The sodden sky was ominous gray
Halted wheels on fruitless span
I knew I had lost my way
When from earth shot up one old man!

There he was by the broken bridge
With soiled hands face smiling
His long white beard hid agelong crease
And bar him the road had no one thing!

I asked him the way to the old fort
For rolled the wheels in vain too far
He caught me up in quick rapport
As flew in the winds his monkly hair!

He told the story when the English came
And how they struggled in the hostile clime
Built the bridge got the river dammed
Now broken pillars of ravaged time!

Twenty miles he said need to go
Till you reach the fort now a rubbled pile
On the left with you would be river’s flow
That’s half an hour with a forty mile!

I have so much to tell about this place
The English bridge and all the story
But I know he said with time you race
If only you could spend an hour with me!

O darling,
spin
your pretty flower
between
your delicate fingertips,
swirl those vermilion petals,
so tenderly
I will
partake,
pick you blind.

bitter coffee helps camouflage the tremors
I shake my apologies inside closed fists and wait
for them to roll, always gambling for that final breath        
climbing beneath god's hands
reaching for empty bottles that offer cold handshakes
all the deals I made and now the devil has come knocking
on sharp metal and cracked windshield
her body will be found
in the midst of my soul's wreckage
I was given everything but love was found
in the glass bottom of momentary bliss
where an angel's shadow now resides
her memories will be turned into stories told by loved ones
that begin with "She was" and end in "If only"

if only I had lived a gentler life  
she was a catharsis for my demons

her death was the sound of everything ending

I should leave here
but there's a hole needs burying

- a mountain of memories
and a thousand miles of pain -
it still smells like you
even after it rains

At the table by the window
where you used to read -
there's a whiskey bottle
that I'm trying to put away

There - is a hole that needs burying
one of these days.

r ~ 9/1/14

A night of dreams-
Resident of the clouds
Flying across the blue
Visiting every mountain peak
Where the mood is somber
Monasteries, carved in mountains
Hymns reverberating everywhere
From the precipice, a view to behold
Standing there with arms wide open
As morning dawns tenderly
Soaking in the misty aura all around
Gently stirring the core of my soul
As I wake up with renewed faith
From the dream within my dream

Back in the day,
which seem like
not very long ago,
I was out living my life
& I didn't write much poetry.

Now, I stay inside a lot
& write stanzas all the time.
Maybe the verse-gods
are trying to tell me something.
I wonder.

From you, there is a light
That shines down upon me…
From you, there is a fire
that burns deep within me...
From you, there is a passion
that feeds deep within me...
From you, there is a hunger
that craves deep within me...
From you, there is a love
that blossoms deep within me...
From you, there is a spirit
that nurtures deep within me...
From you, there is a soul
that loves deep within me...

The depths of you...
have reached the depths of me.