Huddled, strained, with craned necks to the board,
They wish for that missing number,
The hope they wait upon—
The launchpad to their homes.

Puzzled, drained, enraged—the muttered sounds.
They miss that sudden cue,
The rush to be the one;
That fearful scrum of drones.

Tom Lefort

You were the light of dawn, the hue of dusk,
The fingers gently curled within my hand.
A promise that all would be as we dreamed,
The breath of hope upon my lips.
You were the life in me, the reason I rose each day,
The yearning for which all hearts will sigh.
A depth of friendship few could ever understand.

That spell of summer has long since passed,
Such dreams it cast upon us.
A haze of last light's first love, so adored,
In which our brokenness was made whole.
And there, love-soaked madness carried us afar,
Such naïve tenderness we bore;
Yet lost hopes and passions abhor us now,
In this winter we sadly bear.

Tom Lefort - October 2024

Darkness returns like a beloved friend,
Wrapping its arms around my life—
Throttling, comforting, confounding.
In its embrace, I find my peace,
A place to claim as mine alone,
Gentle, fervent, sublime.

It holds me like a long-lost love,
Casting its spell upon my days,
Hallowed, addled, entwined.

Tom Lefort 2024

All those yesterday's are my tomorrow,
A dawn of memories run astray;
Nostalgia's spell from which I borrow,
The dusk and embers of our ways.

Tom Lefort

Whisper not, hold that word of truth,
They are watching us.
Think not to stand your ground,
They are imprisoning us.
Write not the words that burn within,
They are beating us.
Surrender not, evil won't prevail,
They are blaming us.

England 2024

Quiet now, close your eyes;
Take the outstretched hand of yesteryear.
Let our fingers touch, entwine and hold,
To feel the pulse of much loved pasts
Where our pain and passion remains untold.

Remember now, open your hearts;
Run toward the open arms of all those days.
Long for her embrace, press closer home,
To hear the beating heart of all we shared
When our lives and loves were all we owned.

Tom Lefort

Step into summer's last light hew
Where the dreams of decades lived run true.
Shadowed fingers grip us there
To press deep the moments we once shared.
Twilight's chill preserves our past
It's unfathomable magic forever lasts.
Be lost within that mystic hold
Where our long loved secrets are never told.

Tom Lefort, June 2024

Let not the false promises of time
Lull us into unforgiveness.
Don't sleep upon your arguments,
One night is soon an eternity.
Our friendships are but frail indeed,
Yet should be set in stone.
Oh how I mourn my steadfast shame,
Lost opportunities and years let go.
Make good with those that held our hands,
Before the call of time must take them home.
Let not the arrogance of our pride
Forsake a depth of love sublime.

Tom Lefort 2024

Pour me a scotch son and let your father talk.
Untie his tongue and hear his secrets sing.
Release the torrent there within.

And repressed within that sacred silence
Recollections hold their breath to survive.
Let go this man who was once alive.

Tom Lefort 2024

I am two people,
Split by the bottle.
One in the pews
And the other full throttle.

Sing loud the failings of my past,
Each a tune for which I long.
I don't regret those faults of mine,
The beat of which are still my song.

Tom Lefort 2024

Be ready should the moment take you there;
When that unexpected pull of yesteryear
Wraps firm it's fingers upon your soul.
Digs deep on heartbeat echoes old.

Be still within those shadows of your past;
Where such reflection heals our wounds
Calms now the storms aroused by youth.
Holds firm our every hidden truth.

Tom Lefort 2024

Strike a match in the dark,
Watch your childhood spark to life.
In a momentary flicker of the past
Relive the scent of bonfire nights;
Where sulphur rockets are heaven bound,
And the orange glow of fire lit faces
Come congoured from the dark of time.
But burns short the magic in that light,
It dwindles fast like youth itself,
Each memory blown away like smoke.
But for just one moment that magic shone
And in those seconds a child came home.

Tom Lefort 2024

Every step of all my many paths
Have reached their bitter end.
No lights of life are left to guide,
I put them out along the way.
Like scattered truths behind me
The embers of a fire once mine;
I left them there to fade and die,
Yet once they lit my way.

Tom Lefort 2024

I walk within the shadows you left behind.
Those twilight places - still and silent -
A lost lover's noman's land.

Scattered there the broken hopes we had.
Our sacred dreams - spent and failed -
My longed for lover's battleground.

Tom Lefort January 2024

Forty year's pass.
Then and now the same.
I don't recall the differences.
Emotions never change.

