Quiet silent
Masked n senseless
Covid marches
On relentless

Matters not
We’re friend or foe
Destroyed are all
Of “Jericho”

Six-fifty thousand
Dead to date
And yet no sign
This will abate

To mask - or not
Is grounds to fight?
When Covid kills
All weak n slight

We’re dying today
At one-a-minute
Desperate for a
Silver bullet

Perhaps we are
But chimpanzees
Just a tad less
Fancy free!

how much more
will these eyes tear
how much more
will this heart fear
how much more
will this voice quiver
how much more
will these hands shiver
how much more
can one child grieve

much more it is
to find reprieve

stop the tears
quell the fears
hope capsized
dreams realized
the feuds erased
a son embraced
requiescat in pace

our battle...over
come, celebrate my dear friends
let’s light a candle

a score
and two years
of love and
conflict and
rejection and
illness and
acceptance and
love
all over again
reduced to
ashes
.... and memories

cool morning sunshine
a maple leaf is falling
windswept graves lay clean

the porridge is hot
a young man prays...quietly
the porridge is cold

Another day, another night
Acrid air, acerbic sight
MRI’s, CT scans, RT feeds
Oh please forgive me

22 pills, twice a day
Pulverized, force-fed toxic buffet
Eight “feeds” a day... “vitality”?!
Oh please forgive me

Heart rates spiked, fevers rose
The medical team... yet a new prognose!
“Now she needs to breathe you see!”
Oh please forgive me

Seizures broke, bedsores grew
I didn’t know what to do...
Your silent stares, a deafening plea
Oh please forgive me

Six weeks in - comatose
I held you in my arms...reposed
All I wanted was to flee
Oh please forgive me

And then that fateful day arrived
They said you were now past revive
I sat benumbed…just you and me,
Please forgive, I set you free…

The cold morning air
Buffeting off the tombstones
Stinging...tearing eyes

I dread each eve so filled with grief
A heart benumbed in disbelief
I rant, I rave, I cry, I pray
Why does my angel so betray?

In bed I stare awake all night
Frigid fear, orphaned plight
I pinch and zoom and try to clutch
To reconnect - one last touch!

I'm haunted by that blessed call
When you hit the dreaded "wall"
I pray you're on the other side
Free of pain, strength in stride

Another morn, another fright
Sleep escapes, emotional blight
O Mom, I hope you hear my plea
From my demons set me free!

After the rain...
While the grass
Is still wet
And the trees
Are still dripping
And the earth
Is still absorbing
Our tears

I will pause

And think of you
And feel refreshed

...after the rain

Oh for the skill of the poet's pen
That I might stir the souls of men
If only to an introspection
Pensive moments of reflection
For in such moments man is real
He can allow himself to feel
To listen, love, to shed a tear
To cry aloud, though all may hear

Pray why is it then
That men, "true men"
May never share
Their love, their sorrow, their despair
Is this the world thus juxtaposed
Where love and sorrow are so loathed
Or might have earth 'tween night and day
Begun to spin the other way?

No fates, nor stars are there to blame
Nor must man's fate remain the same
Pray heed the word the poet tells
In lofty verse he shall reveal
To all who have but ears to hear
To all who would but shed a tear
Oh for the skill of a poet's pen
That I might stir the souls of men...

Louis Brown Jan 2011

The Old Magnolia Tree

Beneath the old magnolia tree
I used to hold you close to me
And there I carved upon that tree
That I loved you and you loved me

Beneath the white magnolia blooms
You cast a spell with your perfume
I believed those wooden words were true
Ingrained in hearts of me and you

But time wears out what boys engrave
Nothing's left of the love you gave
Except that old magnolia scar....
I wish our love had come so far

Yeah, I wish those words were still on track
Cause every spring I dream me back
To tender lips and sweet perfume
Beneath the white magnolia blooms

But time wears out what boys engrave
Nothing's left of the love you gave
Except that old magnolia tree
Reminding me.....reminding me......
Copyright Louis Brown
------

This was a poem I wrote to honor Mr Brown whom I sadly never got to know but was a brilliant poet on HP!
Miss his verse...

