I live in the dark
no sun no park
I feel my way
sun warm today
white cane taps
a stranger claps
I fall in love
his heart above
his light shines
in my eyes blind.

I hear your warning
pumping in my veins
beating on tin roofs
in pounding rains
never give up on me
don't lose our spark
but it burned away
in our casket. Dark.

Just square pegs round holes.
  Unable to fit in approved roles
  looking for love in gay bars
  neon lights exploding stars
  I saw you in the magazine
  you take me in a limousine
  to decadence I've never seen.
  you make me a beauty queen.

I live on the dark side
in shadows and secrets
touch me there and hide
meet again no regrets.

I'm a God billionaire.
I own hearts and souls
pay me for a lung of air,
and comfort in those holes.

Dark stage
awaits a play
to entertain
show us rage
proper display
poetry on a page
story be told
line by line
my heart is old
beating in time
looking for you
a perfect rhyme.

Dark women with coal black eyes,
   that's where all the passion lies.
   Fire and ice, extremes burn cool
   enticing poets into their pool.
  
   We already know broken trust
   now we know burned out lust.
   Hold me like a plastic doll
   poke me while I break my fall.

She wears red **** Me heels.
   your hands that woman feels,
   always swaying to her siren song.
   Go home at dawn where you belong
   with a sweet Lover of your heart.
   hold her close and never part.

She wears red **** Me heels.
   Dance, your hands love that woman,
   always swaying to her siren song.
   Go home at dawn and climb in bed
   with the owner of your heart and
   hold her flesh and blood to yours.

I don't really know them. Really.
Things are always great but we
all know that's never true. Never.
Life is chapters of laughter and tears
and wine and roses and Valentines Days
with Ben and Jerry and Heartbreak Hits.
Hated fix ups that never take off.
I give her away to one who did.

Dawn Chorus by Thom York

Back up the cul-de-sac
Come on, do your worst
You've quit your job again
And your train of thought
If you could do it all again
A little fairy dust
Thousand tiny birds singing
If you must, you must
Please let me know
When you've had enough
Of the white light
Of the dawn chorus
If you could do it all again
You don't know how much
Pronto pronto, moshi mosh
Come on, chop chop
If you could do it all again
Yeah, without a second thought
I don't like leaving
The door shut
I think I missed something
But I'm not sure what
The middle of the vortex
The wind picked up
Shook up the soot
From the chimney ***
Into spiral patterns
Of you, my love
You take a little piece
Then we break it off
It's a ****** racket
It's the dawn chorus
If you could do it all again
Big deal, so what?
Please let me know
When you've had enough
It's the last chance

Civilization crumbles with laws
made of DC lies from the jaws
mindless government ******
barter dignity at Dollar Stores
buy the fish on Motel 6 floors
commies finally won the wars.

They haunt dreams and Oh!
how we cry! Aunt Blanche
drinks wine and smokes her
cigarettes and calls me Kid.
She loves me, doesn't judge me,
knows my horrible love better
than I ever could. It's in flak
that rips an airman from the
sky in wars that leave us to
bail out from burning love.

Dead and alive I see
needle marks my arms
how can this even be?
I always want charms
needles point's womb
I die and live again
like Christ in a tomb
one more shot of sin.

For the dead the wars are done.
The dead's pets will not atone.
Chemo's foul stench won't become
roll dice to see who gets a bone.

Moments still eat seconds that
eat from minutes that feed from
hours while we toil at jobs that
steal from ticking life's hourglass
sand in tiny pieces never quit
until we are just dead clocks.

My body on the stainless steel.
They drain my blood out while
pumping life back into in me.
I'm dressed in the latest style.
They make me up like a *****.
I finally look best to please.
Friends never see the corpse.
They only see their memories.

Haul me back from time's
lost junkyard of broke hearts
a band comprised of mimes
quiet for whispered starts.
once upon a time is dead
replaced with overtime
no more need for a bed
meeting the deadline.