From boy to man.
Him and I unchanged.
I won't repent my sinfulness.
Mistakes of which I'm made.

Tom Lefort 2023

Each drink revives that cry for home,
Swallow now the heavy thirst for time.
Where oceans of much loved pasts
Come crashing down in wine.
Each night revokes my every day,
Drink deep the endless need for then.
That swell of longed for yesterday's
Each drop a love of mine.

Tom Lefort 2023

I held you once. Lips sealed, eyes closed;
Hearts as one.
I loved you once. Passions fire, reason lost;
A life undone.
I mourn you now. Years past, shadows drawn;
Consequence now come.

Tom Lefort 2023

What has become of us?
This rage of time, the war on youth.
Where pleasures once were known secure
Now nightmare days deceive that trust.
We are broken, we are lost.
Our beauty gone, the cost we bear.
Where futures once were all we held
Now endings wait our regretful tales.

Tom Lefort September 2023

The magic of summer twilight casts a spell
In ink blue incantations and honeysuckle dew.

Each shadow stretched out like the years,
That spread deeper and darker, stronger too.

As the mystery of day's last light is cast afresh,
Gentle glows, fearfully goes our sacred time.

Hidden there we lose and find ourselves,
In the murmur of the evening breeze, our lullaby.

It sends us, brings us to a mystic place
In which we all relive each memory's hew.


Tom Lefort July 2023

There are such sweet beginnings
And there are our bitter ends.
Decades roll and crash like tides;
We live, we love, we fall aside.
Cut deep the wounds we all inflict,
Lasts long the legacy of our shame.
Left behind those broken lives,
Lost in time the reasons why.
There is such hope in our beginnings
And this the comfort at our end.

Tom Lefort June 2023.

The ones that leave us first,
Their uneven ground we ever tread.
Stumbling after each of them,
Wading through their wake.
But God forbid we take their path,
And fall hard upon such wasted life.
Fumbling for their left behinds,
Drowning in the same mistakes.

Tom Lefort - May 2023

Lovers walk across the beach.
Tread carefully now;
Your footprints fade upon the sand.

Lovers float among the stars.
Reach gently now;
Your light diminishes with every dawn.

Lovers fall upon their dreams.
Weep softly now;
Your hopes impaled on lonely nights.

Lovers torn by lovers lies.
Leave quietly now;
Your regrets reveal those stolen times.

Tom Lefort. May 2023

Mournful footsteps toward our yesterdays,
Twilight now but heartbeats lead the way.
The flicker of love lost still lights this path,
As we search forever the echoes of our past.

Gentle go we toward that hallowed ground,
Where all our heartbreak happiness is found.
The hopes we had are a passion still ablaze,
Still it burns for us in these our darker days.

That place outlives each and everyone of us,
In that eternity we find the only things we trust.
The faith we placed upon that sacred ground,
Upon which all our hopes and dreams are found.

All the lost souls, see them
Counting shallow blessings;
Forgotten causes, fallen idols,
Open wounds and seeping hopes.
So many broken dreams, hear them
Crying for their hollow faith;
Darkened hearts, bitter taste,
Shattered lives and loves laid waste.

Tom Lefort 2022

Within desperate men
Such desperate secrets hide;
Where Hidden yesterday's hold their smile,
And broken promises rest a while.

Within hopeless men
Those hopeless moment's sigh;
Where forbidden moment's still stand strong,
The folly of all their reckless wrongs.

Ink blue sky,
Silhouette arms that reach for you.
Cold the breath of God,
Awash this hallowed isle.
Twilight is here,
Hold the march of time.
England you my England,
For yet a little while.

Your life was a precious gift,
Thrown, owned, ******, blown.
Exquisite youth and sapphire eyes,
Faded, wasted, jaded, hated.
Your strife was preditors gain,
Used, abused, refused, excused.

#debbie1977

Beginnings that betray us,
Childhoods that forsake us,
Decisions that break us,
Life that evades us.

Careers that deceive us,
Ambitions that fail us,
Lovers that shatter us,
Time that passes us.

Threads that bind us,
Scars that define us,
Years that blind us,
Death that finds us.

Tom Lefort 2022

For the past I have ever raised the glass,
It's as close as I can get;
Reawakening each drop of lovers poison
Thrown down my neck;
In memories name again and again
I pour out that lament,
Reaffirming the love of such great regret.
For those years I fumble for the glass,
It's the soaking up that always lasts,
That warming spirit to my soul
But burns cold as ice this eternal toll.

