rich with the depth
and intensity
of oxidized blood,
a plushness caresses my bare skin.

my fingers tracing against the grain of the fabric
slowly seducing
as the canvas
becomes duo chrome
the tip of my finger
a nymph
cunning and artful

the strokes
offering an insatiable
thirst
yet so in control

finally it succumbs
turning a tide of new color
permeating from where my touch once was
a culmination of sorts
leaving you enamored.

The tide collects it all by morning;
The drama and the ***** napalmed across the path.
The scenes at second warning for most had been swept away
Before they wiped the sand from their shoes.

Empty cans of Dutch and Tuborg slouched on the dunes
Are tight-lipped about the Velvet Strand's secret ecosystem;
An underground microcosm;
A peripheral cluster of seething emotions drowned.

Memories of those years - although some expired,
The vestiges take pride of place - hold a cosmic clump of smells,
Tastes, firsts, goosebumps, hangovers, and ends.
I never before understood what I was holding on to.

Winters down in the shelters nearly killed us but we
Huddled through the cold, lit cheap firelogs and
Found our oblivion. It didn't take much for me to develop  
A stagger - tolerance for a lot of things was learned later.

I narrowly recall my first taste of poor judgement and
Hazy-headed stargazing. Six cans of Stonehouse
Dry cider - most of which ended up on the hillside -
Was a ridiculous endeavour that will always be sublime.

At the heart of it, I did it to impress a girl;
The one every boy has or has had that sticks;
Who holds your firsts and your hands and makes
Things simple if only for her complexity;

The one that never fails to bring upon digression when
Pens are involved. Revisiting reminiscence on a jarring note,
I think of my Junior Cert exams and a cross-dressed man
Exposing himself to two uniformed boys behind the public toilets.

This one doesn't stir the joy of the others.
This one I wish would dissolve;
An ugly, awkward blotch on a childhood.

Luckily fondness trumps disgust when recalling that place
Because of sunrises and sunsets absorbed from the roof.
The Summers spent jumping the gap and drowning in the
Heat of the sun were everything.

The fugitive sand between our toes and under finger nails
Became an accepted nuisance, a part of the territory;
A lingering grain or two to drag you back.
I miss waking up with the smell of last night's faded fire.

He wore a velvet vest in a sharp side of town,
her crimson lips were enough to get him aroused,
it was her corset that would bring him down.
with **** and hips that over fill her gown
she wants to dance she wants to get down,
she walks so elegantly through the ruff parts of town
You want so much for her to know you now
but its something your insecurities wont allow

I gathered the courage maybe a bit to soon
giving me your soul in a dark candle light room
as you smell the rose peddles all around you
and all the other flowers in brought you in bloom
I never knew this time my words would swoon
I was wrapped around your finger like string in the loom
telling each other secrets, of all our fears and our doom
like the horror of your womb, and the life it once knew

my finger prints on your body, and on you immaculate gown
I made you dripping wet, even though I played the clown
smile on your face, joy on your body. leaving me in wow
I may not be stable, yet I thought we were on solid ground
our days growing numbered, and the love is winding down  
strong love can still slumber, even if its world renown
you find solace in the heart of your possessions now  
I ask you many things, such as to wear my crown

safe mental state left behind,remembering our vows
it made you feel so high to tell me I was low brow
we shared each others toa,yet we walk different paths now
truth should always be found, even if it causes pain somehow

I realized it was a dream within my mind
dreams become reality, if your not so blind  
dreams can become nightmares if given time
you were my promise of perfection, souls intertwined
but true perfection can only live within ones mind

I saw such wisdom when I looked into your eyes
you said you saw it in me too, but it may have been a lie
I guess we wont see each other old and wrinkled as we die
horrible thoughts multiply in a morbid mind

I still have that velvet vest, and wear it now and then
press it to my chest, close to my heart, like a friend
I tried to leave you, there was many messages to send
you tried to leave me, and my ignorance I defend

I tried to leave you satisfied, tried to leave you satisfied
the pledges that were made, and the hate we hide behind
thought I never heard the things you said as you softly cried
you never thought id listen well I even read between the lines

I am so vexed we never think of the wages of ***
the chains you fasten to me slowly broke me down
your hands hastened down, and you still want a slave now
I hope you get what you want, on the way to the next now

Your eyes are pearls,
washed with sweet sea-foam
from sugar-water seas,
and cast upon velvet shores
of sterling sand.

punishment, not fit

for a velvet plaything

treated like lobotomized dogs

vast vivid wilderness of pain

will you ever see through the fog


the wretchedness I adore

in my head, eternal hell

taken for granted our prizes are mounted

the hypocrisy we deplore


punishment not fit for a mangled heart

blisters these hands twitch

to be found, all is lost to start

feel the nervous itch

she was a novel
with twists and turns
the kind shoved behind
library bookshelves
and under heartsick beds

she spun words
into velvet
and they seeped
right through her lips
and onto his lonely skin

and oh, how she loved him
with the passion of a sunset
and the bravery of a child
and her words craved him
even more than she did

he was the reason why
her eyes strained a torturous fog
and her words clogged her throat
and a dozen unsent letters
desperately cluttered her room
and her words weren't velvet,
they were just word
and just like her,
they were not worth loving anymore