Echoes of the past calling out my name
The old times lost, and life is not the same
Distant the voices hidden in my mind
Behind closed eyes before the nightmares come
As sleep betrays the fears my thoughts designed
Alone; I struggle just to see her face
The visions of a dream that held me there
No light in darkness, just an empty space
No darkness in light, just the cold, thin air
And still I love with no limits or shame
Although my heart is cold and undefined
And my aged senses may be worn and numb
For it is love that I choose to embrace
And not a past that has nothing to share

Shadows of winter remain here
Unclad by the early spring sun
Echoes chilled by the passing time
Seasons rebuild nature’s beauty
Torn between worlds, the then and now
Reborn in the cool forest glades
Life on earth must return again
In the blessed birth of springtide’s call
Walking amid awakening trees
Sleep talking and stretching out limbs
Towards pale sun rays stirring the ground
The age-old tale is told again
Turning away from winter’s blues
The seasons turn in verdant hues

Roses are red, violets are blue
A dinner you promised, just me and you.
Reproving winds lectured me in bites
For my barely-there skirt, and lustful eyes.

Sour cream lathered that oily exterior.
The aftertaste lingered, creating a barrier
Of which soft lips could not break through
Nor embellished flowers or chocolate fondue.

With our stomachs full, with more than just food
You brought me back home with beer-stained shoes.
My mind a fog. The Lamb now waits to be skinned
For the Wolf that set the ****** trap to finally begin.

Virginal blush, tinged with her bruises all blue
A dinner you had promised, just me and you.

The surging ocean ripped me from my feet
And from my face erased stupidity
For I was smashed into the ocean floor
And learned a lesson with rapidity

So whenst you step into the turbid sea
I beg attend the state of wind and swell
The ocean educates all people free
But some did not return their tales to tell

The ocean hides no secrets in her waves
To all who care to ask she tells the truth
To know her is to know how to be brave
And how to love a happy tumult, too

But waves are varied, never constant things
The winds that drive them often calm to sing

I’m not yours, I do not belong to you
I can not be found as I am not lost
Even though our stars are destined to cross
Our love will shine in a different hew
No red stained rose can declare my heart true
As over your tears my lips gently gloss
Absorbing your pain like riverside moss
Such tenderness of love is mine to do
But my soul will not be still in your hand
For love will never pierce my heart of stone
Not in the ways that any can understand
Although I’m beside you I am alone
Like a pebble amid the grains of sand
The candle that burns to guide you back home

Heat Lightening
by Michael R. Burch

Each night beneath the elms, we never knew
which lights beyond dark hills might stall, advance,
then lurch into strange headbeams tilted up
like searchlights seeking contact in the distance . . .

Quiescent unions . . . thoughts of bliss, of hope . . .
long-dreamt appearances of wished-on stars . . .
like childhood’s long-occluded, nebulous
slow drift of half-formed visions . . . slip and bra . . .

Wan moonlight traced your features, perilous,
in danger of extinction, should your hair
fall softly on my eyes, or should a kiss
cause them to close, or should my fingers dare

to leave off childhood for some new design
of whiter lace, of flesh incarnadine.

NOTE: The title is not a typo but a double entendre. Keywords/Tags: sonnet, rhyme, love, lust, desire, ***, petting, necking, parking, date, dating, lovers' lane

For lived experience beyond the carnal;
Topknot explored an inner life.
Then with Slipknot who was his wife,
They embraced art rather than artisanal.
At first their dream fell flat in liminal
Where worm cast actors played the fife,
And whalers waved a flensing knife,
And stoic chic was seen as criminal.

A wall dive away from the stepped revetments
Of leggy fledgling skipped ropes of foam,
Where deep blocks slowed down coast erosion;
(Despite negative equity and mad investments
In sand-sunk rubble from a broken home)
They found a world beyond shallow explosion.

I brought her to the water by the moon,
To share with her, the shade beside the sea,
I gave to her my eyes, that she might see,
and sang to her the most afflicted tune.

I prayed of her what she might ever do,
When faced with all the mightiest would fear,
She whispered, through a solitary tear,
A crystal verse to stay her last adieu.

When fires of gold have shed their morning light,
When embers fade and only ash remains,
When enemies of old are at the gates,

Do not embrace the darkness of that night,
Or think upon those ashes with disdain,
For all that might remain will share our fate.

my lover twirls grace and beauty
between her fingertips
her golden hair gleams like sunlight
and her breath flows like wind
i can liken her to flowers
but they hold no candle to her
she moves like a river
gentle, slow, and flowing
i understand now the desire
that Eve had that day in Eden
aching to feel the sweet nectar
flow down her chin and to her breast
wanting to taste what she never could have
and, God, did it feel good.