"say what you
mean to say"

isn't as easy as french bread when
all the words build up inside your
skull like ideas born to a warm
dim place with inadequate
space to learn, convinced
to fight rather than
reason amongst themselves for
rationed pleasures like inspiration,
expansion, acknowledgement from the
conflicted world they call home, someone
that allows for only one or two
survivors every so
often, two bold witnesses
battle-scarred and cynical

limping to your ears

eight months we loved and fought with equal rage
upon the net's equator spinning round
we baked our flesh in sun of summer's age
and died on winter's snow filled concrete ground

this, every day a battle to the death
we slaughtered one another to the grave
then making love, restoring life with breath
we'd soar back to the skies embraced and saved

each day has been a lifetime full of life
lived fully in our love den's angry place
ineffable our love in passion's strife
so many resurrections in one space

and now too tired to raise again the sword
we rest with silenced love and not a word

(C)2012, Christos Rigakos

When you close your eyes
do you know
what it is dawning
as a torchlight on the silver glass
of your soul?  
Does your heart like mine
throb with words
crying out to breathe life
into the darkness of your world
and for once,
be understood by all?

If our words could stand up
and dance in the light
of a moon shining on love
they could  be loud enough
for others to learn.
Until everything said
played out in a scene of seconds  
full of trust, never ending
or needing
to be discerned.

My heart speaks the language
that your heart understands.  
Our thoughts
are one and the same.
Your heart too,
speaks the language
my heart understands.  
Each of our words
cries out to breathe life
into the darkness,
oh......
if only they could dance.

These days
        our days are not
               numbered
   not at all subject to the
     order we love to defy

I refuse to believe anything to
the contrary,
                      there is no judgment day
                          


impossible.

sometimes happiness and
I are right
there beside you
and when you turn to
look,
            we get bored and
                              leave

Stars
lose their luster
when I gaze
into
your eyes.

Upfront and personal
disclosure through windows, fingers,
twos and threes jumped outside, robbed
of their ingenuity, beaten for the sheer wonder of
sound, popular opinion tattooing
rhythm into their skulls

delight transforming destiny into
ranks of the destitute

There were days
I fell into a whirlwind
where sunlight glittered
then escaped.
I was proud  
to count each move made
as a gift.
Sometimes, underneath my eyes
I could see a kiss
deep inside an ocean
of a thousand stars
looking up
at my lips.

Often, I wished
to be still
inside my soul
find a shelter
where I could dance
just one more time,
to verses I wrote
just for you.
Thinking,
perhaps then,
I could fade hypnotically
into your thoughts,
find the sweetest truth.

For endless days now,
I have stared at empty paper
trying to remember
your voice
and capture how much I love you
inside a metaphor.
I found I only fell back
into a whirlwind
where sunlight glittered
then escaped
my heart
only loved you more.

Last night, underneath my eyes
I once again
saw a kiss
deep inside an ocean
of a thousand stars
filled with your face
and my own.
There, I danced
inside the stillness of my soul
within the shelter
of your arms,
found in your eyes,
my home.