How I love that grin, that smile
That makes my own lips turn
Towards heaven. Or is it hell.
Oh that they could meet.
Oh that your fingers could graze my wrist
Or cheek to seek my flesh, if not
Only by mistake.
You give me reason and reverence
To stay finger width apart.
I fear your touch would burn,
And sear that I might flee.
To hasten away from
Your presence that I suffer.
For you drive daggers deep
Into my heart, my flesh, my mind.
But my cares for you reign in my want,
For which you should be thankful.
With you pain becomes my master
And my lover and I know not
The difference between the two.
Everyday my life begins and then ends.
For your presence is like lightning
And I seek to be struck by it’s bright death daily.
Do you not see the lively sparks
Cascading down the rivers of my eyes?
Down the contours of my neck
To their grave within the thud
Of an empty heart.
But everyday I return to receive
The painful punishment of a lack
Of air that I desperately
Seek to fill my lungs.
I love your ignorance to my pain.
I love how you fail to notice
My trembling brow and quivering lip.
Or am I too unaware?
Perhaps your hands fill a blank page
With sorrowful strife and twisted tongue.
Perchance we are both bound with what will
Always go unspoken, unfulfilled, and unloved.
And our shame is ******
And our folly is to our own charge.
For there will come that day when
Your hand touches my breast
Only to find it’s beat forever at rest.

Lying softly,
on the breeze
gentle air, stirring
the trees
and all is waiting
wistful, watchful
through the silent
eveningtide

Girls, do not giggle...
I know you like to giggle
but I, Glum Master of the Universe,
don’t like it;
so don’t giggle
You can have pink
you can have ice-cream
you can have gossip
you can still facebook and laugh
and drink coke and sugary drinks;
you can have candy floss
and eat processed food till your teeth yellow -
but giggle? No…
so what am I, Glum Master of the Universe,
going to do about it if you giggle?
Oh, I’ll send Miss Tornado
and Cold Moon
and Violent Thunderstorm
before and after and over you
all those girls who giggle
if you don’t listen to me,
Glum Master of the Universe…
so, girls, do not giggle…

I walk alone now
unlike as in the days of long ago
when there was company and the crowd
and there was clamor and noise…
but smiling time dispersed all things and beings;
time forked the paths
as many as veins in a leaf
and made each man and woman and child
shake hands or hug and wave goodbyes;
and so I walk alone now
in solitary ways


I let all things go
the past and pain and sorrows
and the yearnings and mind's hustle and bustle
And so one is on the path that opens at one's feet
And the earth and the trees
and the air and sky and the water and clouds
keep the still heart company
in one's long walk to one's own shed

I don’t remember you
like I used to. Only—
fragments mostly
a familiar scent.

Like waking up one morning
and finding your microwave
gone-only you can’t
remember what it’s called--

something’s missing that was
whole before. I feel
ruined

“Really, Steve—where did I
put my—it must be in here--
somewhere.”

*Little more than strangers *
If I passed you, by chance, would
I r e m e m b e r
to know you?

The worst part is—I don’t even—
why did I think
it was worth it?

In the hour of death, after this life’s whim,
When the heart beats low, and the eyes grow dim,
And pain has exhausted every limb—
  The lover of the Lord shall trust in Him.

When the will has forgotten the lifelong aim,
And the mind can only disgrace its fame,
And a man is uncertain of his own name—
  The power of the Lord shall fill this frame.

When the last sigh is heaved, and the last tear shed,
And the coffin is waiting beside the bed,
And the widow and child forsake the dead—
  The angel of the Lord shall lift this head.

For even the purest delight may pall,
And power must fail, and the pride must fall,
And the love of the dearest friends grow small—
  But the glory of the Lord is all in all.