That child of my youth

Lies now in her bed

As she always did

Covers pulled up to keep her warm

But she is thin and frail

As she was as a young girl

The safety of the bed though

Evades her

As it always did

The things underneath

Still haunt her

And have become real

Those shadowed horrors from below

Have come to claim her

Tubes are snaked like vines

Around her

Invading her

Covering her like an ancient ruin

Finding every crevice to crawl into

A young woman

Now old

The road maps on her skin

Traced not by time and experience

But by tragedy and chance,

Cruel blows that glanced

From her guarding arms

She will never know laugh lines

Burned into her skin by a million smiles

Those smiles will never come

They will only be bitter sweet ones

smiled by us

As we talk about old times

Laughing into the night

With worn grins

And Tired eyes

And the lines will be etched

Into our faces instead

What we measure in decades

She measures out in minutes

Hours are years

And days stretch into decades

Every moment is now measured into a cup

Metered and parceled

On a glowing monitor

The poor girl who never had a chance

Still doesn’t

And never will

It is such a shame

She is such as a sweet girl

And she has such soft hands

I drive by to see if he is out on the patio

or by the bench in the sun

Taking in some rays

If he is, I stop in  to have a smoke

Time is short so I don't stay long

Just a short stay

Long enough to have been there

There isn't much left to him these days

The pain meds have him in a fog most of the time

Fading in and out

But he still has spirit

He's holding out now for St. Paddy's day

He heard that there's a party at a nearby club

And he plans on being there

I hope he makes it

One last day of being Irish

I often thought about you
And your free range chickens
Being happy on the land
Living life free
Both pecking and scraping
Getting life from the dust
But I didn’t know
That it could never be enough
Tho’ scratch might make some happy
I found out too late
That it wouldn’t do for you

But if I could
Believe me true
I’d bring you chickens
Instead of flowers
To brighten up your room

When the wind sighs

and fills your sail

and pulls your restless

soul afloat

To journey ‘cross

The sea of night

In dwindling life

And muttered hope

One final prayer

Slips your mouth

Unknown, unsaid

You breathe it out

One prayer for your journey

The prayer for the dead

Your final breath

And all is said

I await the awakening of my love

She slumbers in undreamed sleep

Held between dark and morn

The last bonds of night still hold her

Slowly slipping fetters

Fading with the dawn

In the shadowed twilight

I wait to see her stir

My words bleed onto paper

In spreading pools of sorrow

They gush darkly

Onto the page

Pumping out until

Their life is drained

Then fall in pallor

To the floor

The stain they leave behind

Is there for all to read

A record written out

With a sorrowful pen

I dreamed a dream of dreaming

Laying softly in my bed

Sugar plums and torment

Dancing in my head

I dreamed a dream of life and death

Of hope and blood and glory

Of dancing through a sunlit field

With daisies, grass and bodies

I was but a child

Loving, small and free

As I glided silently

My life ran out of me

I laughed and giggled in happiness

As a child is apt to do

As I stepped around lifeless forms

Battered black and blue

Not a care had I

Not one in the world

As I pranced beneath the sky

'Til lightning struck with crackling fury

And I lay down to die

I dreamed a dream of dreaming

Of happiness and and strife

I dreamed a dream of dreaming

I dreamed a dream of life