Cardboard and concrete
The gutter dance
Poison slithers thru their veins
Comatose victims of pain

Public litter
Use to call him Dave
Detached distain
On public display

From the inside, out
Voices dither
Skeletons wither
Chaos soon will rain

***** dreams
Dumpster fein
Needle malaise

Unseen, invisible
A scab of existence
Bleak
Underbelly
Deranged

Demise
White
Porcelain
Overflowing
Unashame­d
Last vein

My tree branch lowers
To caress a petal of rose
Fragrant tease
Ashamed interlude
Succulent muse
To stand over
Admire its bloom
Demure and radiant
I quiver a leaf
So it can enjoy

Our shadows follow
mimic our moves
This doppelgänger, this muse
They go away at night
Living another life
Nocturnal nap, waiting for sunrise
They patiently hide, biding their time
Lifelong companion
Silent partner
Thinner version of you

Journeys leap from pages of old
Eloquent  exchanges gilded in gold
Breathe out over distant lands
This new world entices languishing  souls
Pay penance to wisdom for God and country
Punish people with dalliance, a solemn requiem
Story are told from those on high
We open are mouths; a soiled demise
Relinquish a heart from strained etiquette
Vile  contempt pushed thru bowels
Vision evaporate beyond folly and frame
Lingering solace wane towards the abyss
Vengeance will tether; the ball and the chain

I am eight, I dream
Not of missiles that permeate rooftops
From dream to reality

Here I lay
Powdered concrete fills my nostrils
Schoolgirl crush, shards of glass, metal beams
Breath,Breath

Scars of misery
Souls that linger
Voices screams
War is pungent and mean
I am eight, I bleed

Storms knock on closed doors
Windows seek out vacant souls
Tomorrow brings today as we levitate in pain
Shadows linger amongst vivid dreams

Black clouds beckon; calling out my name
The grey swells of normalcy
Death, taxes; medicated haze
Our bones rattle; virginity, chastity, abstain
Metaphoric pillows of sane
Why must I be tormented by flesh
I tease it; it tortures me.