Oh now what am I to do?
I, who always wanted to see you happy,
Know that you are not, and now
I can't do anything about it.

Trust me I want to.
I want to hold you in my arms and assure you,
That everything is all right.
Everything is going to be all right.
Everything will always be all right.
But I can't.

But know, of everyone in this universe,
If anyone can, you can.
If anyone could, you could.
If anyone would, you would.

But trust me baby.
Everything will be all right.
Everything is going to be all right.

So ugly yet so beautiful at once

The symbol of death but the framework of life

So complex yet so simply, so plainly: white

April  

If April is cruel
May is so friendly
Pleasant and warm

May is green and pink and red
A teenage year
As summer learns to drive

June's young adult
Searches for July and August
Hoping for a tryst

Then a mellow September
Casting long shadows
To the final quarter

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

I have been driven mad
Looking for the words
That will enevitably set me free
Then I thought of a thing that truly must be

The incantation to break the shackles
Was never owned by me
The secret in the poems
Is that the sacred words are another's

Puzzle boxes writing desperately
Searching high and low
For a solution to their mystery
Only to find the key is a lover

Of ancient words and rhythms
The passion for magic in writing
I know this because I found truth
Within the winding words of another.

Drowning day by day
The Skylark
Isn't so far for now
I can feel it's feather
Grasping me
More & more
Each & every moment
I'm sinking
Drowning more
Much more......!-15.06.2014

A place that I can call my home
A place to rest my heart
A place that I feel safe and loved
A place to call my own

for years i have lived
within this
bubble
a bubble that i made
to keep me safe
keeps me safe
within
keeps me away
clear
transparent
like elasticated glass
i see the world
from within
and have felt safe
from within
it keeps the world
at arms length
safe and away
keeps me away
within
keeps me safe
but
i can't touch the outside
from within
my fingertips press the clear
press the transparent
press the glass
and it gives
under my touch
as my fingers enter
the world beyond
i have need
i have longing
i want
i want to go
beyond
to feel the outside
to touch
and breathe
and live
beyond
the within
to escape the
bubble
that i had created
so that i was free

.

I punched the sun
and burnt my hands,
they blistered ‘fore my eyes

Because I want
just cloudy days
to fill my sorrowed skies

I used to like
the daylight hours
before she went away

Now I just can’t
accept the sun,
I want a cloudy day

And evening
doesn't help at all,
if it is coming near

Because I know
there’ll be a moon
upon the heavens clear

So I’ll keep punching
at the sun
with burns upon my skin

Until I can’t
fight anymore
or clouds return again