I sit on the step
And draw
The cold around me
Like a blanket,
Savouring the numbness
And the heat
That begins within.
Swallowed by the night
Drunk on wine
And stars.
Hot tears on cold cheeks.
Seasoning for
Chapped lips
Stinging
Bringing fresh tears.
I take refuge
In the silence,
Under the gaze of
Sympathetic eyes.
My friends.
My constant companions.
Drunk on wine
And stars.

When your riches
Are measured in shades of green,
the rainbow is never as bright.

When you spend your time
Looking down on others,
You miss the beauty of the stars.

When you count your coffers
Not your blessings
Infinity is but a dream.

She crawls through miles of dirt.
Breaking ground with bloodied fingers
And viscious intent.

My weakness is a light in the fog.
She finds me unerringly.
Nowhere to run.

My doubt fuels her
Voracious appetite.
Her teeth flash at my throat.

Vindictive *****.
Addiction.
I can never bury her deep enough.

A plain stone
On a beautiful shore.
Scratches scored
Across
Telling tales of battles won
And lost.
Weathered by winds
And tossed aside by
The seas.
Trod on by heavy boots.
Some see gray.
Some see silver.
Part of a collection.
The sole collection.
The rare common stone.

When did you grow old?
I blinked and missed it.
The years were surely
Only seconds in time.
As the grand old trees
Embrace the winter
With the grim resolve
Of that which cannot be avoided,
I find myself wondering,
And fearing,
When the leaves shall fall
For the final time.

I wished I was
The person
That you wished
I was.
Rosy wallpaper
And proper
English pinkies
Ladies drinking tea.
Profanity a nightmare
Of the lower masses.
Kick me in the shins
With proper
Steel toe caps.
Your heritage
Doesn't dull the pain.
But my wishes
Are saved
For the obtainable.
I will never
Be that lady
Nor
Would I want to be.

A skull crushed.
Bone fragment splinters
On a page.
Bleeding ink
And breathing words.
The colossal weight
Of hopes and dreams
Upon reality
Unversed

She was as light as a feather
Carried on the sweetest wind.
A tonne weight locked
Around my fiercely protective heart.
As sure as an apple falling from a tree,
She brought uncertainties in abundance.
Physics had no question
For the answer she gave.

The giants of industry
Reaching upwards
To pluck the stars from the sky
And blind the moon
Cast a glow
Unnatural
And poisonous
Where livings are made
And lives are lost.
A town built around the chimneys.
A town destroyed by the smoke.

A head lain upon a pillow
A heart spilled upon the sheets
A dream made on soft cotton
A nightmare born on ripped satin
A child conceived beneath the quilt
A purity stolen in the dark
A life made under watchful stars
A death brought by the morning sun

The moonlight trips
Over the still lough
And the sounds of the night
Are silenced with awe.
She is the priestess,
Listening to confessions
Bred on the dark side
Of the moon.
Absolution is found
In her purifying light.

Creeping across the ocean
Like a girl in gray silk
Stealing in after a late night,
Shoes left at the door.
Tiptoes over wooden floors.
Trailing wisps of dreams
With the lightest of kisses.

Coiled tightly, a spring
Loaded with thoughts.
Pinballs endlessly searching
For a top score.
Ricocheting in the brain
Like a flexible bullet,
Wreaking havoc without
The final word.
A blossoming idea
And a pen without ink.
The lethal archer
With a crooked arrow.
Never hitting the target.

With your hands
Held aloft
And passion blazing in your eyes,
Your voice resonates
In an empty room
For the audience
Strain to hear
The whispers from the shadows.
And the applause
Echoing in your ears
Is merely a work of fiction.
Those who shout loudest
Will be the first
To lose their voice.

As she rises
In the blackened sky
And the waves
Meet the shore
With a gentle sigh,
She lays a tender kiss
Of silver light
Upon ocean's breast
Of anticipating crests.
And the lovers
Are reunited.

