Right through my lens
I see you clear
So far away
But still so near
Im zooming in
your getting close
I want to keep you
In this pose
I focus and
I take the shot
your walking by
cause you do not
have any clue
of what your in
ive captured you
under your skin

I'm tired of beauty
incessantly meddling in my affairs

luring me to venture outside myself
revealing hidden radiance within

disguising life's dismal undercurrent
reducing it to a superficial veneer

randomly appearing by surprise
stubbornly eliciting a smile

performing alchemy on the mundane
dousing my awareness in the elixir of life

beauty...
the pulchritude of spirit...that's all it is...

all of those nights you would beckon
me to your side and force me
into things I only saw happening
in my worst nightmares

your cooing
your touching
the hatred that would flame
from my eyes because I knew

this was your game
and you only used
used me for attention
it broke me down

and I won't be broken again
I won't allow it
now that you're gone
gone from my life

the mistake was to let you in
let you corrupt me
and hurt me
but now I sent you away

and you're gone
gone from my memories
gone from my life
gone

- J.S.

"I wish I had a cigarette."
The man as he looked down
at his half empty glass of whiskey
at the bar in Paisley Town

Little did he know what that dear
cigarette was bound to be
In the form of a strawberry blonde
no older than twenty-three

- J.S.