Rob Rutledge

Rob Rutledge Nov 2014

The stratosphere beckoned closer.
Vertigo took its toll.
Soaring higher than we could ever know.
These wings weren't made of wax
They melted all the same.
The ground seemed far once
Now it's as clear as day.
The clouds get out of my way
Their softness is a lie.
Cunning *******
Floating the atmospheric tide.

I have no such luck.

****

I Think I can see my house...

*crunch

Rob Rutledge Nov 2014

Hope

I hope that it rains on your wedding day
And that all of the clouds in your sky are Grey.

I hope that what you beg to borrow
Is bent double, broken in sorrow.

I hope that your face is forever blue
Strangled by terrors old and anew.

I hope the promises you speak
Turn to ashes on your tongue.
And that your days are spent in darkness
Exiled from the sun.

This isn't strictly speaking true.
What we loved once we shall love forever too.
Hatred is a passing wind across the sea
What ever river you sail
I hope that you sail at peace

Rob Rutledge Nov 2014

Offering

Every gift that I have been given
Shall be lain down upon the road
That leads to you.
An offering of sight,
Eyes left in the dust beside the path.
A sacrifice of silence,
Tongue nailed to the frame of your door.
A pennance to hear,
Ears scattered among the scrubland
Walking unguided into the abyss
Nothing left to miss but fear.

Rob Rutledge Nov 2014

Calligraphy

It's strange how this calligraphy
Instills an impression upon your mind.
What's true for me ain't true for all.
We each have our experiences
The meaning that we find.

Our lives aren't ours to abdicate
They belong in all the places that
We seek.
Love will peek
Round the corners of the chairs
We do avoid.
Whispering all our wants and needs
All shy and coy.

Speak them loud or none will hear you.
None will gather all your cloth into the storm.
Until it's yours.
So scream unto the heavans.
Declaring what is yours.
But that is no guarantee
That happiness will fall at your door.
You'll walk the road abandoned
Accompanied by a roar.

Rob Rutledge Nov 2014

Reflection

Shouting hoarse
Vocal chords snap
Carried away by the breeze.
Broken meoldys succumb
To the pull of gravity.
Fallen leaves know how
Futile the struggle has become.
Screaming words into a mirror
For the self reflections of one.

Rob Rutledge Nov 2014

Stage Fright

The stage is large and daunting
a warning basking under orange lights.
the actor is thrown into the scene
somewhere from off of stage right.
Shrinking from the glare to the night
Transfixed by sight, the first time it's seen.
He has the strangest urge that this is all a Dream.
Wishful thinking
Im afraid.
The cameras were always rolling, the final credits have been made.

The crowd sit in near silence.

"Is this a part of the show?"

"I think they're building suspense!"

Nothing.

Rob Rutledge Nov 2014

Untitled

You're never at your worst
Till you're riding in a hearse
First place in a funeral procession.
In the depths of a recession
Death notes write confessions
Of the obsessions of the heart.