Soft strung on mourning dew
Moon-lit nights stung, chasing you.
Evanescent upon thin waking lids
The pages burnt with nitrogen.

The aching echo, overbearing hollow
Dusty ash. An after taste.
Not tear enough to hardly swallow-
Or stomach left to try to sate.

The pillars-statues-all in our name
Bleached out hero's in history's game.
Naught plight enough to recall how human
Our blood-our tears-stained our face.

We legends born from pleading minds-
Broken spirits and battered limbs.
Who seek to finally cease the crime-
To bring back the light-wash out the dim.

Give our strength-are cast in shadow
To drive the ghost that haunt the land
Back to their own, bleak bloodied meadow
With our hearts-grasped tightly-in their hands.

The rest is but a washed out vision.
The lull of peace saturates the land.
But you and I have been ripped open and swallowed
As the lion now scarified to the lamb.

Pointless nostalgic,
my only talent is echoing
onto amniotic microcosms,
where singing is the abortion,
of any cerebral commotion.
No courage in my veins
to float on the vibes
of a carcass that remains of me.
licked clean with the searing cure
of a lion, by then confused
with the dense effect
of another space, burned to the ground.
These new sunsets cry raw drops of clay,
still hanging by the thread of these horizons,
while balance bet everything,
on the frustrated sound
of unspoken words.

The soles of my shoes are
nothing
more than skin and bone.
The holes in my heart are filled with
Something
More than blood alone

Time is measured on a hundred million
Watches
Each in synchronous space
Rights are driven forward by a hundred million
Marches
Anger painted our faces
Love is given over to the lion
Harmless
Like lambs in guarded places

I am leaving for days gone by
Priceless
Time we shared
You are leaving for nights alive
Lifeless
Days our hearts bare
We are parting for a time
Fight this
For the end is near

This end is merely beginning
Again
Find hope in loss
This beginning is merely an ending
My friend
For me weep not
I'll be here waiting for you in time
The end
Is not the end of us.

i walked into a lions den
and tapped the beast upon his brow.
He turned to me with deep surprise
and let out a tremendous growl.
I said to him, I must confess.
I've come to be your meal tonight.
The lion looked me up and down
at all the tender parts to bite.
The lion let the kettle boil
But couldn't stop himself to ask
just why the sweetest tasting thing
would commit to such a gruesome task.
I looked that lion in the eye and
and spoke with an alarming calm.
"Lion, find my heart to be
Full of those that meant me harm.
take them, may they give you strength
when they could give me only sorrow.
Have them, may they feed your fire
i'll start finding love tomorrow. "

shannon april alice 1/19/16

I always carried the pain with me ever since
From broken furniture thrown by a screaming man
From promises wept by a shattered woman

I always carried the pain with me ever since
Because I never really knew what love looked like
I can only hear curses and threats
See only half-hearted embraces and silver edged kisses
It didn’t feel good to look at them
Those broken trusts and heavy hearts
It didn’t feel good to not know what love looked like
I felt afraid

I thought I had it once
Though his hand in mine didn’t fit
His grips got tighter when he found my waist
And I was put down too often
I thought I had it once
But his eyes roamed like a cat
On another woman’s body
And tasted lips like beer bottles
It didn’t have to look like love
Because it didn’t feel like love
I felt afraid

I felt lost against all the lights
I felt lost against his words
Of “Never Will I”
And I found you
You looked like trouble
You were going to pose me like a trophy
Just like the other boys with lion eyes
And I was going to let you
Because I never really crowned myself
But then I sang to you my sad song
And you didn’t pose me like a trophy
You posed me like a muse
And I felt afraid

Your lion eyes went away
And blossomed into suns
With the warmest colors
But I cried a lot and had a lot of nightmares
You always ran to my side
Whenever I called your name
I hurt your heart more than twice
You went away
And I felt afraid

I wanted to heal you
Even if I wasn’t all healed myself
From thorns in my heart
And choked screams in my sore throat
I wanted to heal you
And you let me

Your arms around me always felt like towers
Protecting me
I was your muse
You became my strength
Your words lit me to flames
And the aching I carried seemed to go away
I felt afraid
Because the agony was all I’ve ever known
I felt afraid
Could this be the love they say?

I felt afraid
One night the fear came back
With hotter flames and it burned me deeply
I tried washing it away, but not with water
I cried a lot and felt like a nightmare
Your lion eyes came back
And I felt afraid
You saw me as a wreck and not your muse
I sang you my sad song
And you built your arms around me once again
Quelling the flames

Although from self-hate, they still ember
And they hurt as smoke flows through my eyes
It fanned a demon
And it broke down your arms
I broke you again
To a point that you don’t believe
Much of my sad songs anymore
And I felt afraid

I want to sing a song once more
But the melody gets clogged on cries
So I’ll just tell you a little story
Of a little girl that never knew the face of Love
She was posed as a trophy for her pretty face
But never for her thorn heart
She felt afraid to anyone who exposed their heart to her
Fearing to only send curses and broken furniture
Because that’s all she’s ever known
But this time, she’ll strip for you
The insecurities, doubts and pain that was wrapped around her
Just so she could unmask you purely
Let the lion eyes roll back
See the face of Love
And never have to feel afraid ever again

I want this to go as smooth as writing from a ballpoint pen, girl let me be the Lion in your Lion's Den