Your ways
( tes façons )


“Shadows grow so long before my eyes”

In silhouettes of dreams past and present
Deep within my desperate heart,
as I yearn for your love, reaching for my pen,
digging through postage stamps and paperclips

“And they’re moving, across the page”

Producing odd shapes on striped paper,
outlines of shaded emotions and verses
Calling out your name in bold ink
and rhyming stanzas of affection

“Suddenly the day turns into night”

Twilight steps over the horizon
as tree top edges touch newly glowing stars
Peering through curtains of cosmic lace
and flickering candlelight with soft breezes

“Far away, from the city”

Miles counted by minutes can be
a daunting task if I hesitate, yet footsteps in the dark
follow paths illumined by your eyes,
as my need grows for your love…I just can’t wait

*“Mon bébé, J'aime tes façons”

~

So happy that you listened
My words they weren’t so deep
But you deserve much better
Than that little whiny creep

Your talent shines like moon beams
Your smile like the sun
No use in wasting any time
With someone who’s a ***

He’s nothing but a little punk
Who thinks he is so grand
Has such a hard time writing
With something in his hand

So send this loser packing
Tell him to get lost
Pay someone to kick his ***
Regardless of the cost

He is but a cockroach
Running from the light
To afraid to hang around
Stand up to the fight

So once again I’m happy
You listened to me Sye
So many people love you here
You don’t need this guy

~


I try, I swear I try,
but you are always there,
touching my thoughts with wonder,
bringing desires to my mind
on endless wishes
cast upon continuous ripples,
rapidly forming with every breath I take
~
Morning brings the sunrise
in multicolored shades of how I feel
Reaching for that lost love,
floating like indigo butterflies
just beyond my grasp, though
I still want, with every ounce,
every movement, every hope
~
I have been told
I long for what I can not have,
that elusive bloom
at the peak of the arbor,
radiant beauty washing down upon me,
fragrant reminders of a time before,
when your petals gathered at my heart
~
And try as I like it is of no use,
my mind holds you, desperately dreaming
in echoed whispers and twilight shadows
which never seem to end
For as long as there are butterflies,
honeysuckle breezes and poetry...
*there will be you

~

A bloom is not forgotten for its fragrance lingers on
Captured in the morning dew that plays upon the lawn
Delicate the petals when no longer we do find
Still its beauty follows us forever in our mind

The melodies of nightingales within the trees do sing
Until the time they wander off, the wind beneath their wings
When off into the distance finds these birds no longer near
Still their song it plays its tune that we shall always hear

On the beach we build a castle very tall and fine
Made of tiny grains of sand this summer day we find
And even when the tide does wash away our grand surprise
Still we find the magic it does play upon our eyes

When the sun is setting out along the western shore
The warmth upon our skin we felt, we come to want once more
Now as the darkness falls and this new day does turn to night
Still we can remember that the sun was shining bright

As we turn the pages in the brand new book we read
Every new found place into our minds we slowly feed
Coming to the last page and “The End” the words do say
Still we find the story it shall never go away

A bloom is not forgotten for its fragrance lingers on
Captured in the morning dew that plays upon the lawn
But like its beauty this I see when you come into view
I can’t forget a blossom that’s as perfect as are you

~


How is it I think I find what’s real within your eyes
But from your mouth comes words comprised of endless counted lies
Falling at my feet just like a charm without a chain
Tarnishing the wisdom that shall never be the same
Whisperings of darkness slowly selling off the proof
Scribbles on a sidewalk as a chalk line alters truth
There upon a billboard with its message loud and clear
Written in graffiti is a clue that you are near
Still you fight the reason that our worlds have come to be
Hidden in the sentences your voice it sends to me
Tell me if you kindly will, what I have done to you
That brings about this wrath I feel has jumbled up the view
When all I really needed was directions to your heart
And now I see that hell is at the place you said to start
Once I did believe in every tear drop that you cried
Sitting on the cushion fighting off your fears inside
Now I wonder if your ears can hear this slamming door
Because my ears have heard enough, can’t listen anymore

~

Brushes filled with perfumed lace
Splash across the horizon
Dazzling daylight dreamers
with cotton candy echoes

Daisy delusions sing
Melodious wishes on sweet breezes
Harmonizing breathlessly
Within my feathered heart

Moon beam sonatas
Dance among comet visions
Encasing my eyes
With the beauty that is you

For of this night
And those before and after
I long for only the feel
Of your heartbeat, mingling with my own

As we count stars and moments
Pick wildflowers and chase fireflies
Collect wishes in clover leaf patterns
Together as one…in everlasting love