Ode To Mr. Louis Brown

We wish we knew you Mr Brown

The lights glow dim in Poetry Town

We stand beside Magnolia trees

And pray your soul is fancy free



I read your verse with teary eyes

And hope that I can be as wise

You were a gentle soul of song

The joy you brought is just as strong 



I'm glad your verse you did not brave
Upon Magnolias to engrave

Your words of wit are safe with me

For Poetry Town is your tree!



Unlike that old Magnolia tree

Poetry Town is full of spree

She was a fool to lose your crown

But we'll always love you Mr. Brown!

I miss the beauty
of a verse
lost in clouds
of heady prose
laced with numbers
mind in throes
I miss the beauty
of a verse

An open door
Never a score
Don't use me

Open wounds
Still marooned
Don't abuse me

Crystalline heart
Ethereal parts
Don't break me

If...

You love me true
I'll love you too
Never to leave you

and as i
look deep
into your eyes
i see cruel
expanses of
emptiness and
insecurity and
self
deprivation
i see
me

The loss of you
Is a grain of sharp sand
Embedded in my heart
It hurts with every move
Every tortured breath
But I know
That if I can only hold up
Long enough
The time
And the pain
And the living
That flows over it
Will form a thin,
Smooth, gleaming layer
Around this tiny fragment
And then
It will not hurt
Quite so much.

More time
More friends
More living  and
Less thinking  
Will add coat
After coat
After coat,
And one day
Some day
It will form
Into a pearl.

And then
I'll hardly feel it at all!

That little
Sharp...
... grain of sand.

The sun is up
And hope returns
Anew
Preparing
For another
Tomorrow...

I fell asleep praying
Praying
For exile
From bedlam
Forever

But life
Is cruel
Prayers but guttural  
Chantings
Of quiet
Desperation

Nightmares
Shatter
My nightly vigils
Sleep
A blood curdling respite
From sun-baked
Depression
Why do I endure this
Charade
This caricature
Of ritualistic
Living

Why must anything matter
Anymore
This lonely
Battle
This battle of
Loneliness
I am
But "an army of one"
Decimated

Atrocities establish
Beachheads
Crowding out
Feeble counterattacks
Demanding of meager
Resources
From a soul so utterly
Bankrupt

And yet I wake
And yet I eat
And yet I sleep
And yet I hope
For another
Tomorrow?

Honest souls
Dishonest lives
Gracious hearts
Calculating minds
Fractured families
Love unwinds

A poet struggles
While mockingbirds entertain
The forest echoes

You embrace
Fears
But shun
Your gay son

You embrace
Life
But not
My "lifestyle"

You embrace
Publicly
But loathe
Me privately

I embrace
Your ignorance
But spurn
Your rejection

a scribe without a story
a ship without a sea
a love without a lover
an "us" without a "me"

anger unabated
as sinful "humanity"
sows
karmic seeds
of self destruction
the future
visceral
in the present

why couldn't
you see
what i saw
in you...
the eyes of
fidelity
or perhaps
i was choosing
to see what
i wanted
- nay -
needed
and you were
but a reflection
casting a
wayward
glance

No one seems to care
Ambulance for our neighbor
We are ill - at ease

Choose your memories
Bestill your thoughts
Quiet your mind
From thoughtless thoughts

fear not radicals
as we break bread together
we hunger as one

"I"
My mind
The creator
Of unachievable
Adonistic beliefs
Goes hammer and tongs
As an angry blacksmith
Fragmenting further
What was once
Beautiful
Innocent
Whole

stormy waves pound shores
rocky beaches lay barren
hermit ***** scurry

and then
one day
my sky
really did fall
and life carried on
without
me
but eventually
i was helped up
slowly
dusted myself off
and i even learned
to smile
again

Lay down
Your weapons
Swords and pens
...and weep
Weep for yourselves
Weep for each other
Weep for your enemy
Weep selfishly
For peace
As you absolve
The sinner
And
The sinned
In a deluge
Of your tears.

Let's hold hands
Weep with me
Share with me
Your pain
Our friendship
Is sweet duty
To wash away
The stains