A holy day it was
When the dark skinned gathered there
Under open skies unowned
On the land of their forebears
They met to offer forth their prayers

They entered the walled space
Through gated entrances five
Mixed mass of gender, age and creed
Unarmed they gathered, unarmed strived
Ruled by white Lords, to keep culture alive

From a raised bank, he watched
Fair general and his native troop
When the time was right, dropped his arm
Unleashing bullets on endless loop
Laying waste to unwary group

Swarming mass in open tomb
Clamour to protect all life and love
Mother crouched encasing child so soft
A man holding his wife, a flapping dove
None spared from cold end reigned from above

Hot metal darts indiscriminate
Sliced through humid burdened air
Muting wails of the sentenced helpless
Piercing flesh of the souls stripped bear
Earth wept with weight of blood spilled there

Thus ebbed the day of the massacre
Beaded sweat trickles down Generals brow
Blood and meat lay heaped at exits five
Shrouded in questions of the why and how
That such slaughter could one man and his arm allow.

I need to let go of you
You are caustic to my hold
I'm withdrawing, in pain
I need to detox, poultry cold

I have not much reserve
Not much strength to spare
I'm an addict, a seeker
Clutching you with despair

Your laugh it still entices
Your simple gestures excite
Your silence shrieks unbidden
Into my tiring mind in fight

I think I need a you patch
To mount up on my arm
A you gum, a filtered you,
Keeping my mind calm

My tale is that of a ******
My drugs varied in style
Depend, detox, withdraw
You're another in my file...
...and not the last, not for a while.

Shuffling along dusty banister
Skin flaking like ancient paint
Pointlessness of purpose forgotten
Blurred edges do crumbling memories taint

A struggling artist, a mother of two
A childless veteran, or a lost love
Time washes colours to pastel hues
Indistinguishable lives from up above

Strength of fleeting mind predetermined
To revel in memories, real or fake
Random muttering of wandering thoughts
Quivering banks of a brimming lake

Musings informed by a life fully lived
Regrets of life lost to indefinite wait
Unsifted are these thoughts to audience deaf
To dust, to ash, is assigned mortal fate

Make of this what you will and wish
Live the life of a hero or the deprived
The garden will grow to cover past truths
Same end awaits all those who survive.

clean snow
white wash the fields
magic powder gleams soft
gentle touch caress silent earth
all gone

rain drop
serene beauty
born of fierce, angry storm
glides, embracing hills tenderly
all gone

bright light
touch dark corners
spills forth golden nectar
conceal shades of opaque nature
all gone

sad end
snow, rain, light, goes
clean, serene, brightness, goes
but thread of the intangible
remains

Captured on film
A drop of rain
Bouncing off rail
Before it must trail
Back into earth
From whence it was born
But before its demise
Left one little prize
This picture so pure
Of drop soaring high
Gifted to him
One holding the film.

There lives a man on my left arm
I call him Tiny Dan
He shouts aloud my inner thoughts
I'm not his biggest fan.

"Nice to see you, lovely neighbors",
I purred as I saw them.
"She hates your intruding", shouts Dan
From there the feud did stem.

"The food was lovely, compliments",
I beamed at snooty cook.
"Overpriced and salted mush!"
I'm now blacklisted in their book.

"I'm doing well, and how are you?"
I say to stranger walking past.
"She sobbed herself to sleep again",
My mask is wrenched away so fast.

"I don't need a hand, I'm capable",
I assert to world at large.
"She's so alone, feels sorrow true",
I'm no longer the one in charge.

The worst of course is my mirrored self,
"I'm happy with who I am".
Dan laughs out loud, snorts into glass,
"You've lost yourself, you're ******".

So Dan sits there, oh all day long
I can't rid him away.
The only thing I know to do
Is hide from world and me all day.

Tiny Dan, I beg you please don't stay.