If I could barter time itself
And make the past today,
I'd hand away the future
For parts of yesterday.

If I could trade my happiness
And pluck it from tomorrow,
I'd binge on what you brought to me
To stave off all this sorrow

If I could turn my back away
From my own form of nature
I'd hold the hallowed night away
To have the Sun forever.

*Once the day is done, it's gone;
No touching yesterday.
And only I can salvage smiles
From the wreck I've made.

Wakefulness has come to be
A pale respite, a poignant dream
Reality has paled and ceased
To be of real devoir to me.

Amongst the living, I trail the dead
That intone from the Netherlands
And in their voices, they do spread
The need to meet their languished hands.

There in the dusk's cerulean shores
Towards the night's sapphire core from
Whence winged creatures dart and soar
I sleep to leave what I abhor.

With Morpheus I cast aside
The shell from which by day reside
In chiaroscuro paradise
I lift my head to meet your eyes.

By day you're nothing, dust and ash
And memories that shall not last
By night, draw breath, return to me,
Come back to life within my dreams.



*Original, Un-rhymed Notes:

The waking world has become surreal
After everything that's happened
All things are a pale shade of what they used to be
Those that aren't here call out to me louder than the scores of the living
I feel them, carried with me
Clinging, pulling me back towards
dreams.

I see them there, whole and unscathed

Help!
I'm being pummeled
By thousands of ghosts
That sciencey-guy over there
Said they were called neutrinos

I don't trust it though
It's mumbo-jumbo
But don't worry about me
I learned how to fight ghosts

Where's my garlic?

Wait, that might be for use against vampires.

Oh no.

~

I wished upon a paper moon
and fell among the stars
Was whisked away to somewhere good
a place just where you are

Along a winding riverbed
below a willow tree
With fireflies to light the way,
a path for you and me

We laughed as if the world were new
amazed within this scene
Of lily pads and dragonflies
the two of us did dream

Holding hands and skipping stones
the ripples came to shore
Magically they disappeared
as we called out for more

Reflections on the water played
in wavering design
You pointed to the middle
when a heart shape you did find

And then you whispered in my ear
my wish had now come true
Out here beneath this paper moon
*in love, just me and you

~

This morning drifts
upon scattered leaves
as tiny raindrops
fall the eaves
from clouded form
in shades of gray
when sunlight hides
its shine away

The flowers droop
of garden share
neath willow branch
and dampened air
with spider webs
in woven strand
mosaics draped
across the land

And sparrows lie
in huddled rest
on folded wing
within their nest
A dreary day
of tempered mist
when colors found
are darkly kissed

Yet as I gaze
into your eyes
my thoughts begin
with azure skies,
sweet buttercups
of golden glow
in meadows green
their petals flow

Of butterflies
and bumblebees
like rainbows float
through emerald trees
For every beauty
there might be
I find them when
you smile at me

So bring the rain
and gloomy faire
For in my heart
I shall not care
As all my days
begin with you
and there is not
*a better hue