Some are shrill and some whiny,
Some are deep and hoarse or smarmy.

Some sing, and others scream,
Some are lazy, some are keen.

Some are there to comfort and to reassure. Or there to ridicule and to exacerbate an emotional sore.

Mine are, mostly, the latter type.

I sit upon an tall bar stool and watch them play.

The air is humid and full of mosquitoes.

One falls into my cocktail and writhes about in what I like to think is terror. Really its just instinct, electrical signals firing through the body of something small and insignificant.

Though its all too easy to think that.

My eyes and attention stray from those I had been previously observing. Drawn to the glass as though it were a beacon.

"Hello little guy." I whisper into my glass. "Want me to help you?"

I laugh quietly to myself for a moment, then down the contents. "A new page tonight?" I ask myself mockingly.

Smoke is billowing into the dimming sky. It is far away, but almost perceptible to my nostrils.

I wonder: is anyone burning? Perhaps a once happy family. Too far away for me to help anyhow. Even though the desire is there.

Hopefully it works out how I hope it will.

I regress with closed eyes back to the day a relation brought home a retriever puppy. Remembering how I had kicked it like one would a football to make it stop crying.

Such bad behaviour. Deserving a beating that. Its a shame my relative was such a soft-hearted one. More punishment would have been deserved.

My eyes open and dart back to the place I was watching before. I notice they're gone.

Playing a childish game near the poolside. One falls into the pool and splashes about furiously. No one is around to help it.

I stand up and walk over.

A look of terror, perhaps hope, appears on its face as it looks up at me. I know better of course.

Really its just instinct, electrical signals firing through the body of something small and insignificant.

After all,
The mosquito,
Fire,
Dog...

It all just depends on personal perspective.

I have walked a thousand deserts. I have swam so many lakes. I have died in countless fires on a reel of ever blurring takes.

I have woken from a thousand dreams. And cried so many tears. I have kept on searching for my love throughout a million grief filled years.

I have been told that Truth sets free. But for it I have seen many good folk hung. And oft have sighed at a new war, that same old butcherer of the young.

Yet seldom have I been at peace. And only once did I give my heart away. For an oath, sworn in my troubled start, has caused the ghost of Hope to stay.

I walk the path alone. Though I am never without company. For the wind and trees sing lullabies; lulling me into a sleepwalk-stupor.
The rain caresses my face like a kind lover. Making everything seem...
But the way is dark and I regret to realise that I cannot see beyond the skeletal frames of those dark boughs. Oh how they whistle mercies unto me, my sweetly singing entourage of thornéd ghouls.
Come, oh stifling Death. You whose omnipresence disturbs my skin and forces it to crawl deeper into the shadows.
Leave me, oh pain. You who I alone have elected my captor. Do not bind me with your mordant roots. Roots nourishing my doubt and uncertainty, indeed utter disbelief in that supposed truth - salvation.
"God save me, guide my steps." I cry aloud this pathetic plea, and then wind answers me; that immaterial half, so quiet - whispers:
"There is no God where you are".

Transmute from lead to gold this crooked soul.
Memories of times old create the whole.
I am unashamed to stand before God.
My spirit naked, covered with dirt and sod.

You did this to me yet I rolled the dice.
Forgot to check the trap - my fatal vice.
Dabbled with the darkened void in your heart.
Should have known it was rotten from the start.

Betrayal makes for a more grounded man.
Locking his emotions into a sealed can.
So I raise my head in bold defiance.
And slay that "God" with cynical science.


© Copyright Mr. James P Machen 26/08/2014 for viewing only. May not be replicated.

Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose all the lions get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Oh Madness is a lonely child,
from whom the many run away,
the odd thing is - when we are wild;
it is the one with whom we play.


© Copyright Mr. James P Machen 26/08/2014 for viewing only. May not be replicated.