First poem to Tina as my lover no more.

I.

Three years and eight months.
My closest. My one.
She'd stayed through madness
Enough.
I am a man of demons.
As I slayed the last one
I turned to see her having fallen
For the blow
As well.
Women and children
Die first.

II.

We cry. We kiss and cry.
Make love crying.
Laugh crying.
Leaving streaks on her back
Of salty regret
As I kiss her every single
Detail farewell.
How can gratitude for love
Hurt like being hated
By a loved
One?

III.

I take full responsibility.
Never raised a hand, but spoke
Hard and disgusting
Bottled anger.
Her leaving makes it
Poetry; lends meaning.
I'll drink again, but the drunk
Demon
Is dead.

IVa.

Today I'll come home
And forget to cook
For just one.
That Volvo will never
Come speeding down the
Gravel road again containing
Other than an ex
Coming to collect
More things that are no
Longer
Ours.

IVb.

No longer mine. I say like all
Others in grief: *This pain
Is new to me.
I embrace it on the floor
Holding her sweater
That I burned a little
Warming it on the stove for
Her in winter.
Then it's into the box
With it.
I'll leave a tear on her every
Garment, thanking for
The love and passion
They held within.

V.

I look up at skies as blue
As they come.
I will live here alone.
Thanking for all the beauty,
And all we learned from
What wasn't.
All is how it should be.
This was our road to
Travel together.

Be well. Be loved. Be safe.
You owe me nothing.
Be happy for this;
There's growth in it.
You are no longer my
Girlfriend, but you'll
Always be my
Girl.

"Together" was our word.
To Get Her was
My most gracious gift
Since Life.
Now let me cry
Like a child lost.
Then I'll move on,
Being neither.

when I grew up I became a writer,
and at the same time all other
pursuits faded and floundered,
crumpling and whimpering like
puppies made of paper thin rose petals.

all my time is spent in thought,
warm wet puffy clouds of insight;
when I emerge in the light
of day with the mere mortals
chewing their complacency
like doe eyed, robotic cows,
my hands shake and my words run together.

I am too busy for the nonsense people call the daily grind,
that 9-5 mentality and the routine, oh the routine,
where we do what we hate so we have ten minutes to do
what we love and who we love.

Can't someone propose that we can do what we love
and get paid to do so, paid horrendously delicious amounts of money,
that would make basketball players blush and drug dealers cry?

For now I will take charge of this joblessness and settle into
my thoughts where I am free to roam
past streets filled with people waving at me and cheering me on;
I'll work your 9-5, and I'll spend a hearty 11 minutes
pouring my soul into my writing.

Sorry I'm late to work again.

Guard's boots echo on stone floor
Crash of ocean pounding rocks
Roar of wind across the waves
Lost gull cries against the storm
Clang of iron door slamming shut
Key rattled lock clunking tight
Stifled whimper, slap of skin on skin
Maddening laugh follows screams
Psalms 23-4 whispered over and over
Sounds of hell slide through my bars
like wisps of black smoke in the night.

r ~ 6/15/14

Do you remember last cascades of laughter
Till your breath couldn’t take it anymore
Your seams almost opened belly ruptured
From standing you came down to floor!

You laughed first once and then couldn’t hold
Their peals kept gushing like a flood
Mouth hole bared from eyes tears rolled
Laughter invaded your blood!

People wouldn’t know if you laughed or wept
As tears flowed down your cheeks
Such was the fun it did you suffocate
Seemed wouldn’t stop for weeks!

If you remember please pass onto me
I’ll preserve in a bottle that stuff
Only to uncork when it needs be
In the days that I find pretty tough!

The time has come for me to go
the truth has been made clear
within the writing on the wall
I do not belong here.

I've hidden here in shadows dim
not reaching for the light
my heart will cast no shadow now
as broken wings take flight

But rest assured that you are loved
within me you will stay
with heavy heart I leave you now
on this my dying day.

