The Country that promised
equality, opportunity
free passage given
and hope to all who entered there
now trampled by unfulfilled dreams
a lack of understanding
inequality left them trampled underfoot
necks knelt upon
hands shackled
that once were willing
the plantations echoed in a thousand
down-trodden neighborhoods
the wrong side of the tracks
downtown around every corner
promises broken
the burned spoons
the silver foil
the knives
the spilled blood
This was
the Land of the Free

Brush with your lips
my questing finger tips
hold my breath
in a pulse of your heart
hear my voice in the echoes
of the summer scented breeze
and so never let us part

She was his
her eyes fixed upon his needs
expressed in his face
she was his
transfixed
her first glance upon awakening
her last glance before uneasy sleep
She was his
his voice enslaving her
the soft wheedling
the ugly commands disguised
She was his
his hands caressing
his fingers raking her soft, soft skin
She was his
his mind enclosing
enrapturing
her soul
deep within

Copper leaves, the colour of old coins
scatter in mown emerald grass

Ashy sky streaked with vermillion
gives warning of a coming storm

Strewn hazelnut shells betray the
vagabond squirrel's hunger on the footpath

A sparrow camouflages itself
becoming a part of lilac bush bark

What seems at first glance a twig is
a slug resurrected by early morning rain

A perfectly prismatic necklace of crystals
spangles the empty washing line

Daisy sequins grace the Garden's
gilded gown of dewy grass

Sleepy cat awakes, to become death incarnate
stalking birds on soft and stealthy paws

Whispy white clouds drift cotton-like
on the grey altar-cloth of the horizon

And a solitary mouse erupts from earth burrow
to scurry across my feet

The sandstorm of desperation
blows through my arid heart
tearing my future's longed for oasis apart
my heartbeats are the drumming
of countless Nomads' feet
all that I need is a well
from which my thirst to quench
give me love, give me
that well that is your heart
full of love deep and sweet

The door shut inside my heart
the windows closed inside my soul
and the mist of betrayal gathered
behind each tear-filled eye
your last words echoed
down the darkened corridors of my mind
for you shut that door, you closed that window
you destroyed all my future
and yet you forgot to say
"Goodbye"

That sleep from which our loved ones do not wake
That drift into nothingness, that silence everlasting
Death takes, and leaves a mere shadow of each self
for us to place words in Memorium or urn upon shelf

An urn that, even if emptied of that ash
into a blaze in home hearth grate
would not as a glorious phoenix
our lost loved ones reincarnate

That sleep from which our loved ones do not wake
that drift into nothingness, that silence everlasting
that Death in all its arrogance our loved ones
for its own perverse satisfaction takes