Silver threads
strain to mend
the rips in time --
a shattered mind,
     pieces scattered,
falls witness
to guilt's campaign.
Voices invade
the natural silence:
discordant,
with mouthless
     screams.
Unnatural lyrics
****** the ears...
Dark figures
menace, just beyond
   clarity,
tricking the eye.
(Fear's morbid
fascination.)
Sight and sound
     betrayed...
The night is long
that has no hope
   for day...
(no escape nor reprieve).
The Rituals of
     madness
must be obeyed.

I so wanted to take you
into the woods that day--
     home--
but the world encroached,
robbing us of chance
     and time.
Still, there  are many woods
to stir our hearts.
I will find you one,
on one of those bright
and blameless days.
One summer morning
when the warm, familiar sun
     floods down,
and our shadows
hide beneath the bridges
     of our souls.
You"ll turn and look
     at me --
and I will feel
the skin of your eyes
     quiver.

Torchlights bloomed,
glowing amber rays
against the silver-studded sky:
beacons watching,
     waiting,
for the silent men
who slowly slide
though sheltering shadows,
toward our nocturnal homeland.
Dew settled:
sheets of diamond-dust
sevenfold upon the
   shimmering sand.
Distant songs (faintly heard),
     tried to fade,
yet lingered on the smokey
     air...
Fires (the First Rituals)
     flickered, flared --
and I remembered
the sound of your voice.

Shadows murmur
across the hills --
voices, faint,
an ancient chorus.
A tired season
slowly enters
sleep's provence.
Sighs linger,
caught ephemeral,
in vapors or
     in dreams.
Secrets, older than
     centuries,
long to be revealed.
Smoke and dusk
     embrace;
old eyes strain --
deaf ears fall
     short
of forgotten lore,
the meaning lost.
Silent footfalls
follow vague
     whispers.
Fires flicker, fade.
This landscape,
     growing dim,
transverses night
and time.

To you I pledge
on this long night,
the promise only we
   can keep.
No other two
can claim to know
what we have learned,
nor feel what we
     have felt.
The others feign their
     loyalty --
say: two hearts
beat as one...
False hope, faint truths,
and faded dignity --
no inkling of the vows
in darkness made,
which only we
     can keep.

I loved him once
so long ago --
the years have passed,
yet memories
do not fade.
A touch, a kiss --
all those moments
caught in time.
Laughter once heard
echoes beyond
   the grave.
And tears
that fell,
   still now
bring pain.
I loved him once
so long ago...
and he loved me.

Oh glorious Autumn,
your beauty surpasses
Spring's delight.
Your blaze of colors
ignites the air,
as leaves fall
like sparks
to carpet the ground
with orange and yellow,
     red and brown.
Oh, glorious Autumn,
I love you best;
your fire
spreads across the
     hills.
Aspen, maple,
     elm and birch
adorned in decadent finery:
one last stand
before Winter's chill.
Oh glorious Autumn,
your beauty
surpasses all the rest.