A cigarette. A ****** cigarette.
You discovered that I
was a habitual liar.
All from the stubbed cigarette
at my feet.
I didn’t blame you.
I would never want to be
with someone so filthy.
It’s hard, you know.
Your first lie is like the first injection
It’s the rush, baby.
And then you find yourself
unable to pull away.
Always,
eventually going back.
Lies are blameless
The liar is to blame.
I love you
But not enough to stop
And you discovered this-
this habit of mine
all from a cigarette.
A cigarette. A ****** cigarette.

I’m afraid of the ocean when its waves rush forward,
its translucent arms wrapping around the impressions of my feet..

The ocean is a mother giving birth,
life surging forward and then receding in the swirls of salt and sun.

Measureless
Its belly has captured the souls of sailors and broken ships.
Ghosts drag on the bottom floor choking on their entrails.

A 15th century wood-hulled ship is their playground,
And they gnaw on the golden coins that flutter down onto each floor
as the wood shrivels with the weight of plankton.

She is the undertow
And she is the rip current.
She surrounds us
And we will never escape her.

Judgment is a leaking faucet.

So natural it seems to condemn
the unknown,
but I’ve seen the unknown
and it’s never what they think.

This world has different tongues,
crawling over each other to be heard.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen mankind
so divided, so full hate
over what they can’t see.

Children, reflective of their environment,
guided to beat down their gavel.

“What is that?” they persisted.
“It’s wrong,” they said.
But mother and father always told me,
“They just don’t know, baby.”

But even if they didn’t know,
their ridicule was the constant whistle of a belt lash.

Modern times are the same as the olden days.
Babies are born with the inherent fear of strangers
and mankind is born with the inherent fear of the unknown.

For religion is something of a mirage.
From afar, it’s inviting, encouraging.

And then all at once, that image disappears.
Fallacies spread like cancer,
extremists manipulate the weak and desperate.

And every group tears at each other’s throat to have the last word.
Because that fear of the unknown
drives us to obliterate each other
whether or not we consciously know so.

Vain attempts to change our ways,
but mankind is of the flesh
and there will be no perfect union.

I cry for the struggles,
the wars fought in the name of religion.
How a father could look upon his son
and speak that killing is what his god wants.

Killing is what his god wants.
Killing is what his god wants.

Killing.

God.

Oh romantic -
your era has yet to end
for spring has quietly slipped among the poppies.
Barrade me with the lashings of quick-witted tongues,
pull me from the peak that I so desperately cling to.
Evidence of autumn in summer
or is that the hues of a restless sun?

Release the birdie that resides in you.
Open the cage that contains the humble creature.
And as you do, watch it fly
Over the heads of everyone you know

Straight unto the heavens
It sores.
Casting rays of delight
And love.

For a heart is a complicated little thing.

Like the wind that slivers through the curtains, casting out feeble dancers
               I glide to the window, casting out shadows of black and tears.
                     And loosen a ribbon tainted with a desolate cancer.
                                     I cry with abnormal fear.

Icy fingers lay across the wind torn papers

                        Blood thickening over the most indulging words



                        Lifeless eyes stare upon the angels of discretion
                                    
                                   Her skin slowly peeling away

                                       Bones thicker than wood,

                                 Crunch under the feet of a giant.



                                   Whose heart lies inside a chest
                                
                                  Locked away in the head of a girl

                     Whose icy fingers lay across the wind torn papers.