~


Laughing, only to hide the tears,
now gathering in the corners of my mouth,
drowning me…(I should be so lucky)

staring at a reflection in the protective glass,
not someone I recognize at this convenience store counter,
even if it is me

When facing a fool, as I often do,
I close my eyes as to not see the sorrowed face,
yet I know…I have been warned

“Don’t reach for what you can not have…
No hands in the cookie jar,
it’ll spoil your appetite”

But I don’t listen, I hear, but…I am hungry,
she can’t mean me? Not me,
not the dancing clown that brings smiles

Watch me juggle, my heart, my love, my soul,
spotlights transition my lenses
and the stage goes dark

The minimum wage clerk is not amused,
wiping his nose with his hand,
then extending it as if requesting payment

But I have not purchased, I have only looked,
watched her walk to another, thumbing her nose in my direction
as if hitch hiking on her face

Still I reach for an empty wallet
filled with past due receipts and plastic poison,
fattening the faux leather Fossil with I.D. holder

Another swipe of the card, slowly as directed,
magnetic strip inward…

declined

~

We all breathe the same
In whatever way we choose
Dancing to the beats
Of drummers, different in most cases
But breathe just the same

Sometimes we talk
Different mouths, different voices
Still it can ring badly on another’s ears
Complaining, questioning, whining
When all we want is to be understood

Often we fall, hard to the ground
Hardly at all to those passing by
Staring at this writhing body
On the sidewalk of broken dreams
Just waiting to be kicked once more

At times we love
Perhaps too much it seems
Different hearts, different beats, different drummers (again)
Brandishing hope as that marching band
With the new drum major breaks our will

Then we die
Not unlike other’s before us
Lying in a wooden box
Mourners stare exhaling sadly or happily
As they still breathe…in whatever way they choose

~

The night is silent
as evening drapes her cloth
above all that is seen
and shadows sit wondering…
what shapes will find them

Thoughts invade these hours
while fireflies sift through
evergreens now still,
seeking only but a soft breeze
whispering sweet dreams on feathered branches

And I sit here on the lawn,
counting minutes, feeling the emptiness
the midnight skies seep,
longing for what will come
on the eastern horizon

For that is where I shall find you,
glowing in tangerine ribbons,
painting pink clouds in dawn’s blushing brush strokes,
igniting a new day in effervescent colors…
as the sun rises and I smile

As once again we converse,
drinking coffee and loving life, enjoying
what comes from the awareness
that friendship truly does exist
with each new day we face

~

Above the alabaster clouds,
and ever changing canvas skies
Along a stream of golden pearls,
encased in dreams and wayward sighs

Of glowing share and sunset cues,
where fate does fold on satin sheet
Beside the ripples carved in time
with effervescent moments sweet

There waits for you in splendored joy
that which you seek on endless days
To light the way of darkened shore
a path through oleander haze

Where held so tight with fingers pure
in crimson robe of pristine style
By one who lives within your heart
*alive within your precious smile

~


Posy petal’d tear drops
on saffron colored morns
fall deep in the shadows
where sunshine is only a reflection
of the beauty once shared
~
Clouded days sing dreary sonnets
and all other butterflies are sad,
for those cherished wings
of brilliant colors
are gone from this field
~
Now a misty shade of gray
lingering in the thoughts
of one so missed…
finds the garden gates locked,
never to open again
~
Where rainbows once painted blue hydrangea skies
and daffodil promises carried our smiles,
sorrow now gathers in shapeless corners,
missing this butterfly
all had so come to adore
~
*and the earth weeps…

~


Wood grain suspenders on beams of unattractive thought
grasp paper cups holding the morning’s coffee just outside of
smudged glass reflecting off of these prison walls
in the heart of the shopping district,
where everything is on sale
and yet nothing is to be sold

as shoppers take advantage of nap time…and still I sit

Clinging to every hope a mind can cling to,
shadowed by my beliefs that it doesn’t matter when
grays pull years out of youthful smiles wearing ties,
for no good reason and
wasted breaths fall from hapless dreams caving in on the summit
where asphalt spills and curb side deliveries melt

rolling down the window to nothing…and still I sit

Limestone pillars stand guard in fours,
Cozying up to attached railings painted to match, but don’t where
empty tissue boxes wear a gaping mouth of perforated edges,
yawning with all of the enthusiasm of an Japanese translator
at a Metallica concert trying to sing opera in verses…
Collected but unseen or spoken of in black and white words

