She runs bare feet, blood seeping    
as she runs and he is shouting,    
His bellowing voice does echoes    
into a coffee sipping morning.    
    
I see how scared she's running    
and her father is so scolding,    
Over was the short conversation    
& then he bellows her name.    
    
The morning was so dark and misty    
but he looked on so mysteriously    
Anger and for his princess    
His angel,  now just foot-prints    
    
She's gone and so much less,    
you wanted so much more old man,    
this day is not her's but your creation    
She's an individual worthy of deliration.

I was a ****** hopping trains,
Strung out on morphine
When they hired me at the mine.

That same story
Is much like mine,
Only there were other guys.

No, in mine too.
They orchestrated and I played instrument,
They used me as a patsy for their wasteful deeds.

Did they have you use an explosive device?

Did they have you use a pistol?

Did you shoot with a rifle?

Did they give you poison?

I sailed the rivers in a basket,
And my sight was not obscured by the reeds.
Overhead, the clouds cleared
And in my heart was a compass
Which lent to me direction
Under these starry skies.

I sampled all the miseries & delights,
I encompassed all of life:
I was a clap & echo in time.

This that "cause you said that , now I'm not speaking to you",
This that "you took too long to reply so I'm done with you".
This that "you ain't **** getting her pregnant rodney",
This that "oh now you don't remember me? Then *******!",

Where did we go so wrong with communicating?
These apps are not stimulating no more,
Its just irritating,
I get like 2 matches a day and still nobody said ****?
Waste of time isn't it?
Time to set boundaries and benefits,
At this rate , I just want friends,
Why can't loneliness end?
at least don't pretend saying what was really meant,
Its not rocket science looking within someone's soul,
But if their heart is blacker than black and milds , then I'm gone,
If I call you a ***** on this phone , then I would be wrong,
Right?
Don't call me when you and ya' hubby get into a , fight,
We all got problems that need to be solved increasing the rates of cheating and brawls,
You wanna be him, she wanna be her,
Y'all know y'all both can't have it all,
On the internet looking like fine ****,
But Whats fine **** to the spiritual,
Iykyk we ain't liberals,
Time to build our people up in general.

You think I speak of blood lineage,
Clearly I hold the whetstone,
But that's because you're dull.

Maybe,
I am.

From my shine, shimmer-
I'll stay solid as file;
Whether if needed firm or gentle,
Soft or abrasive.

In address to the west,
The rising sun.

At least, that's from our perspective.

From the hammer
Who shaped the stone.

Fall on your own sword;
If you must die
Do it on a hill
On which you shall be revived.
From where at its summit & base
A well should spring
Of water which you may both wade,
Clean enough to be drank.

By both, either side,

Whether Abrahamic or Pagan
Both religious & spiritual.
By whatever side walked
Around the waterhole,
No matter the kind of animal.
Any coast situated near the ocean,
Any forest covered with trees,
Any open & vacant clearing.

(A lone voice whispers)


I've lived

Once loved and cried
Indulged in primordial urges and died


By the sharp
Sword of Damocles


No less
For a thousand years

As I fought emotions like a transmitted disease


For I'm immortal

And I've mixed and fought with so many souls


Some with a kind heart

Fierce spirit
And a willing mind


Some so corrupt they would sell you

For anything they could find


I'm the wild untameable Thunder
In a storm-filled Autumns sky


The gentle breeze overflowing
With Spring's symphonies
Of baby blackbirds that cry


The scent of luscious
Winters mornings
Filled with a dash of mildew


The peace and tranquillity
Submissively reflected
in a serene Summer's sky


As whispering clouds
Jostle for kingship and quietly float by


For I'm eternal
Don't you see


Born from unexplainable storm clouds
Just beyond your sight


Baptised by giants hands in The Eternal Fountain

Created by white lightning
Upon Heavens illustrious deep mysterious mountains


I'm just one of many fragments resting deep inside
Until you sleep

And then we'll walk hand in hand through all your keeps


To speak and exchange words of wisdom to ****** and advise
As we together conquer dark dreams

