Tick tock, tick tock. When do spirits break?

Spirits break when truths are false

But how long does madness take?

Madness takes ‘till death has pulse

Till death has pulse?
Oh, good, oh grand,
like a click, like a clock,
like the hourglass sand

Like the horse, and the house, like the hound, and the hand
A bite out of you and a bite from the land
A snigger a smack
A serpent’s attack
With wreath and wrath
To each their own path

With a flutter of wings
And nobody sings
With wings or without
One’s heart must be stout

Hear me now, now hear me then
Look back, look back, back where you’ve been
With wings, without, watch where you tread
Or soon, so soon, you will be *dead

A tiny stream of darkness
Cannot ruin light,
Nor can muttered rumors,
Taint the truth in sight
A tear can not discourage,
And a lie can not dissuade,
In the end it proves so true,
The only one who ruins life,
Is truly only you.

something snapped between them
between us all
in the way that a single thread
snaps in a cloth
subtle and
unimportant in itself

then it started to unravel between them
between each of us
and the very worst part of the whole
messy piece,
is how little any of mattered to me

so watch them bicker
watch them talk
each trying to make amends
in their own way

but neither of them know
what they're making amends for
all we know
is something has broken

A single star in a pool of black
Who’d ever think they’d need such slack?
Another word, another song
Truly life is not so long

Hear them whisper, hear them yell
Each word, another one they sell
Isn’t it funny, quite absurd?
That anyone could miss a bird

Sing song, sing song, sing song, sing
Who’d imagine such a thing
A madman, dreams of stars and brides
a man with nothing that he prides

Some days I want a notebook
all covered in pretty things
And I would fill it with sugar
and warmth
and happiness
with swirling silver letters
and poems
and stories I could never write
that could never be right

Some days I want a notebook
to fill with dreams in cursive curls
I'd write love letters and
song lyrics and
sweet dreams that tickled
my thoughts in the night

Some days I want a notebook
in a candy pink room
with flowers on the walls
and romance on the shelf with
knights and princes that
for me would fight

One day I bought a notebook
a diary of dreams,
an empty page for a prince
One day I bought a notebook

And I haven't seen it since

Little Laura Laingsbury,
Once a friend,
Twice a threat,

She sang a song of blueberry
And blackberry
And dead

For her there was a hung jury
For she, a woman free

Take her,
Take her,
Take her there,
Down to the lynching tree

crush me, crush me, crush me down

make me dust and fire

What does it make you?
When misery is relief?
Maybe it's just me
Who finds joy
when they know
someone hates them.
One less person to love
One less person to ruin
to cry for
to apologize to
to ****.

I don't search out hate, though
I have loved,
perhaps more purely than
you could imagine.
When one fears love,
has never known it
... Well,
Who can deny
ignorance breeds
the purest of emotion?

And yet,
there comes a time
when purity runs dry
once a bubbling brook
becomes a struggling trickle
weariness replaces what
once was feeling
fleeting.

But do not weep for me
no second thoughts
no regrets
Whilst my sentiments fade
and a slumber nears
know I lived,
And how very sorry
I am
for the things
I have done

...Then light gives way to shadow ‘neath
and wind doth surge through cold cliff’s teeth
The ship finds doom among those rocks
just as a city o’er come with pox.

How the ****** cry, a riotous swell
without anger, fury, none will tell
The story dies as the pinnace snaps
another secret lost in gaps

‘The skiffs!’ they screamed a’running quick
but salvation dashed, the tides too thick
Each man, a child, cannot swim
their bodies thrown, the ocean’s whim

No remnants left upon the shore
the men aboard were seen no more
Wives and sons a’wept and wept
the sea forever in contempt...

... An unknown crime towards those, the same
yet none would ever know his name
But once they might have called him brother
so soon he goes to end another

A life, a faith, so pure of heart
was poisoned, dearly, from the start
So truth, it seems, one cannot trust
when those most close hold secret lust

He bade them well, those wives and sons
now soiled, dark, the world soon shuns
He smiled, pleased on death’s behalf
and let go one deep, cold laugh

And the world fell in around him -
infinite shards raining down
leaving garish wounds of red blood
and
bone
and
thick masses of being
neither him
nor not him.

