There’s knowledge
in the world
for only
the captive

Insight
on the other
hand
prescient to roam

No ceiling
to happiness
but a floor
to sorrow

Direction
a vagrant
that goes
where it goes

Spoken
in cadence
our oaths
are rechanted

Carrying
voices
through moments
on loan

Traveling
together
in blind
expectation

Questions
awaiting
in freedoms
—unknown

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Once spent …
there’s no tomorrow

Once spent …
all time is rife

Once spent …
your fortune tendered

Death’s currency
—is life

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

God took a vacation
when time had run out
Rethinking his opus
replanning devout

His Angels in limbo
the devil on leave
Heaven a sublet
sin now reprieved

Faith worn and tattered
the bible debunked
Crusades a bad memory
the Grail marked as junk

He orders a cocktail
the waitress comes back
A napkin — her number
salvation highjacked

(The New Room: December, 2023)

Only the dead
see an end
to war

Ashes to ashes
dust
keeping score

Only the living
revere
the dead

The past
in exile
—the future in dread


(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

What is the age
of reality itself
Older than
a metaphor
Unreferenced
on a shelf

What is the distance
unmeasured from within
Spoken of
but never seen
A poets
dying whim

What is time uncounted
as numbers lose their clout
The hourglass
returned to sand
An abacus
in doubt

What is love ungifted
but feelings’ last excuse
To roam unlinked
between the chains
And blame it
—on the Muse

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Of the many cures
—there is no cure

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

The days are long
the years are short
as eternity
—whistles a tune

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)