The sun it shone all too briefly for him
Before the darkness came
And the smile died on his face.

His was a bad school I guess
Let all the monsters out of their box
To grin and leer like gargoyles on a
   church.

That'd haunt his dreams at night
Leave him dangling over the edge
Staring down into chasms deep.

With a mind a maze of cul de sacs
And at the end of each
Some horrible apparition to drive him
   back.

Yea, they taught you well
To run forever/ on a hot coal floor
Sleep on a burning bed
(A desperate man in a desperate land).

You must have known you were
   different
Looking at others, seeing how they
   were
Must have known something was
   amiss.

No wonder you sought to escape
Through others.... in drugs, in drink
Anything to escape those awful
   shadows.

And your only crime ? ....You wanted
   to live.

The coffee it helps,
Quench this dull headache,
I’ve had now for numerous days.
Too many late nights,
Ales and tablets,
I’ve burnt up my turn of phrase.

You ruthlessly call me,
And tell me quite firmly,
That this time it really is it.
I press the red button,
Dig my head in the pillow,
As the message it slowly transmits.

In this strange room,
I don’t at all recognise,
All this clutter surrounding the bed.
It makes no more sense,
Than the apathy circling,
In the nest at the front of my head.

I’ll lay here all day,
Until this numb goes away,
And motivation returns to my bones.
The air here is stagnant,
It’s so hard to drift off,
When dragged back by one's slatternly clothes.

In the sheets of drizzle below the autumn cloud
eyes beaming with the glow of love
wave at the receding figure
to the farthest visibility.

The man leashed to the cubicle with the screen
would think of those faces
when the day is at its broadest invitation
and light like the luminous ether
fills every dark pocket of the land
listening to the rhyme of the clock
from his abyss of ratios and rates
while the vagabond clouds come together
and break apart in the game of revealing blue
painting new faces and waving hands
on the landscape of the gate
up to the farthest turn
in the sheets of drizzle
beneath the autumn clouds.

How mindlessly on Life's ocean we float,
Practicing deceit, causing tears to fall,
While a witness silently takes note --
Time sees and hears all

Not one false vow made in the name of Love
Will escape Time's ever watchful eyes;
Like thawing snow reveals the frozen dove,
Time unveils all lies

Tears carve channels that are easy to trace,
Brows are furrowed by promises broken;
You need only look upon my face .......
The years have spoken

make a run to  st patrick's
put a dollar in the church box
light a votive candle

dreams stay with you
like a lovers voice calling
from across a crowded street

or an old friend that never leaves

in the darkest night
every bar stool is a wish
every robin sings a prayer
every drop of water sells a dream.

a pond or a puddle
add a thousand tears
spill a river into an ocean

in an outstretched hand I put a dollar.
he shoves it into his pocket.

the drop of water