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Terry O'Leary Mar 2013
The Circus gongs excite the Throngs in nighttime Never Land –
They swarm to see the destiny of Freaks at their command,
While Acrobats step pitapat above the shifting sands
And Lady Fat sits down to chat and oozes charm unplanned.

The Dwarfs in suits, so small and cute when marching with the Band,
Ask crimson Clowns with frozen frowns, to hold a mutant hand,
While Tamers’ whips with withered tips, throughout the winter land,
Lure Cats entranced through hoops enhanced with flames of fires fanned.
  
White Elephants in big-top tents boast black-tusk contraband
To regiments of Sycophants who overflow the stands,
But No One sees anomalies, and No One understands.
  
At night’s demise, the dither dies, the lonesome Crowd disbands,
Down dead-end streets the Horde retreats, their tattered rags in strands,
And Janes and Joes reweave their woes, for thoughts of change are banned.
  
To play a part in Three-Ring Art, I thought I’d try my hand –
I mastered skills, I felt the thrills, I breathed and seethed firsthand –
But destiny denied to me to taste a lifetime spanned
With tightrope walks and trapeze chalks ... excepting second-hand...

For alcohol provoked a fall, as if a reprimand,
And now, a heap, I sometimes keep the ticket office manned...
Terry O'Leary Mar 2013
While I gaze in your eyes, cool cerulean blue,
Sifting night, straining stars through morning’s sweet dew,
I can fathom the depths of empyreal skies,
Angels fluttering by, riding wild butterflies

While I gaze in your eyes, changing, aqua-blue greening,
I’m ****** into chasms, cascading, careening,
And yield to enticements which meekly disarm,
Seeping virtuous beauty, sad sensuous charm

While I gaze in your eyes, bleeding fiery blue
Ever tempting with treasures, with pleasures for two,
Being caught at the core of a blazing sapphire
Possessing, enthralling, aflame with desire

While I gaze in your eyes, misty emeralds, deep green,
Veiling laughter and banter, and echoes between,
Then I dream, so it seems, in whatever the place,
Of your scent, of your breath, of your radiant face

While I gaze in your eyes, at times placidly blue,
Near’ as calm as the weirs in the woods all bedewed,
Forty winks relegate to a shimmering lake,
Gently floating on lilies, while waiting to wake

While I gaze in your eyes, caught engulfed in the greens
And consigning my fate unto verdant ravines,
My reactions, at length, become shyer and shyer
Reminiscent of ravens at risk in the briar

While I gaze in your eyes, restless, hesitant blues
Overwhelming sensations with turbulent hues,
I’m succumbing to waves of a storm battered sea,
Being cast like a plank, never meant to be free

While I gaze in your eyes, shadowed, Midnight Lake green
Glowing hazy with dreams, misty thoughts so serene,
Sudden silence befalls me, a fast sinking stone,
Looming lost in your eyes, I am never alone

While I gaze in your eyes, saddened, lachrymal blue,
Spilling trickles of rain, pearls obscuring your view,
I’ll attend to your anguish and feelings morose,
Lightly kissing your tears, touching, holding you close

While I gaze in your eyes, pulsing infinite green
Of the earth and of heaven and all in between,
It is simple to see that my hands can hold all
Of the treasures I find which so humbly enthral

While I gaze in your eyes, when they’re bountifully blue,
I’m reminded, love’s lightning is granted to few...

While I gaze in your eyes, when they’re blindingly green,
I’m reminded, love’s lightning cannot be foreseen...

Yet I hope... and I wait...
Terry O'Leary Mar 2013
With burdens bearing heavy down a road that’s hard and long
My body’s bent and weary so I’m reaching for a song;
My sorrows flicker – fading ..., faint ... - beneath the morning star,
While worried fingers seethe across the strings of my guitar.

Though seagulls fly forever, streaking, striving for the strand,
My troubles ebb, evaporate, with my guitar in hand;
Their turbulency’s writhing neath the notes within the air -
And hunted by the haunting beat, they’re vanquished everywhere.

With melodies erupting, bursting, splashing night with dawn,
The drifting dancing demons die, as time goes swirling on;
Refrains are roaming randomly across the rusty skies,
While cares have vanished, draped in dust of distant lullabies.
Terry O'Leary Feb 2013
Distrait within the dismal night
while drifting down deserted track...
Beyond the bend, a lantern light
illumed alone the vacant black.  
Such are the tricks that fate will feign
with passing trains in winter rain.

The darkling sky sighed, dripping dew,
beguiling to the trek anew.
Through diamond dusk old demons came -
There was no dread, there was no claim,
for distant thoughts will entertain
on passing trains in winter rain.

Through shadow’s fog a form appeared
(which slowed its pace as morning neared),
a lonesome, meek and wistful thing,
like fallen bird with broken wing.  
Such are the shapes and weary strain
of passing trains in winter rain.

We paused a moment, side by side
confronting Fate in eventide.
But Passion’s Pains of yesteryear
left youthful Ardor draped in fear -
We had our courses to maintain
like passing trains in winter rain.  

I often harken, flashing back,  
to sense the formless twisted track  
muse “Few have loved though all have toyed
inside this vast and vacant void -
The reason why ? At heart, mundane    
as passing trains in winter rain” ...
Terry O'Leary Feb 2013
You’ve mirrored me in gypsy eyes,
                                         which never take but borrow

You’ve bathed me in your gypsy eyes,
                                         which are your pools of sorrow

You’ve gazed at me with gypsy eyes,
                                         which never see tomorrow ...
Terry O'Leary Feb 2013
Standing lonely in a crowd
Feelings severed, screaming loud;
Heart rejected, growing cold
Trusting ways begin to fold

Waking eyes find life revealed,
Wonder when the dirge was pealed;
Love was captured, tears ran wild
From the young but learning child

Finding life like solitaire
Some that need but none that care,
Most that take but none that give
All that die and none that live

Reaching out to no one there
Leaving all your feelings bare;
Soon to nothing they will grind
Leaving but a shell behind

Looking ’round this empty sea
Battered shells stand facing me,
Standing near but none in reach
Each alone on private beach

— The End —