Last night I had a nightmare,
a nightmare I could not bear.
They took me like they did you,
and there was nothing I could do.

No one knew they were coming,
how awful the world was becoming.
We stayed where we are,
as we had no where to go afar.

But I got a sense they were approaching.
Our home,
they were soon encroaching.
They charged in with machine guns,
“Into a line!” they dunned.

We were like sheep,
in the corner I weep.
The wolves hunted us down,
and the rest didn’t make a sound.

A million possibilities flashed past my mind.
Fear is all I had felt,
and it swallowed me from inside.
Clutching on to my father’s hand,
I fulfilled their every demand.

With a startle,
I woke,
the nightmare,
I didn’t want to evoke.

My night terrors were just the tip,
of the iceberg ****** emit.
The sensation I was exposed to,
the vulnerability
to this hostility,
is nothing compared
to how you were bared.

Bare of your dignity,
along with everyone else in the vicinity.
Bare of your freedom,
like a prisoner in a kingdom.
Bare of your esteem,
A monster, you were deemed.

How I never wanted to experience,
the result an evil influence.
But knowledge we seek,
from its original source,
we attempt to reap.

We say we comprehend,
but the time is misspent.
For we try and try to understand,
but we never will,
we never can.

O ***** king.

*****, O ***** king,
what bitter thing is this?
what shaft, tearing my heart?
what scar, what light, what fire
searing my eye-***** and my eyes with flame?
nameless, O spoken name,
king, lord, speak blameless *****.

Why do you blind my eyes?
why do you dart and pulse
till all the dark is home,
then find my soul
and ruthless draw it back?
scaling the scaleless,
opening the dark?
speak, nameless, power and might;
when will you leave me quite?
when will you break my wings
or leave them utterly free
to scale heaven endlessly?

A bitter, broken thing,
my heart, O ***** lord,
yet neither drought nor sword
baffles men quite,
why must they feign to fear
my ****** glance?
feigned utterly or real
why do they shrink?
my trance frightens them,
breaks the dance,
empties the market-place;
if I but pass they fall
back, frantically;
must always people mock?
unless they shrink and reel
as in the temple
at your uttered will.

O ***** king,
lord, greatest, power, might,
look for my face is dark,
burnt with your light,
your fire, O ***** lord;
is there none left
can equal me
in ecstasy, desire?
is there none left
can bear with me
the kiss of your white fire?
is there not one,
Phrygian or frenzied Greek,
poet, song-swept, or bard,
one meet to take from me
this bitter power of song,
one fit to speak, *****,
your praises, lord?

May I not wed
as you have wed?
may it not break, beauty,
from out my hands, my head, my feet?
may Love not lie beside me
till his heat
burn me to ash?
may he not comfort me, then,
spent of all that fire and heat,
still, ashen-white and cool
as the wet laurels,
white, before your feet
step on the mountain-*****,
before your fiery hand
lift up the mantle
covering flower and land,
as a man lifts,
O *****, from his bride,
(cowering with woman eyes,) the veil?
O ***** lord, be kind.

The sun has no
skeleton -to
our knowledge-

It cannot break
or fracture, and
so does not think
of them

No jointed rays to
reach out or
hold like hands

Only
porous warmth

When I carefully consider the curious habits of dogs
I am compelled to conclude
That man is the superior animal.

When I consider the curious habits of man
I confess, my friend, I am puzzled.

As a bathtub lined with white porcelain,
When the hot water gives out or goes tepid,
So is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion,
O my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady.

light the sky
with my stars
that i made myself.
we can stand
hand in hand
looking at the navy clouds.
breathing air
for both of us
let the fire fade,
like our tears.
we can watch these beauties glow.
light the air
with my heart
because you and I
we are lanterns
we are stars.