residual voices casting
ruffled dusty shadows
of uneven pulsing
one sure burst cries through
woolen cloth
humid walls, yet
hollow and dark over my eyes

sad sag and lost-its-pep grey-blue
dingy-typed letters overlapped
I am too disturbed
by the pulling on my temple
and the taughtness
of my scalp
like the thin skin was instead
a weathered safety blanket

a lit candle rests on a mirror
she coaxes the cold from the corners
the candle smiles at her reflection
her fiery birth was for selfless light

she coaxes the cold from the corners
globules of wax wilt her happy gaze
her fiery birth was for selfless light
she sees herself shorten in the mirror

globules of wax wilt her happy gaze
she feels the heat press on her brow
she sees herself shorten in the mirror
she’s being burned at both ends

she feels the heat press on her brow
she cries for help from the warmed ones
she’s being burned at both ends
hasty blotches of wax and wick are desperate assist

she cries for help from the warmed ones
the candle can’t see her reflection
hasty blotches of wax and wick are desperate assist
a candle melts into the mirror

Sandman climbs through the etched window-lace
Tim Hunter and his owl race
They unite the family of stories

Sandman climbs through the etched window-lace
The Tree the children climb Grows in Brooklyn
They unite the family of stories
The window grows dim and pallid

The Tree the children climb Grows in Brooklyn
The same Tree grows Cold and Sassy
The window dims and grows pallid
Can the Guitar Gently console the clock that Weeps?

The same Tree grows Cold and Sassy
Throaty melodies iron the Wrinkles In Time
Can the Guitar Gently console the clock that Weeps?
We’re too quick to bemoan the nostalgia Dust In The Wind

Throaty melodies iron the Wrinkles In Time
Tim Hunter and his owl race
We’re too quick to bemoan the nostalgia Dust In The Wind
Fleece blankets comfort a jazzy guitar

Ropes across my hands
A bold march across the sand
The tan bland of my hands
The release of pain, I brand red
Ropes across my hands

Her whole world was spinning
And her hair was thinning
She creaked like the pliers that she
Would use on her brow
And to wrench up her frown
And the chorus would sing out of key

La la la lai and her waist and her thighs
Soon sighed and relaxed their firm hold
La la la hey and she steamed for she ate
And did everything that she was told

But naught was regarded
As dearly departed, from
A vantage the damage was void
But for that mannish girl
With muddy-water curls
She felt destruction on her was employed

Perhaps it was her,
Why all this occurred
And her head faced her heart in a round
A series of moves
And she's further removed
And the choir shrieks another round

La la la lai and her hands and her eyes
Both twitch and scrape to react
La la la hey and she'd hiss and she'd cry
If that ****** voice inside hadn't cracked

And it's been too long
Somewhere along the twisting, contorting, confining, conforming
I lost that internal rhythm that was truly mine
That hopeful march, the steady essence
It shattered
And as a gear breaks the system takes and before long the machine shakes
And it will knell and call
It's scraped, raw metal shriek is muffled by cold hands
A myriad of soothing, numbing touches
Returning its pining wails
Her name is a pallid reference in blate modern tongues
Syllables unpronounceable, the mouth cannot reach around
Save for the desperate, despondent calls
A call that wrenches the heart
Rasps the ears
And bites the soul the same
It is an ancient pull, shamed and lost in smog
She bears the burden of the stull
Chipped, fallen asunder, struggling
To be the stuffed papers, empty and promising
Pushing apart the covers of a book
Until the ringing
Ah, yes
That abrasive howl, wrenched from the wretchèd
She laughed and leapt- released her hold
And as a gear breaks the system takes and before long
The gap was sealed
And she has knelled and called
And I will cry and cry

It's in the scarred lines and scarlet gargles I often dwell
On the ugly, weighted, guttural g's of the word struggle
But followed easy and elastic by running tongue on teeth