The intelligent become deppressed,
while ignorance is blessed.
How will this world continue,
when power is purely within you?

Was there a word,
Plain or shimmering,
Cast of gold and mercy,
In the bathing light of forgiveness,
Tempered with down and feather,
Wrought of worthiness and pride,
The mellow flame of tenderness
And shearing morning sun,
One tabulation of saving flesh,
The tapping root of the knowledge
Tree, the forge of stainless metal
And touch, stone direction,
One healing humour, cardinal
As blood, forceful as the salt
Journey bearing the pines
Of lodestar coordinates,
Spotting the Xanadu ex
Of the lost lovers?

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.

all of a sudden a smell becomes a moment, and years after you've stopped wearing that vanilla body spray you still think of your first kiss and ninth grade every time that you smell it. sometimes it takes you by such surprise, it shocks you into the past, and for a moment you love him again.

61

Papa above!
Regard a Mouse
O’erpowered by the Cat!
Reserve within thy kingdom
A “Mansion” for the Rat!

Snug in seraphic Cupboards
To nibble all the day
While unsuspecting Cycles
Wheel solemnly away!

So here I lay
Another bed
In another room
With another man
On another night.
And nothing feels
The same because
None of the men
Are you.

You will not look at me.

Not even look at the brave face I practiced
Not look at the smile I painted
Not at the dry eyes I skillfully mastered

This mask I made for you to see
But still, you will not look at me
As if my fakeness, will mutilate the image you have of me

*I can tell you, it will.

The lines on my hands are dotted,
and I’m waiting in vain to fill the space with some clarity.

I see a level head, yet my heart line looks faulty and untrusting.
Criss-crosses are etched into the line of my life.
Weaving themselves outward, they touch each aspect of my being-
Representing deep waters from out of the blue; which subsequently alters
until I’m submerged in wisdom.

Although my hands are a gift in the way of my future,
I’m stuck in this present moment- wandering.
I try to listen but fear that I won't hear is trapped in my ears.
I look to my treading feet...
they won’t speak.

In the silence of myself i’ll find truth that not even time will tell.
Seek answers within, search no longer.
In, out.
My breath, eloquent in all its simplicity,
gives me a map of the wind’s movement, the earth’s energy
and my soul’s path.