They said he had a face
Only a mother could love
And the clothes on his
Back were torn.

His skin was pock marked
And his back was bent.
His teeth had rotted
In his head.

But when he sat
At a piano and sang,
The notes reached into
Your ribcage,

Crushing your heart
With an ivory key.
His beauty could bring
You to your knees.

It was written in the sand
But the sea washed it away.
It was written on the cliffs
But they crumbled day by day.
It was written on the sun
But the clouds did claim the sky.
And then we wrote it in our hearts
So that it will never die.

He sits by the stop  
But never boards the bus
Smoking sweet smelling
Cigarettes
Fingers yellowed.
Drinking straight from
The can
Under the midday sun.
Beads of sweat on the brow.
People get on
And people get off.
Never him.
He tells me that
Sometimes
The greatest joy in life
Is watching others make the journey.

Stripped of your scarlet dress,
Naked before my eyes.

Your unblemished beauty
Unchanged but never the same.

Majestic in your unerring humility.
A constant in a tumultous world.

Wear what you choose
And wear it with pride.

You bring light to the dark.
What more could we ask for?

The broken pieces
Of the beautiful picture
Lay scattered around,
Fragments of history
Waiting to draw blood.
They were put back together
Over time immeasurable
And with a pain unmatched.
The scene was
Undoubtedly altered,
But the picture was
No less beautiful.
And those who had
Never seen it before,
Would never know the difference.

The people lined the street,
But the face I longed to see
Was absent.
The voices filled the church
But the voice I ached to hear
Was gone.

The coffin lid closed,
The dirt fell,
The people cried,
The truck horns blared
And the choir sang.
But none so deafening
As the silence
Of the empty seat
At a broken table.

We stood together
As the first leaf fell,
Spiralling towards the earth,
Carried on a wind beyond it's control.
We held hands
As the first leaf fell,
Clinging to each other in silence,
A sense of desperate hope in the air.
We fought for each other
As the first leaf fell.
No sorrow for a season past,
But the anticipation born of a new beginning.
And the determination
That when the new leaves grow,
We will stand together.
Still.

I have lied my way
Through life
And spilled my truth
Upon these pages.
A persona presented
Face to face
Is lost within the ink
Of the pen.
Created by insecurities,
Derived from expectations
Unjudged by blank sheets.
Only those who read me
Truly know me.

Breathe it in.
The smell of change
Is in the air.
Seasons and lives,
Deaths and births.
A kaleidoscope of colours rich
Upon the ground.
Branches stripped
Of youth.
Old withered arms
Seeking answers from the heavens.
Smoke pouring from chimneys
Where families gather
While the child
From a broken home
Watches from a distance,
Wrapped in scarves
And sadness.
The changing seasons
Making a mockery
Of that which
Stays the same.

The sand dunes undulate
To the fading music of summer,
Shimmering softly
In the light, gently dying.
Longing for heat
In the cooler days.
Searching inexorably
For the comforting
Arms of the ocean,
So close,
Just out of touch.
Fingers touching but never grasping.
Alone beside each other.
Achingly lonely without the other.

I would wait
Through so many sunsets
And dawns
That time would lose meaning.
I would wait
Until my hair turned grey
And my bones grew tired.
I would wait
While others hurry
Losing sight of what's ahead.
I would wait
Through summer sun
And winter snows.
I would wait for you.
Always.

Cobwebs guard
The memories
In a musty attic
Where each step
Is a risk.
Dust claims
What once was precious
And the smiles
In the pictures
Fade
With every passing day.
Weak watery light,
Filtering through
Splintered beams
Cannot revive
What has already
Been left
To rot.

It's the same old story
In a different book.
Diverse covers
And altered bindings,
Mismatched fonts
And dissimilar ink,
Clashing papers
And opposing words,
But the same old story
In a different book.