Why do we obsess on your death?
Wear mother's furs and die in a car
painless, breathing her dead breath
as your own in the closed garage.
You painted your suffering in such
splendid colors and signed it AS.

Chess pieces off the board.
Playing in the park in shade
of oaks dropping Fall's leaves.
They lie stiff under sheets in
foreign fields loved ones won't
recognize in tears and sobs and
prayers of despair to a deaf God.
Death ends the games tonight.

Wrapped in flagged boxes
happy remains from foxes.
War's a dead zero sum game
both sides always the same.

Not chemo tired
not marathon tired
not **** *** tired
not old man tired
I want for nothing
finally dead tired.

I prayed since I learned to kneel.
I begged You to keep me pure.
I asked you to give us food and
coal to warm our winters but You
mustn't have heard me. My goldfish
froze to death in their bowl and my
tears froze when I wept for them.
I found a warm girl and fell in love
and we sleep close alive and forgive
Your ignoring our needs as we ****.

If I could play guitar
I'd write a song
instead of poetry
poems are deaf lyrics
heard only by poets
and you and me.

I wish you were alive
so I could apologize
for disappointing you.
You took my kids fishing
when I was drunk wishing
for miracles in Boston
the kids in an orphanage.
****** kept insanity at bay.
I never knew how to just say,
"Thank You. I love you, Dad."
In an honest man to man way.
Eye to eye we just up and die.

You broke me in pieces
when you abandoned me
sent to an orphanage
you set yourself free
hopping freight trains
postcards of small love
from places in a granite
heart push comes to shove.
You keep guilt ***** quiet
sleeping in bar lover's beds
dreaming of your life's despair
wake hands shake take meds.

You broke me in pieces
when you abandoned me
sent to an orphanage
you set yourself free
hopping freight trains
postcards of small love
from places in a granite
heart push comes to shove.
You keep guilt ***** quiet
sleeping in bar lover's beds
dreaming of your life's despair
wake sober reach for the meds.

My Dearest Dementia,
  I forgot how I met ya'
  you sanitized my life
  with your septic knife
  on the tip of my tongue
  from when I was young.
  I dream of broken fists
  lots of forbidden trysts
  locked bedroom doors
  many desperate ******
  abandoned all my wives
  destroyed many lives.
  I wake my memory bled
  kind old man almost dead.

keys strike my story
molested with my truth
on the ****** paper
still looking for proof
why did we fall in love?
was it all mirage of lust
or hating my cold father
betraying my sacred trust?

Jesus Christ promise me
  there's hope for us still
  that you'll drop from the
  sky and set things right
  keep the communists away
  and stop the lies and let
  me drink my wine in peace
  and write madness in poems
  while You do heavy lifting
  and we won't be so reckless.

scorched walls
    airless halls
    belching flame
    delivers pain
    what was a room
    is now a tomb

Just a note to say I'm sorry.
Please let it go don't worry.
Everything will end up well.
Kiss Kiss from eternal hell.

You are finally facing
demons I left behind.
I am now facing yours
I've always been blind.
Thick as a ******* brick
just following my *****.

Is there anything I can do
to fix the broken to you?
I always loved you most
you were the first ghost.

I'm tap dancing as fast as I can, Mom.
    The sparks jumping off the sidewalk like
    demon flares half mad in the dark!
    all seems to be going swimmingly,
    but you turn to stone and deliver me
    to the monster at 3 o'clock sharp!
    Read my crimes and grant no leniency;
    the sentence is beating with Dad's belt.

I wish you were alive
so I could apologize
for disappointing you.
You took my kids fishing
when I was drunk wishing
for miracles in Boston
the kids in an orphanage.
****** kept insanity at bay.
I never knew how to just say,
"Thank You and I love you, Dad."

