She’s a cunning fool
Beautiful like tiny droplets falling
Landing gracefully on brittle blood orange leaves
Dancing in between the cracks of new and old
Weathered, she is strong
Growing from the branches of inevitable
Predictable as a full grown tree with disfigured twigs
We really don’t know her, we are naive
The ground is cold, but crunches underneath her clouded breath
Just breathe
This vindicated pixie, carvings green and black
Forever engraved, just to feel life sprout and jump
From her veins
She tussles with the wind
Collecting stones to weave
In her basket of leaves
They never stay
She’s not pretty like the flowers in May
Instead she’s haunting and brisk
Like the leaves of fall
Covered in a thick and heavy fog
Lonesome she walks to a side unspoken
But preparing for the cold dewy walk on ground unbroken
This vindicated pixie, she’s stronger than you and me.

In the morning fog my breath collects
Always leaving me to wonder what's next
My life became black and grey poetry
Colors just appear when you notice me
Your eyes a shade of grey and icey blue
Kaleidoscopes of emotions and hues
Dance inside your ever changing iris
It's a gamble, it's my heart I risk
The possibility of hurting me
Could lead to lasting love, eternally
To take my hand and go through the fire
For flames cannot touch stars that burn brighter

There are two of me,
Three, Four,
Three to stay standing
One to meet floor

There are four of me
Five, Six,
One who's all pure
One who's a mix

There are six of me
Seven, Eight,
One to be aloof
One to relate

There are eight of me
Nine, Ten,
One to be angry
One to be zen

There are ten of me
Eleven, Twelve,
One to spread
One to shelve

There are twelve of me
Thir, Four,
One to open windows
One to close doors

There are fourteen of me
Fifteen, Sixteen,
One to talk *****
One to act clean

There are Seventeen of me
One per year,
One to be obscure,
None to be clear.

There are Seventeen of me,
But seven through fourteen,
Slipped and fell,
Got lost in between

One to love
One to cold
One to decay
One to gold

There are Seventeen of me,
But eleven through eight
Turned green with envy
Turned cold with hate

There are Seventeen of me,
But two through seven
Went through hell
And deserved heaven

There are Seventeen of me
but only One matters
The one that's the strongest
The One whose heart's shattered.

The soothsayer only smiles and whispers,
stays anticipation and decays til you kiss her.

Leaning in:

Posture is, as much as
a broken back,
lacking.

Caught,
stiff and bare,
in a stare.
"I'm not acting,"

I'm retracting my opinions
backtrack to begin again.
Pinioned by inclusion;
on the right foot, left
to my conclusions.

If it's a game,
then i'm losin'.

This blinding space
give way!
Let you be stark
and cautious
simple so as not to
be distracting.

Apparition :

In the dark we speak of death
and we laugh to scare the ghosts,
Those silent ones.
So blatant, they blend
wide-eyed and somehow
they are unaware,
seeing little
but our heartbeats breaking the cold.

As well they should,
we are RADIANT!
casting bleak our features
and making the
longest
shadows
here in space.

I cast my mind back to my formative years
the simple life of a child, no real dangers or fears

No play stations or TV we made our own fun
Our playgrounds the fields and the forests under the sun

I often think back to those halcyon days
When we had unwritten rules about the way that we played

Eleven years old and wasps in a cloud
fourty eight stings later and boy did I howl

Now aged fourteen and a change for the best
Two years of training as a professional chef

At sixteen years old and a big change had begun
because I decided to make the army my home

Two brothers before me had taken up arms
and if needed would fight to keep our country from harm

Nineteen and still innocent in a strange foreign land
a place of death and destruction,  sharp rocks,  burning sand

I still have the dreams about what I did, things I saw
I guess such things happen when teenagers go to war

Twenty two and another change in my life
because I'm no longer single,  I now have a wife

On valentines day in 74
the midwife delivered a son to my door

A miracle of nature this beautiful boy
the first time I held him my heart filled with joy

And so long years passed, the good and the bad
at fourty from the army I parted, neither happy nor sad

I had travelled to lands I would never have seen
if I hadn't chosen to wear khaki and green

So at forty I made another life change
and decided to enter the security game

Several years later I decided to teach
to pass on the knowledge that others did seek

Well now approaching my sixty seventh year
its time to embark on another career

It's time to relax and grow gracefully old
a time to take up my pen so my story gets told