Whilst lost and vulnerable before the early morning sunrise


Walking together bravely
Only to then awake
Fresh and revitalised


To traverse this dangerous life
sometimes soul-draining horizons


Filled with so many corrupted spirits
Who just love to criticise


You'll see me sometimes
By your white picket fence


Standing alone in my grey coat of Salvation
In the swirling mists of
Time


Sometimes you'll hear me in the hidden Alabaster corridors

Within your mind


For I am part of your
Higher-Self
Bestowed to you by an almighty power


My only task
My penance
My treasure

Is to stimulate
Encourage and fortify


Within ever-quickening
passing seconds and hours


Behold


I am forever yours
As you are mine

And together we go to war
Every day you breathe

To rage against the Paradigms littered amongst the ever eroding Sands of Time


If in me you
Do believe


Your spirit guide


Just one of the Lord's many appointees

Who's tasked to never leave

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


I watch unseen
From The Great In-Between

Carrying your heart's dreams
In my brown and blue suitcase

Filled to the seam

And when the daylight sun lays to rest and the night stars

Look down for souls to mark and Illuminate, ready to confess

I appear sparkling like rare diamonds through a purple portal in time and space

To open my brown and blue suitcase
And quietly whisper

Mortal
Take these dreams as yours
As you run your race

Fear not failure
Or feelings of disgrace

Which might take you
To a hard place

But revel in the freedom
My dreams will bring

Be them good
Or filled with sin

For either way,
They'll help your soul
Sing

And with a transmutation spell
I then disappear
Back to The Great In-Between

To watch the night stars
Looking down for souls ready to be marked and illuminated

As they plead to confess

So I can then appear
To help those

Who might feel low
Or oppressed
Rise up with all they possess

As my dreams
In their tired minds

Slowly unravel and take off their dress

So they can never be by Darkness
Tethered and
Conquered

For I'm just one
Of the universes many good shepherds

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Many armed & many mighty,
A congregation of heads
Taking countless different faces.
As like the nine-tailed fox
Or the regenerative hydra,
Like a whisper from a daimon or seraph.
What an elusive cast overseeing this dominion,
In & out there, everywhere.
Those related to physics,
As like inertia & momentum.
To width & to volume.
Time & energy.
The biological & inert systems.
In the scatterings & distributions
And in the combinations & coalescences,
The raindrop to the puddle.
Islands among the sea,
All with some pulse or vibration
And a resonate frequency.
The chain-reactions at lengths which,
By our perspective,
Span seemingly in excession of infinity.
We are flickering candles
Cursed to decipher dripping wax,
Tracking the days of oil left.
We are pollen to by used by the colony
To construct & fortify the hive,
To feed the young.
Who are we to pick the flower
Thinking it will make us blossom?
To eat of the peach, to pick the apple,
But discard the seed
And rob another's potential?
To burn the bush & brush,
Drain the wetlands,
And sow devastation.
Eviction of the natives off their land
After the destruction of their homes.
What is man not, if not an animal?
What is a man, if not an animal?
What then is an animal if there is not some thought which bares resemblance to such a concept?
And if so; since we are made up of that which is organic in nature,
Metallic, and mineral-
It is not outside the realm of possibility
That other such forms of matter
Could indeed be capable.
Without the pretext of plausibility;
Like Eudoxus, in the disparity between
Correctly framing concentric spheres
And mistakenly claiming geocentricism.
It's a big world we know of
And a much larger universe.
Do plants scream
At the pain of a leaf torn?
Do trees look after their neighbors?
Likewise then, there is such constraint,
As like a straight jacket,
In that total adherence
To thought subjugated to concept
Looking for definition & context
Without daring inference or experimentation.
We'll get some things accurate
Even if there are missteps or failures,
But it's imperative we recognize them.
Thumbing around the galaxies
Searching for an answer
To the question of purpose,
But you're right where you stand.
I'm not sure how this started,
Exactly how this began,
And my memory of the journey
Is like that of the end.
If I were a captain,
If I were a white whale.
Cut the nets,
Ditch the harpoons,
Raise anchor,
Break sail.
If I were master,
If I moved to Bremen.
I'd scratch with claws,
Bare teeth & bite,
Kick with hoove,
Give chase & crow.

Were it that I could remember.

While walking through a warm afternoon
that suddenly turned from bright to dim,
with blazing clouds that began to loom
and shadows grew deeper and light was thin:

My way ahead was unexpectedly barred
by an iron gate, its lock snapped shut.
It’s topped by spikes well made to ward
off hurdlers, sharpened, made to deeply cut.

Past the gatehouse, a tunnel, a fallen shelter
from the rapidly coming hard rainfall
that once was sung about by a jester
in time with a tambourine, as I recall.

It leads to a light that’s still ablaze
where sunbeams’ sheen still sparkles bright,
beckoning us all to pass this gate
that looks at first glance a menacing might.

To stay before this wrought iron fence,
its spikes tipped with red poison that drips
into the soil that’s in cracked distress?
I won’t just wait here in the dawning eclipse.

No lock is unpickable, no wall too high
for those with the will to reach new skies.

Moon Love.

Moon love,
up above,
turtledove,
turtledove…

Heal my heart,
remove my pain,
"Rise the lame,
and walk again…"

Moon love,
up above,
turtledove,
turtledove…