I cannot look into her eyes
the soul of a mother long gone

I hate my face in the mirror
I dread the stranger within

My sunken brown eyes are faded
Like the falling sand,
the statue of my self is erased

Life is a joke,
and I'm the clown
I perform to an empty theater,
and laugh at my own shadow

The voices are in my head,
the puppets and the songs
the whisperers and the screams

When I lay in the dark,
alone,

sometimes,
I close my eyes,
to the howls of the demons inside

Mother,
I'm married to the night

Someday I had hoped,
that when I'm done with my acts,

Maybe,
In the heavens,
where you live
We would laugh forever,
Like we always did

speaking of a beauty unseen
the ruby lips florescent,

a flower,
sprouting

from a withering stem
the fragrance
that seizes
the midnight breeze---

the lily of the valley,
her delicate petals
like crystals
of the stars---

her moonlight smile,
a treasure
in the secret chamber of the mind
and upon a silent winter night,

she dances,
her hair like a feather,
to the tempo

of her lover's frozen breath