild turkeys over there

Still I search for that heartbeat
Mirroring mine
hurrying . . . caring
. . . daring

Oooooh, OH ! Now my clear moon rising

Oh , Oh ! Your leaving , . . . not surprising

Just dancing around your grave
Hey ! Just dancing on your grave
Hey , Hey ,dancin' around your grave


Sooo, oh ! Oh ! You say you got it made

yup , yup ,  you surely got it made


Hey ! just say it , dancing on your grave
Just roll , roll , . . . roll up your sleeves
And dig your self a grave


Yeah , yeah , fix your self a grave

Just dig yourself a grave

. . . dancing on your grave , Hey ! Hey !

. . . dancing on your grave !

You get off work on a Friday eve
The backed up traffic is your pet peeve
You stop off at the local bar
Run into friends as you park your car
You drink import on American dream
Hey there's Mary , ain't she a scream
Someone slips you some super daze
Your out of it for a month of days
You dance now with every smile
Got you running fifteen miles
Long ago you heard last call
On the way out you stumble and fall
Passed out inside your car
Wake up behind the bars
Gee you think it was so much fun
Cain't wait till the next week's done

Nothing
more dangerous
than a poet
who takes
themselves
cerealously  
🤭

Dare the day
to raise the light
To dedicate
itself to the Sun's respite

To crush
the shadows
kidnapped
by night

To free the wounds
of fright or plìght

The sunny ray's raucous
crackling whips
Soon the darkness
will be flipped

To hear
the moans of
grinding time
The wheels spin on
as the engines whine

So does the day
dare the night ?
Yes it does
to the Sun's delight

Skip a line
Try Titan like
Maybe your cloud
will shroud your
desperation
in fear
As lost as
the speed of light
Warped !
Bent !
Falling into a
worm hole
Arriving at the center
of a Black Hole
. . . so captivating

You take all the light
leaving desparate shadows
that congregate down below
Your breath as hot and dust
a desert on the go
Your intentions as devious
Every motion shuns

Picture a rose out in
New Mexico
Withered in thirst
Strangled in weeds
that have no roots
with no sins to bear
No redemption cleansed clear

Catch the thorns
on cati high
As the midnight blooms
Let the blood flow
from the punctured wounds
From the soul undone
to the desert below .

He walks into the room
Looks side to side
Wants every one to notice
He's got David Bowie eye

He steps onto the stage
He's not into raves
He's got one blue eye
He's the latest rage
He's got David Bowie eye

Starts out with a howl
Comes down to a low growl
He throttles your attention
You feel hypnotized
He's got David Bowie eye

Like a thumderstorm
Comes the light before the boom
Explodes on stage
But he never never moves
Unless he captures you
In his David Bowie Eye

I'm listening to the house ,
the popping of the joists ,
the groans from years of delapidation . The arguing
with local foundations .

Age has its benefits in the forms of doors as they no longer stay moored to the walls but swing in indecision like the fools who stand in perpetual obsolesence .

Where then do my thoughts propel my rudderless oblivion ?
My angst , the thumb in many dikes , leaves me as powerless before the mass of my desperation .

How dare the Ghosts of daylight leave me marooned in the shadow of shadows .

I am confused and challenged by the hidden agendas and secret subpoenas of an alien race of thought .

And were I capable of burying the haunting images , would they not
sprout from my seeds of discontent and flourish
yet greater than before ?

. . . evidently so .

I can't write poetry
   in the sun . . .

Give me darkest nights
     and undercover I will run

Let no light penetrate my eye
    lest it be by stars and comments going by


From hiding all my words
        come out

They hate the sun I know
       now without a doubt

They like to bask in glow
        of moon

Conversing amongst the
           punctuations . . .

is it now or when or way
             too soon

They start to shuffle before
           'say daylight

Anxious with intent ,
   hurried on now by their
        plight

First rays they soon all
        disappear
           . . . . . .

Well I will be waiting
          out the day
It's not like waiting
         for years and years

Soon the sun will be getting
                   tired

And deep inside I will be gettiing . . .
       
             so inspired

Days dazed drifting in and out of reality
Fazed fast undutifully
Gasping for all the wrong images
or inclinations
The pickle pucker
hitched across the you us of eh
Found his,him,herself in disgrace , hey !
There's honey on the
isle of Wiles
But their buzz ain't quite right
That thought gaves me smiles 😁

I lay the bodies of my dreams
In the echoes of my grave
I grace their loving memories
In the hollow of my cave

I close their opaque eyes
And kiss their cold and sullen lips
And listen one more time
For a heartbeat that I might have missed

Dreams that died in the heat and fell
Like gallant warriors often do
I grieve as I cover them
My heart a sadden shade of blue

Dreams go nowhere , no heaven , nor a hell
They just die and disappear
Leaving not a trace to tell , only
Just the stain of teardrops , dried up yesteryears .

old poets
never die
nor do they
fade away
they live
on and on
every time
you turn
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

Dear Protrudence
Won't you come out
to play
Dear Protrudence
I know you haven't got a lot to say
The bone was broken
Things got compounded
Right away
Dear Protrudence
Won't ou come out to play

Do not fear death . . .  
. . . . fear eternity .

Death . . .
the great equalizer.

The surest cure
to brazen  ambition .