He was alone.

The mask is safety,
Though you bid, remove
While it hides faults and virtues
What have I to prove?

Write for me
They always ask
And always I decline
With each and every word for them
Then what have I that's mine?

So dragons, curses, swords, and pens
Have stories all their own
But what have I then in the end
On my word and paper throne?

Love isn't for happiness.
   Love isn't for joy.
      Love is for screaming in agony, and knowing your pain will pain    
      another.
          Love is for sharing sorrow and finding comfort together.
               Love, when you're sad, hurts when they're happy. And
                  Love, when they cry, brings a warmth you crave. Their tears give        
                  you more, as pain makes love acute. For
               Love is revenge, and Love is fear.
            Love is destruction, and Love is rebirth.
         Love is the phoenix reborn, only to be shot in the heart.
      Love is disgusting, and Love is beautiful.
   Love is hard and dark and spiteful.

Love is kind

And Love is Death.

We can't hold on to one part of ourselves
while denying another

This world hums at your presence,
For like things resonate in soft, susurrate sounds while all else fades.
This world is damaged and beautiful
Beaten by the men on its surface and haunted by those long since gone
With scars and with secrets and subtleties buried
With an aching aloneness hid deeper yet, still
But so gracious and warm and eager to help.
To save.
To support.
While whole stretches of void hold it away from its kin.
These voids are safety.
Protection.
It knows what it needs, doesn’t it?
Separate and safe, blooming only for those held so close as to not lose them
But never close enough to reach its core.
Blooming with color, with life, with song
In moments, nothing but a collection of seconds, of minutes,
A bundle of time and feeling.
Regret. Fear. Sorrow.
Trust and hope.
Pirouetting around the sun.
Listen to the humming.

Listen.

There's something a'shifting
With tooth and claw bared
Something a'hungering
Where no one has stared

A monster's a'climbing
from out of your throat
Digging deep into
you, keeping afloat

There's something a'wishing
A'wanting like mad
Alive in all living
things, risk to be had

A creature a'waiting
it's eager escape
The beast lies a'muttering
as the mouth gives it shape

There's a small, soft place
I keep in a space
I hide in the back of my heart

With secrets and dreams
and thoughts that I deem
Too important to see the light

Doors, both ways,
and a journey, each
and yet so far,
you’ll never reach!

Yes or No like
Black or White and
Right or Wrong so
Negative so
Positive no
listen to the
madness when
yes is no when
right is
wrong when
people cry from
counter-
positives

Black and white so
true or false no
time for maybe no
time for grey
I need an answer
now
now
now like
a ticking clock with
words to choke on and
quiet to drown in a
tick and a
tock and a
flurry of bells a
birth a
wedding a
funeral an
*end

Bars can't silence the voice in a throat
As night can't **** off the dawn
Wishing can never be smothered or choked
Even when losing the song

And though ice slows the dream in mind
And memory blurs the path
Lyrics, music, all flow in kind
Each bird forgets the world's wrath

Not a cloud,
a cloud is too kind a description for the feeling.
An ocean, perhaps.
Endless.
Smothering.
Inescapable.

"Smile!" They say.
"And happiness will come with it!"

That's how they show they care.

If only they wouldn't lie.

Am I lost or broken?
To be fixed or be forgotten?
Perhaps it's just the same to me,
My mind was misbegotten

Is the ice outside or in?
Has the rot seeped through?
Is my heart shattered or bruised?
Is it all the same to you?

Leave me here or leave me there
One way or another
Whisper quiet in your ear
"You always did so smother."

I am meant to feel.
I know this as true.

Yet, all the feeling I once felt is through.

