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Steven L Herring Jan 2019
Move Along There's Nothing to See Here
By Steven L Herring

Couples.
I hate watching couples.
I hate watching videos about couples
and marriage.
There's a finality flitting about them.
You can see the grave markers
shackled to their feet
like cheap price tags at a thrift store
dragging behind them
through the murk and the mud.

I was married once
It was filled with
damage and demand
and amusement park arguments
and broken promises
coming from all directions.
It was like running through the woods
looking backwards but bouncing
off of trees.
A soarly sour payment
for living life on my knees
and practicing idolatry.

Partners…
more like panthers in the dark.
Sharp teeth to tear skin from bones.
One steps out
while one slams the door
to anything near the word agreement.
Thanks for the reminder.
I'll pay more attention to my dog.
Steven L Herring Dec 2018
Out of My Mind
By Steven L Herring

And if I have to tell you twice
you weren't listening the first time
The wind was quiet
The trees were still
and you refused to hear
Your eyes are daggers to my soul
and your words are empty
like your heart
and black like your thoughts

You couldn't hit the door fast enough
but I opened it for you
and sent you away
with a parting gift
A boot for your backside
as I crushed you in my mind
Your memory faded
like smoke
from an extinguished candle
yet you still fill the room
with your stench

An open window wafts
and whisks away
the foul last breath
from your worthless words
full of hate
And I raise my glass to celebrate
the exodus of a dying thought
Steven L Herring Dec 2018
Let a Lonely Mountain Lie Empty
By Steven L Herring

Balled fists
Murky nights
and days full of thunder
Skies full of clouds
Skull emptied out
onto the pavement
to a two piece cadence
in a half-life limped out in blunder

And still I sit here
Fist to chin
Stuck in an everlasting wonder
Where does a soul go
when its eyes burned with plunder?
I have yet a devil in me
no bigger than the devil in thee
as we pacify them
with random acts of mindlessness
every now and again

Perfection…
Tell me then
Is that not just another *******
stabbed coarsely in the eyes
of our future?
I got a Wheel Bar to die in
if I want to go out like that
**** yeah!

Small town USA
Nothing to do here
past poking an angry elk sliding by
and drown yourself in beer
or break an angry barstool
let a lonely mountain lie empty
and listen to a game of pool

But me?
I'd rather roll the dice
and live the humdrum life
I'd rather celebrate with pie
let sleeping drunks lie
and have some sleepless nights
than wake up
to a sink full of guilt
and a head full of last night's mystery
What a hubris of misery
it can turn out to be
Take it from me...
Steven L Herring Dec 2018
Take it away
The descriptors
The labels
Oriented sexually moot
Identity is an argument
best left in the closet
behind old winter coats
and underneath the carpet

Outliners of new think
A shapely figure shall
remain without words
And all compliments from now on
will remain unheard

We are a new breed
A silent society saying nothing
without a signature of compliance
because anything less
would be an act of defiance

No men
No women
Only people live here
Animals at best
Simians sizing up semantics
through troubled waters wading
all the while waiting
for the fan to spread
the feces
to the species

I can't help but wonder
about a face-palmed deity
with his son at his shoulder
God through gritted grill
all but spitting the words
“Soon, my son!  This will all be over!”
And Jesus laughed
Steven L Herring Dec 2018
Scars Are Beauty Marks
By Steven L Herring

Hush and be still
It's a quiet fight
On a cloudy day
or in the dark of night

Dust from a moon boot
Cunningly clean
close up
to a motor boat
or bleeding bright red blood
from a fresh cut throat

Roses

Bunched on a bed
with sanded sheets
hand in hand
on a distant beach
I tasted the salt on her lips
contemplating the possibility
of my fingertips
discreetly brushing her hips

Ever so lightly
Slightly sliding through belt loops
Never let me go

I let her go
She told me to go
she
told
me
to
go

I cut the deepest
with the rustiest
of razors
She put the brakes on
with the freshest
of erasers
and when I think of her
she's faceless
But the saltiness is all gone
and I'm tasteless
but my scars aren't
baseless

Bandaged up
Boots on
Get back in the game
We got guys on bases
and you're up to bat son
Steven L Herring Dec 2018
Good Books Have Frayed Pages
By Steven L Herring

There's a little dirt
under the carpet
The coffee coasters
cling to well worn rings,
chipped at the edges
like laugh lines
on a face mostly spent
filled with content
or contempt

A ***** door ****
with a sticky striker
and a bent frame tells a story
of tough times trudged,
and fingerprints smudged
corroborate the abuse

But none of that matters much
The sun still shines,
and the heart is still beating inside
and the cells continue to divide
so the chance to turn it around
is still alive

The past has passed
The future has only been lined
There is still time to pick out
the colors
to plot the scheme
and make a dark cloud cottony
To make a flower
grow out of a tragedy
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
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