Fear not he who bleeds the ink bone dry
From which to carve out our dear lord’s cry
Nor she who bears forth corpses of stone
Amassed in silence to reclaim his throne

Tell naught of his dreams that sing of sorrow
Its symphony beckoning us to follow
Nor tell tales echoed amidst black pitch
Coaxing the darkness to writhe and twitch

Keep hidden secrets of brimstone and ash
Daemons awaiting to gnaw and gnash
Keep hidden the key to the world’s iron braces
Those whom they fear must remain faceless

Sleep, my lamb, and dream ever sweetly
Fate’s threads stitch and bind completely
Dream of celestial tapestries divine
As they elegantly intertwine

I saw you in my dreams last night
As your body laid there cold and quaking
The doctor robed in decrepit shadows
Whispered to me, “wishes do come true.”

Your hands were pale and fragile
Like a thousand crumpled paper cranes
A thousand torn up love letters
A thousand rewritten apologies

So I gently folded them into mine
Hoping to give them back their true form
Reshaping your joints to familiar angles
The ones my own hands knew best

I studied the rise and fall of your chest
Encumbered with each painful breath
Your body and soul danced with demise
To the sound of the monitor keeping time

Then a disembodied voice rattled my sanity
A forgotten melody that once haunted me
“I cheated death for far too long
to let you be the one that stops my heart’s beating”

I could not reply, lacking the proper answer
Overcome with remorse and eager to end the torment
I hurriedly traded heartbeats with you
And felt my pulse shudder and stammer

My new heart’s cadence slowed then ceased
Suddenly missing the rib caged rhythm
An epiphany of the words I desperately needed
Became perfect, cohesive, articulate, whole

But the room fell silent and my voice fell short
Only the sigh of my last breath lingered
And my unsung requiem remains
*L’esprit de l’escalier

Doomsday approaches
Quick now, bury your loved ones
I'll see you in hell

Drain my life's blood and let it turn to tar where my body lies
Rip the pale flesh from my bones like a starved creature
**** the marrow from their ceramic casings

Bury me in an unmarked grave where nothing grows
Let the maggots consume my rotting vessel
It makes no difference in the end

Death by any other name would smell as foul
But my essence is that of divine shadow
And you must drown out the sun

Welcome Winter's moon
Feel the bite of solstice air
Frigid dreams await

it hits you
but not all at once
or like a ton of bricks
more like
a constant migrane
a dull throb
with spikes of pain
that strike you
listlessly in vain
in the oddest
times and places
it hits you
in the middle of the night
or while staring
into your coffee
ruminating twilight
on your drive home
or when you get caught
in a stranger's sight
it hits you
and you'll want
to hit back
but you just can't
connect

Demure by nature
The palest garden of Eve
Ruined by a rose