Darkness falls like

a drop cloth

Colors are gone

hidden

In the corner

sits a cat

It is purring

The cat likes darkness

A broom is lifted

by a silent hand

The colors come

bursting red, orange, hell

The cat snarls

disturbed

mean

A shaft of light strikes the

floor

All goes up in flames

Dust on the mirror distorts my face

Yellow sun slithers across the floor

Long since have I been to this place

I will come here no more

Sheets cover the furniture

Dried brown roses resist gravity

A petal here and there

The facet in the sink is dripping

No concern have I anymore

You cleaned the kitchen spotless

Thinking I might come by

That was snowy months ago

Now rain beats on the panes

I always wanted shutters

I thought you felt the same

Our love making was stale at the start

It finished with lots of blame

We seemed so compatible

Please don't ask me why

I spy my old umbrella

Leaning against a chair

I pick it up and turn around

Shrugging at this mundane affair

I put the key in the mailbox

A weight lifts off my brain

In another month, my dear

I won't remember your name

The wind whispers softly

leaving shadows in my mind

Once in desperate fury she left

boundless debris behind

The withered holly berries like

an old man's weathered face

While the milk has spoiled

unfit for pudding cake

Winter roses from the garden

fall limp

a tarnished gold

The wastebasket full of things

I  never should have sold

I mean to leave this place

Put it far out of my mind

Yet, those shadows cling

to inner places wasting

all my time

I crush the roses flat

one by bleeding one



You never planned on coming back

to make this place our fun



The wind she's in a fury

pulling branches from the trees

This seems to be what's missing

And what those shadows need

I glance outside at winter

Sadness pulls the shadows back

It lets me hold last moments

To see what's left behind

No love, no cheer, no pudding cake

I must have lost my mind

I grab my coat and cap

And grind  holly into chime

I open the door to face the storm

Feeling strangely out of time

There you stand

staring straight at me

With shadows in your eyes

Dusk

Winter fog slips

Silently

Trees rise as dark

Sentinels

The road is

Shortened

The intersection seems

Too hazy

Notice the dead

Gray rabbit

***** paws up on the

Curb

Pass this silent

Symbol

Cross over to the

Houses

Amber lanterns glow

Hazily

That familiar dusk

Has fallen

The amber dusk of

Long ago

Warm memories of amber lights

In fogs damp chill

You have to shiver while

Strangers peek out  of their

Windows

Snug warm people

They didn't see the

Rabbit

You must go back

Yesterdays memories

Warm to the bone

The rabbit needs to be

Buried

Somewhere in the deep dark

Woods

The first sign...

A flock of ravens hurling

Down to the dirt

Small black bodies broken

The second sign

Silence

The third sign

All the bees disappeared

The fourth sign

The frantic beating of wings

The fifth sign

All the fields of harvest flamed

Fire red

The sixth sign

The sky turned black as coal

The seventh and last sign

Was death

Then a dreadful silence

No one saw the signs...

Ravens circle in the sky above

Dark images cast upon the snow

I sit on a cold bench in the garden

Waiting

Snow falls like white dust

He said he would be here

In this garden of thorns and rose hips

This garden of skeleton sticks

And blood red berries

Tassels on my wool cap from Finland

Sway in the icy wind

A grey heavy sky above

Ravens dive towards the sea

Ominous signs

Waiting in this decaying garden

A very old man sits next to me

His white beard covered with snow

He isn't coming, the old man says

My body dead to words

Don't you know? the old one whispers

Don't you know?

Only a fool plays this game of mind

In all the piles of snow outside

A single movement

The black eye of the raven

Brittle days brief and dark

Blood flows thin

Burgundy to gin

Shallow yellow light

Barely penetrates

Curtains that separate

Reality

Prisoner of this dark world

Garden of wind and death

Pine trees crusted with snow

There is misery out there

Nothing is out there

Let the raven pluck

Out your eye

Is this game almost over

The mind is never satisfied