Mum..

more than any minor star
YOU were the SUN
around which we all orbited
and when lucky enough
to be touched
by your light and warmth
to be shined upon
no brighter or warmer place
existed in any of our universes.

©J.C

I no longer walk in my sleep
like I did as a child
traversing dreamscapes
unknown and wild
lost in the wakeful world
outside my childs bed
walking in slumber
alone in my head
now sleep plays elusive
it slips the knot
as the witching hour calls
bides, forget me not
til dawns first light chases
the shadows into light
and the dark now defeated
I can surrender the fight
take me back in time please
to my childhood bed
before the night monsters
leased dreamspace in my head.

© J. C.

The first glance

Unsteady, unsure

One beautiful smile

One thoughtful flutter

Godspeed you butterfly!

She comes to my shoulder

And pins a rose on me

She leaves a note

She lifts the net

But wants no words to her song

She is from November

And I am from snow

We stand together

And everything is new

do you feel me?
in the yawning chasm
of space
that's opened up
like a deep wound
between us.

do you feel it?
the gnawed pain
that's consumed
my heart
or what remains
of it.


c.J.C.

surrender
your plump lower lip
tenderly
ensnared
between my teeth.

©J.C.

the mirror runs the length of the bar.

we down our drinks
and the bar empties out into the street.

across the street
the unemployment building is burning.

the tender, passionate flames
sets the night on fire.

blue eyes looks up,
she says to me,
"wanta go on a date?

i'll make all your dreams come true,
wouldn't you
love to love me?" she hooks her arm
through my arm and smiles,
"$20 and up depending on what you want."

"what's you're name?"

"Marie."


Gretta and Marie are kissing and turn
to me and give me that
Cheshire cat smiling


and for a moment
the ****** of the impossible
when the 5th floor collapses on the 4th floor
the flames shot up
like the 4th of July

and everyone cheers.


but then the fire engines come.

we file across the street
and into the bar,
unhappy faces,
angry faces stare.
the party was over.

and the mirror runs the length the length of the bar.

the slow slide
down from the stars above. love,

it leaves so fast,
grows so quickly cold.

she had looked into the shark's dead eyes
and found the friend
that waits in silent shadows

that draw the dying
inside themselves and into

the lone, solitary ring
of the cold church bells song.

Sylvia stared with dead eyes
and rode the white horse of death into the fire.