The line that lies 'tween
love and hate is not fine but
merely too fragile

A confession of crows
crowd and clamor around
a jackdaw preacher

Each mistake I make
I accept, so I may live
life without regret

Morning stirs the trees
Dew drops dance along sunbeams
Do-si-do they go

No thought tsunamis -
One idea at a time, please
don't drown me in words

Midnight's milky eye
blindly stares across a sky
written in star dots.
Feeling with fingers of cloud,
Moon reads the braille of Heaven

On the longest day
The sun barely blinks, then sets
Her sights on Winter

Cooking clay to make pottery
Smelting thoughts to get poetry
Melting words into punnery -
Kiln in the name of...

Drinking to forget;
Mnemonic gin and tonic
hasn't helped me yet

Sometimes all we need
Is for us to believe
We each have the right
To keep breathing

Speckled sea-green leaves
wave wistfully in the breeze;
Summer ebbs and flows

She was married to death -
Given away on her wedding day
To one who took her breath away.

Now the only thing left
Is an expensive ring indicating
How she sold her soul for wealth

Sunshine tars the cars
Sloshes through trees sticky leaves
Congeals on concrete

Are we all just broken mirrors?
Merely a collection of reflections,
A thousand shards like shields
under which we hide, and therefore deny,
These scars we cannot heal?

What do these surfaces show us?
A covering of caricatures as
a substitute for skin?
A means to deflect, so none may detect
The person lost within?

How do we perceive each other;
As people? Or as purely pixels now –
A series of small screens,
An infinity of identities
in which our souls cannot be seen?

Are we all just broken mirrors?
Too distorted to support the burden
of the shared shame we feel?
What if we take the time to realign
Our falsified ideals?

My
Mind’s
Factory;

Mental
Conveyor
Belt

Quality
Control
Issues
­
Patents
Still
Pending

Next
Idea
Please...

Cyan sheet spread wide,
Concrete carpet turns to dust –
Morning gathers rust.

Your flabby fingers,
That flip and flop
across the keyboard
like a family of famished maggots
fighting over a few morsels
of fresh meat in a
feast of festering
covfefe.

Children’s slurping screams;
Laughter licks the quiet light
Words chew the silence.

Crocodile cracks
pave the way for
frightened, bewildered bears who
ought to beware
and take care
not to get caught
or killed
by a rabid
assortment of
slathering ravenous
kids.

Tiny beads of sweat
That trickle and tickle
like fingertips
Down the prim, transparent skin of
the pristine windowpane,
Leaving
leisurely trails of pleasure
and condensation’s kisses
Caught
in a sea that is submissive
As gentle summer rain.

Fate’s pendulum swings
Back and forth throughout our lives;
Never resting, but
Always testing
us, so that we strive
To make the most of everything
That its constant whims
Provide.

My scarred and scratched skeleton,
With bite marks on my bones
Where inspiration took hold
As it shook me to my soul, and
Turned my marrow midnight blue.

Beneath a summer moon
In a sky of faded blue,
A murmuration of starlings
Swell and swirl,
And sigh and swoop.

A thousand flitting shapes
That sweep across the seamless space
In swathes like nimble little needles,
Trying to weave
A tapestry
With threads of spun splendor and grace.

It begins with a beat;
A steady reverberation in an
elemental part of me.

Then the bass line comes;
A red-raw rush of energy
viciously visceral in my veins,
Elevating my feeble frame
From it’s meek and sorry state
To become something
Ferociously sublime.

And now I’m mainlining music,
Letting it
Soak into my skin
Infect my ears
Infuse my feat and
Bombard my quivering brain
With its beat
‘Til I explode into a mass
of minuscule notes;
Quick little quavers
like quarks
that waver, then stalk
through my mind,
Looking to find
fresh melodies, to which
my soul can bind
and bleed.

This is how it feels
within me,
When my body responds
to a purified beat;
This is true ecstasy –
When I fly on an
emotional high.

Gentle steps that pad up the stairs;
Thoughtfully soft and
hushed by the hands
of midnight,
So none might
hear him advance.
But he moves with such care
That no one
but you
Would know that he’s there.

He’s on the landing now,
Creeping closer to your door
But the cautious clock
is ticking him off, so he stops
before your doorway and drops
his big bag of darkness
(that’s squirming and restless
to swallow you whole);
Then he inhales the soul
of the tick and the tock.

Now there’s nothing left
But your heart and his breath
so you know this time it is true:
That the bogeyman is in
your room
your dreams
your head
your bed
For tonight, he’s coming
for you.

What happened to the crows?
All the other birds are singing,
Yet this family seems unwilling
to lend their voices
to this summer chorus.

Perhaps they have a reason;
Perhaps they feel it’s not the season
for their melancholy caws,
And so they pause,

And they wait…

For summer to pass, and
then the world at last
will be stripped of all colourful things,
Becoming as black as the crow’s wings –
A similarly stark and dark state.

Perhaps then the crows won’t hesitate
to crowd together,
And take their place
among their fellow, feathered brethren;
Perhaps then they’ll find the strength to sing.

A sensuous serpent –
That’s your sort.
Perfectly adapted
to deliver
petits morts.

For those bite marks
you bestow
are purely for show – just
a little distraction
from the main attraction;
Awaiting its debut below.

There your fat engorged fang –
Rich and ripe with the tang
Of your toxins,
That drip down
from its tip, and
blister and burn my skin –
There this fleshy dagger will
pierce me within as you fill
my soul with
your sin.

Just a drop of you
was all it took
to drown me
in the shallow brook
that was all
I was allowed
of your love.

Just one look from you
and I was hooked
(line and sinker)
crooked around
your little finger;
the iron will
to fill my
velvet glove.

