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Steven L Herring Nov 2018
Bury the dead
in a long winter's sleep,
but scour the hills
for the lost little sheep

The ones you let go of
from when we were kids
The ones that God gave you
as life's greatest gifts

Alive in your heart
they certainly must be
Buried between all the “I's”
and the “me's”
If you look hard enough
you surely will see
that innocence He gave you
was not lost in rough seas

Through whispers of time
and hands reaching out
With eyes full of tears,
there arose such a shout
that even those lost
could never ignore
Not even in slumber
or work
or at war

We've wandered a desert
alone and afraid
Yet somehow we've stumbled
back into God's grace
and arms that are loving
and out to embrace
all who would enter,
so for that we give thanks
Steven L Herring Nov 2018
You walk around with
your finger on the trigger
Dominant eye half way
between front sight and scope
The conversations are loaded
like magazines
with one in the chamber

What's it like to live on edge like that?
What's it like to live one sentence from
a preloaded resentment
and a heart-shaped
bullet hole in your sleeve?
What's it like to
stand in a crowd so alone?

But alas…
I reproach you rhetorically
because I know already,
my sweet grey cloud!
You're a fog
just waiting for the Son to melt you
just waiting for someone to help you
all you have to do
is rest your flailing hands
and take the ones that reach for you

You don't have to rock so tough
because I got you
I get you
I'll turn my cheek a thousand times
but I can only take so many slaps
Steven L Herring Nov 2018
Recycler
By Steven L Herring

Picked it up
Took it down
Let it go
And it ripped right out of me
Every time
Leaving me empty inside
Just barely alive
And oh so numb
I don't even know
How many times
I probably almost died
Shoulda
Woulda
Could
But couldn't hide
To myself
And everyone else
I lied
And lied
And lied
So ******* numb inside!
And drowning myself in sorrow
Stuck in a rutted rage
And a lame *** digital cage
Project defeat self and isolate
Eyes dilated
Thoughts mutated
Into something unknown
Trudging on and on and on
Into infinite finality
And death was my only future reality
My King a bottle
Hurtling full throttle into a
friendless
Bottomless
And endless void

I was the long face
I was the dead end…
and I'm glad I got the ******* that train
Deuces!
Steven L Herring Oct 2018
Wet palms
The sweat
beaded up on clavicles
and dripped out from
under arms

Nothing quite like the feel of skin
the way the soft supple tissue falls away
underneath running crimson nails
hunting moans and wails
making you scream out from within

Whether weather is cold or balmy
those lips
those lightly colored fingertips
started a war inside me
and I can't think of one single place
to run and hide me

Your breath upon my neck binds me to you
and I breath you in like Summer's
warmest mountain breeze
Then I smile and put you away
I'll be back to you someday
Til then, I'll have to revel in just the thought of you.
Steven L Herring Oct 2018
Face up against the window
Eyes full of road, plains grass,
and a far away mountain pass
The sweet smell of summer
creeping through a window
that's slightly cracked
in a beat up old Volkswagen
with a broken 8 track

Mom's sleeping in the front seat
and dad's got some country music
singing sweet serenades softly
through twitchy speakers in a broken
door panel while we work our way
across God's country from
sea to shining sea

There's something magical
about a road trip
black asphalt
and the sight of a farmer's sprinklers
at sixty and five miles an hour
two in the afternoon
on a hot and dusty strip
of road between hotels and night's
long starry pauses
and sun's yawning rises

Nobody loves it more than
little boys and girls in a backseat
with a blanket
a pillow
and some snacks to watch
America come to life on a
window-cranked movie screen.
Steven L Herring Oct 2018
Budding flower
of happy hour
struck in a dorm room daze
just to wake with
somebody's junk in your face

Drug out dead animal
trailing across plasma
with more hits
than a pizza commercial
and all I got is Michael Jackson
eating popcorn
as we all take in
full frontal media ****

We got he said
We got she said
Hot and fresh right to your seats!
Roe v. Wade
delectably dancing in our tongue and cheeks

Is that all that matters?
Meanwhile the mud splatters
and reputations shatter
And decency scatters

Guy gets his ego elected
and there's a rise in his pants
like one day I'm a do it again
and the bar is lowered for men
and the victim is the villain
Again
and again
and again!

I think I felt a raindrop
as Jesus wept
and a scowl across God's face swept.

It's okay to be a blackout drunk in college
with your future on lock.
I wonder how many children learned this on the living room God box?
Steven L Herring Sep 2018
Dark all the time
Let a little light in
from the sunshine
but I wear shades
like all the time
so the light is always dim
anyway

When it's cold outside
it's cold in here too
and you can scream as loud
as you want
but I still won't hear you
not over the knives in the drum
not over the teeth grinding
and the branches winding
around them
like little children
clinging to their mother's dress hem

The throttle is all the way up
Five for a ride
and the tank is on full
There's no rest here
No call for a break to hear
but if the machine breaks…
A girl can pray, dear

But nobody calls
and nobody writes
and these branches
just hang
lower
and
lower
the ground reaching up
to grip with all his might
to bury me
marry me
and hold my bones tight
like sand when water runs
back into the sea
and I'm all alone again tonight

That's okay
I'll lie here in spite
despite myself
I'll fight myself
and make a feeble attempt
to turn all my wrongs to…
Yeah…
right….
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