I sit in the silence of my room
And stare at the stucco walls,
From morning glare to the evening gloom
The coming despair appals,
For I know that it’s sneaking up on me
That memory of your face,
So cold and still in the evening chill
And pale, once you’d run your race.

You always gave me a joyful wave
And said you’d be there for me,
But what you gave from a shallow grave
Was only more misery.
You couldn’t reach out to hold my hand
As you did in the days before,
When once a kiss was the source of bliss
But of kissing, there was no more.

Your skin was an alabaster white
Once your blood had ceased to flow,
Where was the warmth when I held you tight
On those nights, so long ago?
And where the spark that shone at your eyes
From the recess of your soul?
It leaves the eyes when a lover dies
And the touch of the skin is cold.

But now you form on the stucco wall
And wave, like you waved to me,
Before you ran from the narrow hall
And out by the willow tree,
A car came leaping into the room
As it did, and it knocked you down,
It’s then I cradled you in my arms
Like a man who’s about to drown.

I see these visions, day after day
When I stare too long at the wall,
I cry and weep, and I get no sleep
When I dream of your funeral,
I reach right into the plaster where
I think I can touch your face,
But only can feel the stone cold wall
Of another time and place.

David Lewis Paget

I stared into the shadows
of a lover’s distant past
Heard whispers in the darkness
of the spell her heart did cast

As it raked across my feelings
and I cried out in the night
When this smile I was wearing
fit a little bit too tight

With her painted nails of crimson
like the color of my blood
She clawed at my emotions
as the silhouettes did flood

This morning found believing
that our time is filled with fate
Where I find my voice is screaming,
please don’t tell me it’s too late

She collected every promise
on the worries I did call
For she wanted me to know that
I could never have it all

Still I crawled into the silence
with my eyes so open wide
And together we were drowning
in the motion of the tide

In her arms now spun the seconds
of the minutes I could spare
Like a clock that’s steady ticking
darkened rhythms sent to share

Drinking thirsty from the fountain
as her finger it did press
On the chrome implanted wishes
of an early moon confess

For her smile was infectious
as it hid her ***** deeds
When I fell intoxicated
still to stagger in these needs

Tried to gaze off in the distance
but my vision could not stay
I was trapped in her seduction
and I could not look away

.

Drizzle coated the billboard
sitting on that desolate stretch of highway
waiting for someone to read
or at least hide behind, parked car, back seat
steamed windows, sighs just above a holler,
a collar unbuttoned,
casual abundance with the radio on
seeking a Clapton tune
as nimble fingers
show the difference between a slow hand
and a destined position,
where rain doesn’t matter
because it I just as wet inside
though hotter than an August day,
perspiring in the friction
as love hits the four way flashers
blinkers accelerate, left, right, faster,
names are called, tears are cried
and the road home now beckons . . .

.

The first time I kissed you

was the most amazing moment
in my entire life

and I would have held it
just a little while longer

if only I had known

it would

also be the last time