So many years have drained,
slowly taking what was once mine
scattering it over endless thoughts and memories
And I wonder why, where has it all gone…
Silver finds locks once dark,
muscles speak in much louder tones

Sleep is something of youthful moments
and nightmares wrap me where once bloomed orchids

Coming down that mountain…stumbling,
gazing on the valley below, green and lush,
envying those who still smile,
holding hands and drinking of life
one happy sip at a time
from that half full glass held next to their hearts

Not a drop spilled on their dance floor,
mixing with saw dust and erratic footprint designs

A tear finds my cheek, lonely as it is
asking what did it mean, why has loved passed me by
Nary a wave or a nod, eyes fixed elsewhere
Am I hideous…the thought has crossed my mind…why did I just grin,
did something soft touch me and I didn’t notice,
until now…perhaps

There’s that word again…seems overused
though it hasn’t been spoken in ages

Entering that final path, winding…tiring so
but a spring in the old step, a bounce found in place of a crawl
“Sweet the fragrant air doth find me of you”
Why did I just say that, and in a voice I hadn’t heard in so long
Seems to be singing…and it is me…me
and funny…I hear harmony

So it has come, the voices of my past belting out a few notes
into the mind of crab cake crumbles and starched socks

Yet it is not in my head, it is on the wind…a cool breeze of song
wafts along aged skin and tickles…and I laugh at the feeling
When she appears from a field of lavender, different yet perfect,
beautiful eyes, lips…I must be going insane…they said it would happen…madness
Then she smiles at me and I smile back, could this be….love…me
Taking my hand we run…yes run…uphill…and I feel free

Reaching in my pocket I pull out the four leaf clover
I found when I was twelve and whisper…”Took you long enough”

~

Silence, on waves of our tide motioned heartbeats,
cascading rhythms, a smooth metronome
Keeping this time inside blue water passions,
beneath the surface, the feelings we’ve grown

Hidden so deep in the swells of affection,
swimming the shores of a long summer’s night
Building a fortress of seashell laced castles,
sand dollar curtains to fend off the light

Running for cover as sunrise now beckons,
placing our smiles where the seas can not gaze
Whispering secrets of coast line devotion,
harboring dreams till the end of our days

Lighthouse lit beacons now search as a witness,
beaches a’ shimmer of moon glow above
Hoisting our anchor, we share the horizons,
*sailing these oceans, professing our love

** will never write poetry
His senses are too occupied
With his surround’s passing scenery
Holding them in gaze wide eyed!

** has no time to think and write
Letting so much meanwhile pass him
Not counting the sleeping hours of night
Eyes’ plenty to fill him to brim!

** can’t spend whiles typing away
While the sky turns her blue into red
Can’t afford to waste an already short day
Counting words creating riddles in his head!

** is too busy to set his mind
On begetting inky wordy ***** poem
With nature calling him to see and find
The beauty of the morn in sun flame!

Wolf whistles
And crocodile smiles
Acting like an animal
has never been my style.
I don't
Cat call
or creeper crawl
I'd rather slither on into your mind
I want to
Haunt you
Until you're mine
All Mine

I don't need
to violate your body
To consume
all of your thoughts
I don't need
to victimize you
To dominate you
Or be your God.

I'll attach me to each memory
You cherish in your life
Your mind I will monopolize
And then the world before your eyes

You set me ablaze
So you'll be my prey
Until I'm the central figure
of your story
Don't be afraid -
But there are many ways
A man can be
Predatory

Did we not just sit together
and dine upon thy own hearts?
Did we not just sit across
from each other
as we fed upon
each others 'left alone' parts?
Did we not just sip upon
each others open vein?
Did we not just smile a ****** grin
and decide to not assign blame?
Did we not just pick apart
the carrion of the past?
Did we not just lick our lips
at the end of a remarkable repast?
Did we not just sit together
and enjoy just chewing the fat?
Did we not just dine together?

*I doubt that...

Beyond beyond the battle cries
Beyond the crumbled walls
Beyond the stony battlements
Where banners rise and soldiers fall
Where bloodied men will weep and call
For gods and mothers at their sides
Where men fight brave and brave men die
Beyond beyond the crumbled walls
Where empires rise and fall

Beyond beyond the carrion flies
Beyond the crumbled halls
Beyond the crimson flooded moat
Where swordsmen clash and hammers ring
Where steel on steel will flash and sing
For gods, for country, lords and king
Where brave men fight and brave men fall
Beyond beyond the crumbled halls
Where empires rise and fall

I fear no living thing, nor dead.
No monsters hide beneath my bed.
I've heard and seen my share
Of ghosts. I find them harmless;

More than most of all that
Walks and thinks and breathes,
That carries blades or guns, and
Bleeds. But all I find a fright to be

Is resting deep inside of me.
There's Weakness there, it's hiding
Well, it's cunning, slippery, strong
As hell. There's Fury too; a

Juggernaut -awakened by a single
Thought. But enemy to them is Soul,  
Its agent's name is Self Control.
It cages them with Love and Care,

And ties them down with
Self-Aware.

Allow neither success nor failure to undermine your attitude.

~

Chalked up to experience
erasers pounding in a sea of dust
     white marks on black thoughts
over and under the text book meanings
  torn pages litter lost feelings
     and no one cares what the teacher’s name is
as the bell rings and hallways fill
  with empty stares and blank expressions
          dialing forgotten combinations
*of locker stashed dreams

I’ve got five minutes
Then I must leave my verdant patch
On the skirt of a wind-rustled lake
hidden behind Logan's Roadhouse

Five minutes
to mentally finger with the fetal position
In which I awoke this morning,
there as the sun drew long shadows,

I, a diminutive daub of nautilus,
On a California King,
rippled plane of sand,
Sporadic shivers, beneath a chenille blanket

I, the town crier of dawn as
My own dreams ran screaming through the silence
Pointing a finger at
my sanctuary… “Here is your pearl thief!”

Men in hats, briefcases, heel-toe black clicky and shiny shoes
on leashes lugged,
Yanked by noisy hounds passing by
stop, sniff, snarl-toothed *******…

then one caught my scent,
“Five minutes more sleep,” I implored
"Find another dreaming fleshy mess of bones!"
And leave me to my pearl.

But it’s a universe that simply will not wait
And suffer fools for sleepers,
not a moment more
Yet for my many sleepless minutes after,

Dusk till dawn, and still beyond,
it’s always,
                  five
         minutes
more