Autumn turns nature more intense.
     Peasants harvest Burnt sienna and
     other shades of red while black crows
     crawl across the French blue sky.
     Leaves catch fire briefly falling
     into winters Payne's grey grave.
     I clutch hope in my lonely winter.
     Please visit soon, Lad. Love, Vincent.

Autumn turns nature more intense.
     Peasants harvest Burnt sienna and
     other shades of red while black crows
     crawl across the French blue sky.
     Leaves catch fire briefly before
     ending in winters Payne grey grave.
     I clutch hope in my lonely winter.
     Please visit soon, Lad. Love, Vincent.

He splashes light against the sky,
  broken heart that makes her cry
  remembering yesterday's goodbyes,
  begs her to explain. She just sighs.
  She was a ***** he loved, paste white.
  He splashes light against the night
  making stars that swirl like madness.
  He splatters yellow suns on his sadness
  with crows in skies warning us of doom.
  He cuts his ear off in her white room.
I scratch this poem upon the page
with his blood spilled in red rage.

What a splendid place you are,
spaces, smells and tastes galore.
I've been everywhere in my mind
I'm Helen Keller and I'm blind.
I see more than you might think.
Remember each time you blink.

Your name is so near
my old failing brain
I know we made love
naked in summer rain.
Betsy or Kathy or Jayne,
Georgine or Lorraine?
Soft golf course grass
13th hole water hazard
drunk love piece of ***.

Quit trying to
make me happy
just let me be
in my misery
drunk honesty.

I'm living
in a holding
pattern waiting
to be cleared
for my burial.

it makes us better
   love harder
   never quit trying.
   biting monkeys
   screeching madness
   always on our backs
   a time bomb to
   keep us guessing
   when when when
   the answer is
   too late to matter
   too late to change.

Death is black as ink
no light as you think
piece of the universe
forever nothing worse.

All my friends are gone.
Feelings are lost in ashes.
I am alone like in a womb.
Dark is come and go flashes.

I yearn but still say **** it all
reach out in darkness for touch
fingers have disappeared
death is nothing much.

Your machine is shutting down.
Finally an ending to the crown.
Forget broken promises and lies.
Coughing blood and tearful eyes.
Death bed confession heard
never forgot word for word.
You're loved and forgiven.
We hold prayer of contrition.

They had to have a live tree
instead of a fake ironically.
The thing ended up killing me.
It's not big enough can't you see?
It was monstrous as it could be
but kept them quiet and happy.
I tried to lift it, was on a knee.
Help! They ignored my plea.
Coroner delivered me for free.
Moving the tree cost a hefty fee.

I lost my wedding ring
it fell into the mud
with the other ones
our horror of blood.

The end wouldn't come.
***** to death by many
rag doll kissed by some
just a **** for a penny.

Monsters eat our pain
Hors oeuvre then home
dinner with the family
all will fall like Rome.

Death is ill timed, never expected
  and awkward for those left behind.
  Funerals are Death's surreal plays.
  Tears won't always come on cue.

  It's bad luck to talk about death.
  We speak kind of the dead. We don't
  talk of their human frailties.
  We deny our own sins and theirs.

  We forgive the world for our sins.
  If we never lived in your creation
  with temptations forbidden we'd
  never suffer birth and death.

Death is ill timed, never expected
  and awkward for those left behind.
  Funerals are Death's surreal plays.
  Tears won't always come on cue.
  It's bad luck to talk about death.
  We speak kind of the dead. We don't
  talk of their human frailties.
  We deny our own sins and theirs.
  We forgive the world for our sins.
  If we never lived in your creation
  with temptations forbidden we'd
  never suffer birth and death.

Death is ill timed, never expected
  and awkward for those left behind.
  Funerals are Death's surreal plays.
  Tears won't always come on cue.

  It's bad luck to talk about death.
  We speak kind of the dead. We don't
  talk of their human frailties.
  We deny our own sins and theirs.

  We forgive the world for our sins.
  If we never lived in your creation
  with temptations forbidden we'd
  never suffer birth and death.