Gently rising,
My slender legs tenderly swaying
and playing through
the cool blue
beauty of the ocean,
As I emerge
from my fantasea of dreams
Into sunbeams
Shining bright with
enlightened emotion.

Your eyes –
Like brilliant blue clouds
in seamless white skies;
Flecked with a
spectrum
of sapphire hues, that
catch the light brightly
as a rare bird’s plumage.

You blink, and then
when those gold lids unfurl
again –
All I see are pearls,
As plain and
pure as worlds
that have never known
the folly of men.

Lying between white sheets,
Hiding inside
the covers of our love…
Our pale forms press close, as
with a flurry of skin,
We begin tossing
and turning,
‘Til we reach the end;
Where together
we shall discover
the ****** of our love.

With you I became
Like a phoenix with clipped wings –
Caged in her flames;
But now I fly free,
Broke away from your chains
that were controlling me,
So I never need be
afraid, for there’s no way
You will trap me again.

Midnight’s sensuous breath;
A sultry breeze
Whispering love songs
To ****** the summer trees.
Its transparent tongue
Gently licking along
lines of quivering leaves
until they shiver and sigh,
Beneath a cold, distant sky
That jealously gazes on.

I am an island.
I am a little spit of land,
Swept away by unsettled waters
and shifting sands;
Forced alone to
make my home
In an insubstantial sea.

Yet on my island
I am free; free to preserve
my eccentricities
in a nature reserve
made from nurturing love of
what I choose to be.

I am an island.
Borne away on wistful waves, I
travel onward,
Seeking a place where
there are others who are free;
And when I find them,
There I’ll stay, and
thereafter spend my days
Not as an island…
But as me.

Your reckless hit-and-run lust
That left my love like carrion
Lying lifeless in the dust.

Just a broken, ****** mess
For scavengers to feed upon
Gnawing at what's left;
The ghostly-white
Splintered bones
Of my misguided trust.

Limbs looped like elastic bands
When our lips explore and entwine;
Fingers coiled, clawing and clasping,
Tongues taunt, teasing and twisting,
Skin sticks to skin,
Flesh into flesh,
As our bodies blend
And our souls become
Entangled.

Corners drawn and
Dimples ready;
Her super-sharp-shooter mouth motionless,
Slick scarlet silencer
Stops a chamber
Loaded with desire.

She winks her eye
***** the trigger;
In her hands a semi... automatic -
She knows I'm ready as
She parts her lips, then
Lets the bullets fly.

It is strange to restrain
The child within
Whilst trying to trap it
In the cells of your skin.

If perpetual youth
Is truly your goal
Let your inner child flourish
In the bounds of your soul.

No tactics
No manoeuvres
No turncoats
No back-stabbing
No power struggles
No 'friendly fire'
No deserters
No traitors...

No problem.

Cold as the leather of a leftover glove;
Infertile fields where we once lay our love.
Cruel is the clasp of winter's embrace,
Chilling the skin of Earth's famished face.

But hope springs eternal, and spring brings new growth,
Spreading life through the land and love through us both,
'Til Earth's face is blooming like never before
And our love is flourishing forever more.

Empty, insensate space.
Inside my mind, the
Dormant mental matter lies,
Waiting to be awakened.

And then...

A pin-point poem appears
And all consciousness coalesces around
A single idea.

A bright, blinding light -
As omnipotent inspiration
Jump-starts the silence with
A big bang of imagination,
Throwing free-flowing thoughts outwards
In a chaotic burst of characters
As the emptiness explodes into
A universe of words.

Darkness has cast her slumbering spell,
The land lies dreaming beneath her hand,
Thick sable sheets have swaddled the stars
And waves lay like lovers on the sand.

Times seems swallowed by stillness and silence,
These gentle beasts feasting on movement and sound;
No breeze dares to be in reach of their presence,
Even mist lies motionless over the ground.

But soon comes the morning, and dawning of life,
As little sounds stir ‘cross the countryside
At the beach, the waves wake with a sighing of surf,
Then rise, and rejoice with the victorious tide.

You fresh flesh
Lying in long layers beside me
In the gloom.

You're a mess of lithe limbs,
Knotted hair and
Pretty skin.

You're a beautiful buffet,
Deeply delicious, and
Inviting, and

You're a lush display of
Raw, warm meat
That's good enough
To eat.

Softly, the shaking starts;
My sighs slowly rise as
Your energy inside me makes
Our skin pulsate with passion, then
Our bodies burst in tandem as
Our bones explode in ecstasy, our
Soul synchronize eternally, as
Everything that is you and me
Ignites into the night

The Sisyphean task ahead
Can sometimes leave me cold with dread;
But I won't panic, or lose my head
I'll just drop this burden of Doubt instead.

Pure blue simile sky,
Like a licked-clean plate
At a summer fete;
Or a fantasy scene
Where a giant has been
Gobbling up fast
(As he wanders past) clumps
Of cloud candyfloss cake,
So all that lies in his wake
Is a pure blue simile sky.

Lonely television set -
Lost within the gloom
Of a distant, echoing room,
Where a burbling voice is barely heard
Reciting sights it has seen –
Ghostly glimpses of what has been
But now is gone, yet somehow
Lingers on through a
Steady, languid stream
Of slurred and senseless words.

"WHY?" she cried
With all her might,
Into the ******* hole.

"...I..." replied
Her erudite
But esoteric echo.

I strip my soul bare, then
Stretch my essence into space.
Conscious of the cosmos,
I let my thoughts grow paper thin, until
Slowly, my ego evaporates,
Opening up a perfect place
For poetry to begin;

I let inspiration
Flood in.

Delinquent lips
That delineate a
Loose and sinful smile.
Eyes disguised behind
Barred black lashes
That rise, and reach
Like fingertips,
To catch you, and trap you
Without a trial