The velvet drops fall
        Erasing time,
             Creating space,
Sweeping memories
Along dust filled lanes.
A shrill whistle
          On a deserted street.
The kicking of a ball
That has already rolled away.
A balloon
           Slipping
From trembling fingers,
            Shrinking from sight,
Seeing more
Than ever before.
The velvet drops fall.
And the woman
            Still dances
Barefoot in the rain.

The water falls
on the wings
of the butterfly,
weighing her down,
dragging her down.
Fighting for flight,
she struggles.
Her vibrant colours
diluted, now
pale imitations.
With grim determination,
she shrugs it off
and flies higher
than before,
but her colours
are forever
muted.

The sun will
Give way
To the moon,
This day will
At last
Be done with.
And my
Hollow heart
Can learn
To beat
Once more.

The smallest seed
Planted in the deepest soil.
Nestled safely
In earth's womb,
Protected from
All danger,
Or so we
Foolishly believed.
I weep for
The flower
I will never see.

When the words
Crumble when spoken,
Carried on the breeze
And tossed aside
For their worth.

When the words
That trip your tongue
And leave rivers of blood
On nervous lips
Are lost forevermore.

Your eyes shall hold
Your truth.

A new day
Full of old thoughts,
Clamouring to be heard.
An inner monologue
Stuck on repeat
The needle scratching
On my skull.
I long for silence
But wouldn't know
What to do with it.

I look in
The mirror.
I bare my teeth
But she won't
Back down.
I turn my back
To show how little
I care.
I know I'll
See that *****
In my nightmares.

I'm terrified

They lie
under cover
of darkness
'neath blankets
of fear
and mistrust.
The distance
between them
immeasurable,
scant inches
apart.
Feigning sleep
and ignoring
silent tears.
Hands reaching
across an
ever widening
chasm,
but never
touching.
Souls searching
for each other
but never
meeting.
A night
spent together
while divided.
The loneliest
night.

Within the
Wilted leaves
Of the
Forgotten garden,
Where the
Weeds strangle
And the air
Is still,
Lies the
Faintest scent
Of sweetness,
The dying
Breath of
Honeysuckle,
The whispering
Promise of
A better
Tomorrow.

The music swells
To an almighty crescendo
And I stand alone
In an empty room,
Arms held aloft
To welcome the
Sweep of emotion.
Hands dancing on the air,
Conducting
An invisible orchestra.
Tears seeping
Through closed lids.
Drained.
Exhausted.
Exhilirated.
In the moment.

Shoulder to shoulder
These young men,
Boys,
Stood for the rights of all,
Thumbing their noses
At the iron fist that crushed
Their people's heart,
Giving voice
To those rendered mute
And heart
To those without hope.
Shoulder to shoulder
These young men,
Boys,
Stood while bullets ripped
And cannons bellowed
Until they could stand no more,
The word surrender
Unheard and unspoken.
Shoulder to shoulder
These young men,
Boys,
Lay at peace.
They lit a spark
That ignited a revolution
And the dreams of giants
Were realized
With the sacrifice of
These young men,
Boys,
Legends.

There may have been
Something unholy
About his eyes, but
God!
How I worshipped him!

I do not want  
Shelter from this rain.
I Let it wash away
My pain.

I do not want
Shelter from this wind.
I want to push against it
And win.

When the storm is over
For once and for all,
I keep my head up,
I stand tall.

A summer lost
Between furtive glances
And stolen kisses.

A childhood lost
Between ***** bottles
And crumpled sheets.

A smile lost
Between expectation
And sad reality.

A heart lost
Between open highways
And setting suns.

A broken mirror
Holds a thousand
Eyes.

Shattered images
Of confused
Components.

Witnessing
From angles
Anew.

The struggle
To recognize
True self
Is infinite.

And the
Reflection
Is never
The same.

With intentions
Dark as coal
They light a fire
That advances
Like a disease
Without vaccine,
Spreading ash
Across the light
Of the sun,
Turning day to night,
And a cold
That sinks to
The marrow of bones,
Never letting truth
Get in the way
Of a good lie.