The somnambulist searches
in an insomniac stupor
His glazed eyes
unseeing
he gropes in the darkness
His hands graze fleshen walls
that pulse
as if with subtle breath
Who knows what he seeks
certainly not him
Naked he wanders
clothed only
in a tattered Jolly Roger
skull stained red
caked in dried blood
He longs for something he cannot comprehend
he longs
for the one he lost long ago
Each stumbling step he takes
he sighs
praying in vain
for a hand to reach out
and grasp his
to lead him from his endless maze
of failure
Into a new realm
where darkness dwells in beauty
and love is not an illusion in the hat of a trickster
"This way"
a voice whispers
and he stumbles on blindly
to his doom or to his joy
this is something he cannot know.

She was a razor
a transmission
a delicious purloined proscription
An upper
a roofie
I want a cup
of her ashes
in my pocket
She was a legend
a messiah
a golden lover
and a silver pariah
When I think
of all the faces I carved
into the soft surface
of my desire
I cannot decide
if it was her claws
or her prose
that made me ****
back my saliva
Even if she were to die tommorrow
she would always be
the soul survivor.

Glitterati Gangsters gaze
with commanding stares
and broken plates glass blown and open gates
There she sits eyes
all holding
all knowing
synchronicities shatter the scene
Sparkling
each blink initiates a flood of flaming diamonds
that lash out like hot irons
Eyes like this entice and take
Each blink unlocks a new mystery
as she grinds resistance in her teeth
Igniting my lust
Sparkling
each blink creates a dawning sun
Her gaze inflames ten thousand ways
She wields sparkle
like madmen spray sarin
With sparkling abandon

There is no sense
In trying
To be a good person
It is simply something I am not
Maybe once I could craft smiles
And repair rainbows
I was a hero once
But
When the ones who loved you walk away
Hero or not
You break down
I was good
No more
Only wickedness rules my actions
And even its hold is tenuous.

Lightening strikes without warning
the ionized air crackles
bitter tasting breezes blow incessantly
Harlequin's dance in the depths of the moonlight
bells ******, tambourines rattle
Lightening strikes without warning
Blue brilliance bathes the clearing
the revelers are blinded
jugs of wine are spilled
all bodies nervously tremble
Lightening strikes without warning
at the edge of the clearing
carpets catch fire
acrid smoke engulfs everything
Lightening strikes without warning
dead
in the center of the clearing
hair is singed clothing catches
tinkling bells mingle with the howls
Lightening strikes once more
The moon slips behind the clouds...
The flickering flames are all that remain

Mercury drips
from cold fingertips
Into cracked teacups
arrayed on a child's play table
"Where is my Alice?"
Chuckling bends the edge of the silence
Chemical cocktails sprayed
Weaponized aerosols
designed to cloud minds
bring dark knights crashing to their knees
Short sickly man
with a blood red head of hair
Stares oh so sweetly
at his darling sweetie
******* the straight edge
concealed in his pocket
Wonderland gang strikes
devices devised for controlling minds
activated
chips in cowls, linked to size eleven hats
Denigration of children's tales
although Lewis Carrol was a ******* they say
either way there is no avoiding
the madness of the hatter.

Hickory dickory dock
can you hear
the ticking
tocking of the clock
This dented trumpet in my hand
it comes as a shock
I may be the last man standing
when the dust settles
on the chopping block
The pennant of pleasure
hangs limp
like the zipper pull
on the mask of a gimp
The strength of a lion
and yet the best
is a wimp
The man who will fall
second to last
is just a ****
Oh lawdy
I do believe
the fallen few
will adorn my breastplate
I will finally find love
in the rubble
of the ones who eat hate
its not too late
to create
to shove the last piece
of the puzzle
into place
Before
the judges decide
who won the race
I will report the results
in any case
I  must
the herald cannot rest
The end is
for him alone to face.

Spurred on by scarecrow's
chemical coercions
convicts and sick souls
spill out into the streets
To slice dice
cook and eat
An orange jumpsuit army,
a crushing orange wave consumes
The neighborhoods and avenues
Chaos is constant
Carnage is complete
No single hero can quell a wave of madmen
well acquainted with violence
Like an avalanche of razors, and ambulance sirens
Wielding improvised blood letters
And bone snappers
Citizens scream and flee
Consumed by the visions
Contained in the cloud of fear
It is clear
it is going to be a wild time
in old Gotham tonight.

What makes you think
that the suffering will stop
if you take off the top
of your head
with a shower
of buckshot
or slice the artery
longways
or down
those pills
with a gallon of wine
fully dressed
lying in bed
with a note
pinned to your chest
What makes you think
the pain will stop
just because your dead?
I hate to break it to you

They take nothing
for its simple meaning
Its a need
they can never be relieved
of it
with the right shove
unintended or crafted
you can get them
to throw their cards
on the table
They are unable to relent
this building
where you pay rent
wander the halls
for a few fleeting hours
and leave
as you please
This Utopia you praise
to them it is a prison
and you are all
innocent roe
A delicate dish
for the bigger fish
Look out guppy
that shark
he just hacked your camera.

Filthy brown bag floats
In a stagnant tidal pool.
Discarded garbage.

Bile black betrayals
Linger like rot on the tongue,
Made mute by masked words.

I know love exists
I've seen its rotting remains.
In your laughing eyes.

What is value
the extent of desire
a pyre
piled high
in wait of a fire
Is it beauty
or familiarity
It is not purity
perhaps banality
All I know is all that I see
and when I place myself
upon the scale
I never seem to measure up
to the most pathetic
puddles of ****
that dot the landscape
like fetid sores
that have nowhere to drain
Waiting patiently
for a driving rain
I know will never come.

Drawn together
heat rises as we draw nearer
crackling fire fills the spaces between us
Skin ignites as it touches
engulfing my all in molten voluptuousness
Hair bursts
eyes melt
Consumed by fatal passion
we burn
Consummated annihilation
We burn
Incendiary desire
We burn
Drawn together in the depths of the nothing
Yearning, and burning until
nothing is left
but the ashes of our love
We have burned into a heap
becoming one
for a moment
Until the wind scatters our remains
Separating us forever
only ever to meet again
as flitting particles
colliding in the night.

Every time he kisses you,
he tastes her
On your lips.
Never once does she kiss you
And taste him
On your lips.