flickering and waiting a review…and still I sit
  
Poetry gathers in corners like food crumbs beneath the fridge,
hidden in the dark until the tile floor is replaced as
small piles of words are sifted through but not taken
for the sunlight changes everything
and this is not as cloudy a day as was forecasted,
though the gloom still exists

scribbling non-stop while leaving… and still I sit

Heart String Sorrows


Sadness plays my heart strings

With a bow of rosin’d guilt

Tear drops stain the notes upon the page



Sorrowed cello whispers

Of a soundless worry wilt

Harmonies distorted in this rage



Out of tune concertos

Fall as fractured cymbals blare

Steady as the beat of gathered pain



Broken mirror rhythms

Sit upon the favored chair

Misery in musical refrain



Violin’d distractions*

Born of melodies so thin

Echoing performed apologies



A cappella opus

In a prelude to the hymn

*Composed for you in all sincerity

~

Dusty leather laces
Knots of endless fraying
Caustic on the ribbons of a heart now in the shade

Promises are broken
Thin ice on the river
Postcards tossed into the trash so long ago displayed

Darkness finds the corner
Shadows hold the meaning
Does the world still spin when every other place is spared

Tight along the border
Guards embrace the fence line
Lost along the boundaries of love no longer shared

Knees are feeling weaker
Tears now find their falling
Puddles drench the wingtips neatly polished on the strand

There outside the window
Sunlight streams the valley
Teaching us the woman doesn’t always make the man

Sometimes she breaks the man…

~

Ensorcelled in effervescent lingerings
sifting through moonlit seams
Soft flavored drippings of ecstasy
melting slowly within the fever
dancing across my skin
as your fingers trace
the outline of my deepest secrets,
mysteries lodged in seductive breaths

Your love my ******, addictive enchantment
Stimulated senses heightened
Sundrenched moans, silver lined
adrift on satin sighs
Floating delirious within
hallucinogenic eyes,
seducing my mind in eternal desires

Trance infused emotions
cling to each nuance of mesmeric longings
Swirling smoke ringlets
penetrate whispering decolletage,
culminating in lustful motives
atop gilded sheets
drenched of our rapture,
etched in euphoria
Two silhouettes saturated
*in this dream called passion

Tiptoeing in the shadows,
hiding behind a crusted keyboard
spewing raw threats in freak speak
dug up from the shallow realm
of which they are formed

Beneath a pink umbrella
where cowards lounge
Shivering like babes in snow banks,
tossing stones, targeting hearts
inflicting pain…expecting a laugh

Stand up, be a man (if you can)
Allow me my aim
Dance about if you like in your tutu,
pirouette in your disgust,
my hand is steady

Unlike yours...moving up and down
staring at a screen, pretending
someone actually gives a crap
about something like you…

I’ll find this circus
where tents are pitched,
cotton candy stains the sawdust
and you climb out of that tiny car
with a fake smile painted on your face

And when you feel it you will know
this ain’t confetti,
as you fall in your own stench, and the audience…
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages…
applaud!

~



And so it goes…
another sun, another day

Lost to the horizon’s constant appetite
for all that this sky above may hold
Thin and straight, never-ending, swallowing the beauty
that waits for us as we look up
only to follow the minutes
ticking away as fast as the journey

I have come to determine
one night sitting on the front porch
counting fireflies and missing you,
(tearing up for my impending daily loss)
that this place, this narrow slice at the end of this earth
must surely consist of multi-colored liquid

For the splash made by the sun
is more vibrant than anything I have ever witnessed
Staining the western heavens
with pastel swashes of glowing patterns
until the wash fills with shade and is
hidden by a new moon glow

and so it goes
another moon, another night…without you

~

Dreams may find us where we sleep
Wrapped up for the night
Safely in our chambers dark
Neath our covers tight

Drowsy under moon beam glow
Comforting the feel
Born within a fantasy
Something close to real

Far beyond the deepest stare
Vanilla coated skies
Rolling hills to anywhere
Breaths of passion’d sighs

Sunset laughter, twilight seams
Footprints in the sand
Leading to our every wish
Strolling hand in hand

Yet often we may find a dream
Waiting at our door
When the sun is shining bright
Brighter than before

One who sends a perfect view
On a summer breeze
Blooming through the countryside
Echoing the trees

You I find are such a dream
Before my eyes to see
Bumblebees and butterflies
Fragrance flowing free

Mountain streams of aqua blue
Clouds of whispered white
Daffodils and lavender
Enchanting is the sight

As each day does start anew
Dew drop clover sings
Melodies of what you are
All your smile brings

Proving now that as I sleep
My days are overdue
For when I wake, if you I see
My dreams have all come true