Tom Lefort 2022

Upon the shore of washed up men
Those floundering breaths draw deep,
Such guttural sobs of broken boys
Spill loves now but a weep.

Within the shallows man's tide casts
Fabled depths their lovers seek,
Those tragic cries of hopeless girls
The one thing that runs deep.

TS Lefort 2021

You can dredge your mire of memories,
Try and touch those years by way of empties;
Pretend to yourself again and again
That it was really truly better then.
But the dawning light of sobriety
Will run dry those lies we tell ourselves,
Dim the light of yesteryear;
Cast cold the shadow of our today
Upon the hangover our past still plays.

TS Lefort 2021

Struggle for time, fighting for breath,
Fading from sight, forgotten by all;
My life I leave for you in words.

Cradling hopes, fumbling vows,
Falling from grace, forsaken by all;
The shadow I cast is left for you.

Running from truth, hiding the pain,
Escaping the now, embracing the end;
My secret I spill upon this page.

Forgiving lies, regretting loves,
Pursuing the past, rejected by time;
The years I hid will now be found.

2021

This old fool stumbles on toward
A final, futile curtain call.
The lights are out, the audience gone;
Takes his bow in silence.

This old fool recounts the words
He never cared to learn.
All played out, the script so wrong;
His show goes on and on.

TS Lefort 2020

Hold those moments dear
Never let them go,
In the darkest of times
They will light your way.
Hold close those memories deep
Never let them drift,
Upon the sea of uncertainty
They will guide you home.
Hold near the song of yesteryear
Let that siren sing,
She beckons you toward the rock
Your life is anchored from.

T S Lefort 2021

A certain darkness smothers me
There is no way out.
A certain horror waits for me
The hope I go without.

An endless torture pays for me
No one hears me shout.
An endless fear plays out in me
The light in me gone out.

2021

Twist and turn the lid you keep on everything,
Release the madness sobriety holds within;
Pour out the darkness, drink it up.
Carry me home on the rapids and rivers of gin.

TS Lefort 2021

Run your fingers along the lines of time
Scored across my skin, the marks of sin.
The aftermath of everything.

TS Lefort 2021

That passion burned through skin and bone,
A fire we both still kindle;
Consuming us, dividing us, defining us,
A love no man should shoulder.

Our bond we tore and cruelly cast asunder,
Decades deep we know it smoulders;
Choking us, blinding us, ruining us,
A loss no hope to hold on for.

TS Lefort 1987

Vinyl, old, crackle and turn,
Intimate moments scored into grooves;
Atmosphere burns,
A revolving truth.

Needle, record, goosebump skin,
Long played moments again and again;
Our favourite track
An unrepented sin.

TS Lefort 2021

I broke every promise in the book,
Turned out the everlasting light;
Exchanged my smiles with bitter tongue,
I really ****** it up.

I stole every hope you placed in me,
Burnt out the fire of love;
Replaced our dreams with sleepless nights,
I truly ****** you up.

I drank away apologies to swallow my regrets,
Poured out the spirits of my shame,
Repaid your trust with shallow lies,
I know I ****** this up.

The failure in us both runs free;
Bleeding out from wounds of love,
Snagged on broken bones of trust.
The futile attempts in all of us.

Fallen people are the common ground,
Relentless pursuits of no avail,
Desperate illusions of a promised land,
Flaying limbs no hands that join,
No hope no help no heaven;
Falling people screaming without a sound.

We kissed, I loved, you betrayed
My youth, a trust, perfect days.
You went, I mourned, nothing left,
I was, you were, my hope bereft.

1984

I chose to take a painful path,
Where my bloodied footprints
Trailed upon life's broken glass,
Bleeding out across the shards
Of shattered hopes, discarded hearts.

In loves gutter I found my truth,
Face down in that waste of you
Which bittered every taste of youth,
Spat out your words so dearly held
And choked that hope on cruel untruths.

TS Lefort 2021

fake #me #desperatewannabe,
Instagram selfie Facebook lies,
Snapchat fraud did you see
#truth #nothing #sadnessinmyeyes?

TS Lefort January 2021

What's done is done,
What's said is said,
So cast those regrets upon the dead.

When gone is gone,
When past is past,
Let go the ruins that still hold fast.

Where all was all,
Where then was then,
Drink up those dreams of troubled men.

I am losing my grip, final touch of fingertips,
One last gasp, a grasp of hands
That spilt those years like grains of sand.

I am fading too fast, withers now a reckless past,
In desperate cries, my crimes of old
That beat within the heart that stole my soul.

TS Lefort, November 2020