Kings , Queens , princes and Popes ,

Generals , dictators , and those with false hopes .

As evil does , so it will be .

Fall so fast and hard
toppled like a cedar tree .

The vine's been cut
the branches wither

All the fruit so vile and bitter

All will burn in the heat of fire ,

the briars and vines and wooden liars .

In the silent bleakness
Stripped limbs down to bare
The harsh fingers cold as ice
where only a fool would dare

I feel the cold
gripping at my heart
I feel the chilling effects
leaving frozen parts

I yell out a hearty welcome
It's not to late I say
For inside my barren body
have your icy way

I feel your anticipation
Your frozen breath upon my face
Soon the numbing brings on
a fateful day of grace

The office of Physical Death is next to the Office of Eternal Life .

It just takes a few steps and you are there .

What ?
What are you gonna' do ?
Write a poem ?
Ha ! That's really rich !
The Baptist would send over a casserole and dish . But it's too far away and it would spoil before it could be delivered . How about a card of condolences or flowers . Same ole same so's , not feasible or adequate . Who's loss is it really ? Mine of course !
  So I'll sit in my rocking chair on the porch and stare down the memories or lay on my bed of remorse and share the emptiness and wonder about how fast our lives have passed . And of course I'll cut out another piece of my heart and hand it you to take with you on your long journey home wherever it may be .

I gaze into the cloudy exclamation point
That once radiated pure love
Only to find the mask of Ironman
Rusting from the tears wept
In ignorance of time displayed

I curse your hollow shell felled
Before the half moon rose
To consecrate your memories denied
Oh , The indignation watching
Love ******* crumbs into heartflake

I close your eyes forbearable the pain
Stained by pain's piercing sight
I conclude in contusion's might
Now night can never be as black
As the vacancy of my heart

It was
the shortest breath ever taken
The longest night prevailed
I gathered up all
my wintered thoughts
I would send
them all back down to Hell

To Whom :
I'm not concerned
666 Hades Street
on the Rue
Enclosed for your inspection
Every sin and all insanity ,
everything that you made me do  

I know I must
accept the credit
I spent every last dime of mine
Now I feed the pigs of others
eating much better
while on the inside
I'm slowly dying

But you better now
be some wary
The sun shall also rise
All of the time
that I have squandered
will be responding
In this cold crystal air

So I step forward
Into the eternity of today
I'm leaving for my home
So many miles away
I will beg of my father
for forgiveness
I already know what he'll say

This tiredness
             sickness
A draining away
             such as a tide might
             **** at a bay

There is evil in their soul
             A blackness where nothing
             can grow , only wither

****** is ******
             A **** on a street
             A soldier with a gun
             A President's decree
             A Declaration
              and dead is dead

Are we not made in the image of God ?

              God's flood drowned all
              A pillar of fire destroyed all
              An image of ******

Has not God created sin ? All sin ?

Why does the sherherd leave his flock to seek
out one lost sheep ? Maybe because once the sheperd was lost and someone came and found him and welcomed him back home again .

She has December's eyes
all gray and cold
too cold to be exposed
to the elements of love

Finally he trudges through
the doorstep
of his Victorian home
Shuts the door to the cold outside and settles down to read his book and drink very expensive scotch all alone
May he R.I.P. the parachute cord and fall into abysis

The little boy runs for his life ducking behind a Salvador Dali tree just in time as the bigger bullys run bi

The little girl is looking out the big bay window on Christmas morn
All her presents lay open at the base of the tree
The present she longs for will never come
now that her brother has gone away

The millionaire extraodinare gave the homeless man some cash
Later that day he gave it to a bag lady and her daughter and smiled
as he walked away

The football team boarded
a plane destined to go to a bowl game and play
The ice accumulated and the plane went down
and no one walked away

He stands in the freezing rain that has started to spit out snow
He is much colder inside
as the memories have all lost their glow
He remains steady
as he is ready
Would be so easy now
to simply let go

Prudence - One who is full
                     of reason . The
                     Spock effect .

Atheist - One lacking in
                beliefs . Hell
                Benders .

Platonic
Relationship - friends
                          lacking
                          benefits .

Pine pitch perfect
oozing out on bark
Flowing down in amber thin lines so stark

Mad made moon
Sitting in the dust
Drinking gin and pink Kool Aid
Hollow as a husk

Dancing dusk til dawn
Orchestrating out of time
The tide is rising fast
Racing down a line

She had deep deportation eyes
Raven's feather hair
Skin as sweet as molasses
And of the same color there

Her name was never Lita
At least no two times the same
She wore the same old pair of sandals
Learning fast how to play the game

She would let you so close
But never there within
Her body was her refuge
A faultless heart so full of sin

She never took what was not belonging
The world owed her a lot
If she broke the piggy bank
It was all that she had got

In the blackness of the white room
Full of pressed rats and warthogs
She said it was their damnation
A Titanic corting through the fog

The winter came early that season
She felt the heat of I.C.E.
Her skates were best blade thin
Not thick enough for her own device

She had deep deportation eyes
The last time I saw her around
I don't see her at all now
Thinking that makes me frown

Depression :
A. The depressing rememberances
or recollections
of the ultimate
black hole
before the
big bang
B. The conflict
of a body
that wants to live
and a mind that
wants to die