Be careful when staring.
If you look too closely
You might make a connection.
If you look too closely
And you make a connection,
Good Luck.

Tree, I have come to shelter and with the rain to weep
I am soaked, barefoot with mud running through.
Soft the moss, cool and cold
to soothe my heart that bleeds.
Our waxing nights of love and moons
now fallow, a field that burns.
****** our hollow bed
of haunting, silent screams
too soon the fiery devil
too far my lover
the spring.

from outside like I was drowning out
floundering in the undertow of life's surf
waves continuously  over my head crashing
gulps of salt sea breaking my will to live
rocks threatening to break me open
with every crest every surge
like an oyster about to be opened
swallowed salty like life is
one gulp more and I may have been
then
I rose like Poseidon
calmed the surf
took the waves in  my hand and threw  them back
walked head above the crests proud farther into the depths        
into the deepest depth upside down mountains
no man has been to before holding my breath for my eternal
salvation
and washed  up a mere mortal
on the coral banks under swaying palms
and mermaids
naked *******
in
arms
of rest
and tans
a mere saved
mortal
again

There do exist,
Such people on earth,
Who have not seen happiness;
Who are untouched by success;
Who are longing for kindness.
Who have been poor for so long,
That they crave for death.
Hoping the other side would be better;
At least, they will not be aware of others,
Comparison would thus be inexistent;
And the lives happier,
If any should prevail.

Maybe death is peaceful.
Maybe it soothes us.
Perhaps obliviates the bad memories.
In every case,
It surely is an escape
From this monotonous life.
Can be considered an experiment,
An experiment of fate;
A trial for kins.
These people are untouched
By all the good in the world,
The springs don't exist in their lives,
Joy seen nowhere,
But death:
Death never discriminates.
It comes to us all.
It waits,
Only for the correct night to fall.

I remember the births of my sons
And I remember the days
They first held their own babies
And the good times and the bad
That have made up our lives
There have been friends and others
Who have come and gone
With the endless flow of time
And constant change

I remember seeing a shower
Of shooting stars in the sky
And watching swans awaken
In the light of a cold dawn
And hearing wonderful music
Which thrilled me to my spine
And singing with the band
Then partying through the night

I remember the first time I felt old
And feeling vulnerable out there
On the streets that were my home
I remember watching my best friend
Dying in a local hospital bed
And I remember his widow
Clutching my hand as she wept
As we stood by his coffin

All these things and so much more
I'll remember 'til I die

                                      By Phil Roberts

the waters ring red
with the ferrous clay from these plains
brutish brown on cloud cluttered days
caramel during floods

my feet know nothing
of water moccasins, though
a rattler nipped an ankle on these banks
a million years ago

feet don't recall
they slip into the cool tickling stream
innocent, not looking for a Baptismal
though the serpents are ever present

slithering in the depths
just beyond my eyes, only a few silt filled steps
from my ten toes, waiting--wanting fallible
flesh to slip within their sights

where there will be no
original naked temptation, only the striking,
the ******* venom, and the second fall
from grace, without woman to blame