Their noses sniff the shadows, at dusk
The leaves crumble beneath them
Leaving maps of the past
Forgotten until morning.

I can hear them.
They are only a single nightmare away.
The ivory hangs, but their teeth can taste
The faint
Traces
Of you.

I can never run far enough, fast enough
Because no matter how hard I try to forget,
Their noses appear from under the rug.

A whisper made it through the night
a  snap
a turn
a scream
darkness was our only cover
a boy
a girl
a scene
We didn't know one another
a soul
a girl
why me?
I barely knew him

The world was closing in
like rough waters overhead.

And as the pressure rose


my heartbeat told me this:




every last gasp is worth fighting for.

I cannot feel,
What I do not understand,
what I cannot define.

But what is a word?
Love, by definition:
“Intense affection”

How do you measure
this “intensity?”
I feel affection for my cat…

What is in a word?
Does it perhaps,
take away from
the real emotion of the thing?

Is it our inadequate,
feeble, futile
hopelessly human
attempt to explain the inexplicable?

I can toss this word about
throwing it carelessly
at each insignificant being,
“Oh, cat I love you so!”

But who’s to say?

I do not pretend
to understand this
impossible “love”

This utterly obnoxious
four letter, two syllable
combination of alphabet.

Perhaps,
when it was first engendered,
it had real meaning,
true value, and worth.



However, if that was the case
it is no longer so,
for “love” is spat from every mouth
at any time, for no apparent rhyme or reason.

This pure ****** word,
has been ***** countless times
by our society, our culture.

Maybe, at one time
it was a beautiful thing,
understood, yet rarely spoken.

Which is why I don’t feign to explain,
for you cannot define,
that which has lost all meaning.

And so love has,
it’s become a senseless, dead,
worthless word deprived of substance.

It is true however,
that the owner
places value on a word
when it is spoken to another,
but vocal words
proclaim untruths,
and the mouth
is the greatest deceiver.

One can never be truly
sure of the honest essence
of that one simple sentence.

Which is why,
I do not speak “love”
with my lips or tongue,
I whisper it silently
with my eyes,
for those have not yet learned
how to lie.

You're twiddling your thumbs,
Tugging on your shirt.
I see you break
Into a cold sweat.
Watch your knees shake,
I know you're nervous.
And you radiate unsure
But you just breathe,
Until the twitching stops.
Calm down a little,
Say what you planned.
Four most dangerous words
In the English language,
We need to talk.
**My turn to worry.

I tried to write an epic
Like those who've come before
It had to grab the reader
It had to leave them wanting more

How to start an epic
I've a line but it's not mine
I  could use it, as have others
I think most will think it's fine

But, it's been used so very often
By writers  we all know
Four words that grab the reader
Four words that make us go

We see these words and wonder
Where will our writer lead
Will we go to foreign countries?
Will we see someone in need?

I'm five verses in now,
I've not even started yet
I think I'll use the four words
They're the best I'm gonna get

So here is my beginning
In the sixth verse, and last line
I guess it's here where I'm beginning....
Once upon a time...