Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

      A penny for the Old Guy

      I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

      II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

      III

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

      IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We ***** together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

      V

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
                                For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
                                Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
                                For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Soft as a feather
your kiss comes to me
Here ever after
I long it to be
Tight on my lips
so perfect and pure
Yours is the kiss
I've come to adore

Warm as the springtime
your touch I can feel
Holding me close
I know it is real
Constant like tides
caressing the shore
Yours is the touch
I've come to adore

This side of heaven
your love calls my name
Eternal my dream
igniting the flame
A beautiful light
to shine evermore
Yours is the love
I love to adore

Everyone looks better
Dressed up in black and white
Untouched by the colors
Of the lie they hide behind
You notice every inch of them
From the hue of their hair
To the color of their skin
You can truly see the way
Their eyes reflect the sun
And how they hold themselves up
Everyone looks better
Dressed up in black and white
Untouched by the colors
Of the lie they hide behind.

You're like sheer fabric
  the way your smile can't hide your bleeding heart,
you used to know love.

Some people walk with their heads so high and their hearts guarded by 30 foot walls topped with barbed wire fences
that you'd mistake them for being put together.
  What you don't see is the devastation behind the giant structures
the reason for hiding
and complete fear just behind the surface of their eyes.
  They're like windows to the soul, we're told,
the seeing glass to the ocean beneath the surface
rolling with it's tempestuous waves,
lying to surface the depths of pain caused by memories passed.

You're like the books I like to read,
deep in their conflicts and swirling emotions
swimming in the complexities of their fight for will.
  You're a resolution in yourself
you just don't know it yet.

You're like the fabrics I sew and the cards I make.
You're like glass,
I see right through you.
  Even through your laughter, the same one that hides your tears.