Hope is Dancing

Lying alone each night, empty arms aching,
all the while
                      hope is dancing
                      hope is dancing
                      hope is dancing
                                                   in my dreams
when I’m awake I would seek to see
the sunshine in your face
the heavens in your eyes
and to hear the  melodic honey of your lips
that would turn my lemonade soul sweet.

And I would hope
And I would hope
And I would hope
you’d dance duet with me
all the years we have left.

James E. Roethlein copyright 2021

Dreamland’s the Place

Dreamland’s the place
I melt at the sight of you,
passing as moonlight rivers
before my eyes and close enough
that I may touch your spun silk hair.
In your presence my beating heart
turns diamond from coal
and your soft lilt caresses my ears.
But the dreamland fades,
giving way to reality when I wake,
for the door I locked is rusted shut
and never to be opened again.

James E. Roethlein copyright 2021

An Incomplete View of What Happened

Borrowed breath,
you breathed mine
and I faint fell
from the serpentine
of your feigned affections.
This quartz heart of mine
(rendered metamorphic)
turned to sandstone,
and Atlas failed
to hold up the sky.
Five years fooled, finally
forced to say; no more.

James E. Roethlein copyright 2021

My Heart

My heart,
desert dying,
I stumble, I stumble,
rocks and rattlesnakes
waiting to wound
waiting to wound.
Daytime skies overhead.
pitch as midnight to me,
and the road of lonely years,
stretches on and stretches on,
no end or voice in sight.

James E. Roethlein copyright 2021

She is Moonlight

She is moonlight
on snow bound fields
under clear midnight skies,
the world waiting, waiting,
for spring to return.

James E. Roethlein copyright 2021

Nails and a Hammer

Nails and a hammer
to hang you to a tree,
I swing, and you
scream
scream
scream.
****** intent
in heart and mind,
that the Author of Life
should bleed out and die.

This is the mercy and pardon
given to rebel man
sitting on spiritual death row.

Why would anyone refuse?

James E. Roethlein copyright 2021

Soldiers Returning From the War

Red rivers to wade through,
heart sickened
at the sight of battle blood,
enemies and friends
fallen, never forgotten.
Bullet blasts and combat cries
in dreams, in the waking hours
of the returning wounded,
whose war has not ended.

James E. Roethlein copyright 2021