I sit up late contemplating
the apocalypse in your eyes.

when gravity lets you go, who will you actually be?
when seconds start to slow, what will you now see?
when majorities abandon the flow, will you feel free?
                                        
     when nothing is as it was, will you finally find me?

When the fires reach the shores of the foggy eyed people

How close will it need to come, to make their sight clear

These fires will rage on

And will burn until the world is ash

Bite your bothered tongue
until the four horsemen come
carrying fire and ice
bringing and end about
through cosmic collision, super heated surfaces
and Atomic Winters

Swallow your sullen words
although many threads remain loose
cut short, never nicely tied
unraveling in the winds
of never meant to be
and hopeful uncertainty

The Answer will be seen
when it all comes crashing down
and your world falls with
her every step away
The world is burning to you
but everyone else just goes
about their day

Truthfully,
you remind of someone I'd know
in my dreams;
a strangers face made recognizable
by lack of initiative, or curiosity.
Impervious to actualization.

Confidence in nightmares;
reflective of shock-waves of Nagasaki,
mutants in our collective DNA,
monsters wading in the gene pool.

Atheists with superstitions.
A viral nihilism befuddled by
religious idioms and anecdotes,
held together loosely by
scientific mysticism
&
hypocritical moral
superiority.

She reminds me that humanity is just,
"everything that mankind is capable of."
Builds complex doomsday devices in his head,
and plots to rule the world.
Meanwhile Manhattan project seeks
to either rule the world
or open it's
throat.

It pains me to write a puff piece
on hometown, love-life, hope/etc.,
yet I can wax lyric lusting for the apocalypse.
In this fashion, I can look into crowds
[sadistically romantic]
and tell them, aspiring to the Manhattan
in our everyday savage grey matter,
"We all have dreams in our hearts."

THE EARTH WAS STILL
AS IT SWIRLED AROUND ME
A HAZE OF ASH AND DREAMS
A BURN VICTIM OF AN UNREALIZED FANTASY
SCREAMING IN TWISTED EXCSTASY
AS MY FACES MELTED AND PETRIFIED
FROZEN FOR A LIFE ALIEN RECTIFIED
WITH A SHARP OBSIDIAN *****
TO DELIVER ME REMADE

HE SCRAWLED AND CLAWED HIS WAY TO ME
HIS WORLD ENTIRE, AS THOUGH I COULD SEE
MY LOVER ONCE DELAYED
BY GRIEF AND ASHES, A MISTAKEN AIDE
OF THE LOST GODSPOKE MEN

HE TOLD THEM TO LEAVE HIM DIRE
THAT HIS PASSION WOULD CARRY HIM THROUGH MUCK AND MIRE
FIERY INTO THE REALM ABANDONED CRIES
WRAPPED IN THE DUSTY ORGANZA LIES
HE SEEMED LIKE AN EYELESS CREATURE
BLUNDERING HIS WAY, A BLIND BEESHECHER  
SEARCHING FOR LOVE WHERE THERE WAS ONLY
A MAELSTROM OF LONGING

REBORN IN HIS GRAVE OF PROPHETS AND GRIEF
A SOLDIER SENT ONCE TO TEACH
THE FIRE SCORCHING AND TWISTING MY SHROUD
AS HIS WORLD WENT TUMBLING, BROKEN AND PROUD

TORN IN HIS WAKE OF GRACE
AND WHEN MY BODY HE FOUND ENCASED
IN GLASS, AS THOUGH A TRUE LOVE AWAITS
BUT WHAT HE COULD NOT ENKINDLE IN HIS HEART
WAS WHAT WOULD RIP THE GLASS APART
LOST IN OBSIDIAN IN ASH AND GLASS
A SHALLOW PRISON
OF LOSING AND LOVE AND
THE SPACE BETWEEN US

The stars of peace warm me,
the light blue fire that burns above us.
So my heart expands to see your love
like the sky that burns before our eyes.

I keep touching your hands,
laughing at our past, seeing the pictures,
remembering the sunsets and darkness.
I can only say how I love you, like
a dream your touch carries me.

There are some days when the skies
and the earth become grey, it is the time
when  the ants can't find their queen,
and the axe can't cut into it's wood, because
the victory was so long ago.

In a child's heart the wooden stairs were
steps to dreams, perfections, holiness,
and so I wish that in this moonlight
I'll look in the stars and find you there.

So I repeat and  remember the praises of the
night, the sweet solace of crowns
that unite the sky,
the embers of sweet memories.

I am only human
But I can feel Armageddon
It's trapped in my body
I am afraid to open my eyes
because if your eyes meet mine
you will glimpse The End
You will never be the same
I'm so afraid to touch you
Because my disease will spread
Soon everyone on earth will be infected
Nothing will be able to save them
I am exhaling poison and it is
filling the atmosphere
It won't be long before your lungs collapse
Because you kissed me
Don't you see the warning signs
Don't you hear them
When I mutter my words
Don't let me manipulate
Control you baby
Stay away

The Vault stands resolute
Against acidic Time.
It must have much to say.
There is much it must have seen.

It's steady, stony gaze
Is all that now remains
To stand guard over nothing;
Duty-bound to stay.

What resides within?
It is aching to become known.
What resides within?

We rush the beckoning gate,
We push and pry and pull.
Today is a first for the Vault:
For the first time it loses a fight.

The darkness confronts us,
Accusing and severe.
Apprehension crawls up our spines:
What has been hidden here?

What resides within?
It is aching to be known.
What resides within?

We set foot inside,
Our steps unnervingly loud.
The cold sun nips our heels.
The darkness caresses our brow.

What's that ahead?
I believe it is light.
The faintest of glimmers:
Thin golden thread.

What resides within?
It is aching to be known.
What resides within?

With the greatest of caution
We open this new door.
Beyond is a strange old creature,
Back to the wall, sitting on the floor.

His flesh is pale and creased,
But his eyes are anything but idle.
"What is this place?", we ask.
His answer comes with a smile:

"This is Man's Vault.
It is a reservoir of what we were
Long before the missiles or the disease
Or by both we all were burned".

"Who are you?"

"I am the Curator, the Chronicler.
This place is of my own work.
I've spent day and night here,
Building it with record, picture and book."

"What may we do with it?"

"That is for you alone to decide.
The collection must pass to new hands.
My purpose here has been served.
In this present realm I will not much longer bide."

On concluding his final, heavy quatrain,
He breathed his long life out.
And the liveliness from out his eyes did drain

For several minutes, we stood in silence.
As a weight pulled down on our hearts.
A race had died before our eyes,
And left to us its inheritance.