Don't ask me why I have sad days
Don't ask me why I cry
Or why I leave the rock in
my shoe
Or tell you that I'm fine

Don't ask me for opinions
when you know that I don't care
Don't question every negative thought
when I don't think you're near

Don't look at me like that
and say you sympathize
Don't treat me any different
just because you think I'm sad
Or fidget with discomfort when
you see the bags under my eyes

Because if I want help, I'll tell you
If there's something you can do, I'll tell you
But oftentimes, I just want to pretend
for a moment

that I'm not so sad

What was true? What was false? Had he ever had a pulse?
Was he real? Was he not? Would he even be distraught?

i am nothing
and everything

and you can't stop me

Perhaps the fault
is not with how I choose to display my soul,
but in how you perceive it

Leave me here
or leave me there
it’s not that I
have thoughts to spare

It’s flames that I must
stoke and catch
I haven’t strengths yet
left to stretch

My eyes grow weary,
weak, and vile
for only I
will hold this trial

It’s my own fault
as I grow blind
how not a comfort
could I find

Please, wish me well
or wish me wrong
I always lose my words,
my song

I never meant for
this to die,
I only wish to see
the sky

For there is an antagonist in everyone

There are flowers blooming
bright and brilliant, true
pooling from the vesicles
red and violet blue

Roots ensnare the veins below
a pale and powder skin
the blush of nascent nature’s worth
where bruises might of been

A pulling scrapes the tears from eyes
pink with blossom’s bud
And lips stained dark with dreams long dashed
reek of the color blood

There’re flowers in you, child
but flesh and blood as well
tend your garden carefully
or thorns grow where you dwell

For without this sun,
How could any survive this life?

What are words
and why do they feel like dancing?

With swishing, swaying somnolence, in eve
So slow and sound, a thought begins to stir.
A battle brews beneath the throat, but breathe
Past beating baubles, under flesh and fur

Concealed by waves and waves of reticence
The sun a blot on the horizon grey
In splendor faces glow with innocence
Though silently they scream in their dismay

Away, away, away they fall to dark
And disarray while children dream alone
They dream for shattered selves of gold, and hark!
The hammer falls upon them as t’would stone

Yet broken souls shan’t glimmer bright as whole
However well the storied tales extoll.

When you look in the mirror
And sorrow looks back
The sobs of unworthy
Your body will rack
As tears of regret
Fall through the air
Weight of consequence
More than you can bear
The hate inside you
Ripping out
The distress that blinds you
Fills you with doubt
Doubt in the world
that left you to rot
Doubt in the people
Who love you or not

Tragedy turns you
Cold as stone
And tragedies plural
Will leave you alone
As dark overshadows
All light in your soul
It makes you abandon
Your greatest goal
All hope that you find
Will seem dark and demeaning
Life, in itself
Will lose all its meaning
It'll mock you today
And will mock you tomorrow
The mirror that showed you
All of your sorrow...

Who do you admire, child?

I admire the trees.

The trees are a* what not a who, my dear.

That's only what you see...

I see the strength
Of the wood through the sorrow
Of the storm, how it rips them apart

I see them give
What the creatures would borrow,
While pain is all that's returned.

I see them cry
From the young man's knife,
Tears for the love it has learned

I see them fade
At the end of their life
As winter seeds ice in their heart

The trees soldier on, and the trees do endure, though life beats on for its way

They lose bits of themselves, and yet they march on

Ever in the light of day.

Love lasts forever
Love never dies
Love is eternal
Love never cries

Love is a blessing
Love is a song
Love doesn't falter
Love will last long

Love will support you
Love will not fade
Love will reward you
With you, Love is made

Love is protective
Love is a friend
Love has a secret


Love has an end.

Mirrors, mirrors,
left and right
and I can't see a thing

The clicking clock
goes tick tick tick
so I can't hear you sing

All I see is
me me me
but can't bear the sight

I'll rip it open,
let the red
block out all the light

Is that truly so?
I don't know what to say, why,
Congratulations

There once was a lovely young maiden
Who had but admirers three
The first one had said
"Let me into your bed!"
And she thought
"Oh how awful you be!"

There once was a lovely young maiden
Who had but admirers three
The second one offers
"Let me into your coffers!"
"I'd ne'er let you have the key!"

There once was a lovely young maiden
Who had but admirers three
The third asked so kind
"Let me into your mind,
and I'll foster what you hold in thee."

There once was a lovely young maiden
Who loved the admirer three
Who did as he promised
and taught her in honest
but could not stay bound to she

Bravery isn't about foolhardy acts of honor
it's admitting you're afraid
and still having the moral compass
to do what's right.