Life is like cupcakes and pizza,
sometimes even when you think
you've done it correctly
with perfect measurement,
accurate technique...
Still sometimes it turns out to be hard and bad..
Then you'd realize
its not about the perfect ingredients
or the correct methods after all...
its all coming from your heart...
Your sincerity in doing things
and making and living your life..
So that it'll be as soft and sweet
as your cupcakes
and as delicious as your mouth waterin pepperoni pizza..

Asteroids come passing on by
Beautiful visions up in the sky
Cosmic wonders seen at night
Delivering a spectacular sight
Each magnificent feature we see
Forever in a universe that is free
Galaxies are still waiting to be seen
Heavenly bodies, they glitter and gleam
Innocent twinkling of the stars
Jupiter shows beauty, so does Mars
Keep looking at the visions above
Lights shining out, brightly with love
Meteors are coming,visiting near
New born universes,somewhere, here
Open wonders that are in their prime
Paradoxes shown from another time
Quickly passes on,a shooting star
Running on past, from somewhere afar
Space still hides countless treasures
Teaching us still, of untold pleasures
Universal feelings are what we feel
Venus, the love Goddess, is so real
Wondering of what secrets still await
Xmas of endless galaxies are our fate
Yonder, up in Heavenly skies, a beautiful dream
Zodiacal river flows from a starbound stream

The old man was standing,
still and quite,
his back turned to the sun
as it drowned
in stormy shades of orange and pink.

The old man was still and quite,
staring the wavy distant line
hills and mountains drew.

The warmness of the dying day
spread a scent of hay, exhaling,
a violet blue slowly cloaking
distance and nearness.

As the full moon rose
in close roundness,
brightening contours
in a charcoal outline,
the old man lowered his head
and turned away.

In the early morning,
their feet wet by the dew
glimmering the fields,
giggling children
and women with panniers
swinging in their hands
would come
and harvest
the ripening fragrancy
of strawberry fields.

I believe in ghosts.
I want to.
I believe in all gods; therefore

None.
I believe in both the survival and
Demise of Mankind.

I believe in the perfection within
Every shard and smithereen.  
Existence is

Excellence.
Stop. Stop correcting yourself
To pieces.

You don't need to drop those sizes.
You don't need those wrinkles
Gone.

You don't need that stanza to
Rhyme; to reverberate; to shine
Standing out like

Embraces on a battlefield.
Everything created is an
Infant. Approve of it.

Adore it. Admire it.
Love your child, and
Forgive it. For

All it
Refuses
To be.

she spits out hurt like fire
a dragon in her own flesh
what little can he do
but pull out a cigarette

he'd rather burn his lungs instead
to refrain from saying things simply
misread


© A. Leigh

Fight, fight against the night
Race to the dawn
Far from home are we in this our billet damp and dark
Band of brothers, All for one, One for all
This will not be my end, you'll see.
Nor theirs, brave friends, strong and true
We rage once more against the enemy

Fight, fight against the night
The skies above scream with such thunderous voice
For us to go to fate unknown
No! No!
I will not fall, for once again dawns light I'll see
A flicker of the suns golden rays
Will save me from this hell, this purgatory            

Fight, fight against the night
My ears crave a kind whisper
My lips long for the gentle kiss of home
My hands to once again touch the door
And enter to warm embraces
And love
Ah love, I miss this most of all
Desperately clinging to memories of brighter days
Hoping, endlessly for peace to fall

Fight, fight against the night
My comrades with me,
Now my kin, together to the end
Spirits high we smile through adversity
We have no want to show our sorrow
For we are feeling, aching, longing as one
Duplicated in our grief and its severity

Fight, fight against the night
My hands they shake through cold and fear
Both bite through every layer I have
Tonight again we fight
For freedom, Fight for what we left behind
For loved ones waiting, praying, wishing
To see us back on England's shore
For we are men no more than that
But in our strength we will defeat
What lies beyond the barbs we see
Through mist and smoke
On, on to meet our destiny.