(with apologies to Elizabeth Barret Browning)

                                        Arrogant
­Book Soldier
Conceited
Con Artist
Covetous
Cunning
Deceitful
Disingenuou­s
Egoist
Egregious
Envious
Entitled
         ­                               Evil
Haughty
Hypocritica­l
Ignominious
Immoral
Jealous
Jumped Up
Machiavellian
Martinet
Mendacious
Nit Picky
                                        Obsessed
Peck Sniff
Perfidious
Persnickety
Pompous
Popinjay­
Predatory
****
Rapacious
Regimental
San­ctimonious
                                        Self Important
Shylock
Smarmy
Sophist
Supercilious­
Unctuous
Unethical
                                   ­     Vile
                                        Vicious
       ­                                 Zealot
       ljm

bathing in pools of soft earth
there ain't no poem you can choose
to forgive birth, you re-live first
the anthems of our ruse.
we begin to lose... then win a cloud
of pensive and twice removed
puns.

the sun is an enfant.
and the moon is the other-
one.

As I raised up in bed
At 3:05 am it's cold and the smell of death and the color red

I see the demons surrounding me
I feel them lifting me up in the air I try to plea

Spinning me around as if I was a toy
Chanting over and over we are here to destroy

My head feels the pain as they use the key to open my door
They creeped in hearing their voices saying it's time for war

As they enter into my brain I know I'm in trouble
I start fighting for my life but it's different this time so much rubble

They are strong as I am weak
Hitting and scratching at me feeling every shockwave hitting me like lightning streaks

I'm yelling for help but my voice is not heard
They drop me on the floor grabbing my hair and dragging me outside this is what I had feared

I reach for something,someone,anything to help me
They are taking me this time I've got to stop them I keep telling myself once they get me in their lair **** I just hit a tree

With all my might
I hang on tight

I finally find my best friend who died a week ago
Save me please I plead and she starts biting them and throwing them as if they was made of dough

I start helping her and in know time the demons have left except for one which is hiding in my head the one who stole the master key
The one that will never let me be free

But for now I can breathe again and only hope that I get my strength up for the next battle
I will continue to fight until I get my key back so I must not dismantle

That's when I'll be set free

Madness in the city
In the dark of night
Walking the mean streets
Hard-eyed
Made of stone
Keeping to the deepest shadows
To see and be unseen
***** deals to be done
Leaving friends with futures
Heading to pushers with pasts
And the nearest to goodness
To be found around here
Is sadness and tears
Broken hearts and wasted years
Who'll walk with me
Into the darkness?

                                By Phil Roberts

I’m gliding, not fighting
As I enter later years.
I’m skating, not debating
As I face my aging fears.
I see what I was afraid of
Were just phantasms only.
They leave too many scared
With talk of being lonely.

Go away with bearboo talk.
Nobody is frighted here.
It’s just another day for me
It’s nothing but another year!
Age is not the bogeyman
It comes along with the ride.
It’s part of what made my life
It’s proof that I have tried.

**** and chest swapped places
My hair is wandering south.
All that goes very swiftly
Is my energy and my mouth.
Everything is changing now
I am not a kid any more.
I spend time in pharmacy aisles
More than the rest of the store.

But none of this unexpected.
I watched others go through it.
It’s not like it was ever a secret.
No mystery. I totally knew it.
So I plan to celebrate this stage
Which means I must slow down
And take things as they come
No reason to whine, cry or frown.

every inch of me
is tattooed

with lines
of you