(A rebuilt person whispers)

Before I knew Love

I was once so pure
With a heart so free

Carefree for all to see
Everyone loved and smiled at me

But one day Love came calling

And offered me the chance to take a risk

Offered me her spiritual red gallows with rope and chair

Smiled and said
Climb up there

Put on the rope and stand on chair

But beware
With just one soft push

From something unknown in the shadows

You could lose all your mind
And all you own

Standing on my metaphorical chair

Beneath my spiritual red gallows

Like many before you
What do you want to do?

Risk all for my love
And climb up

To experience a feeling where emotions don't stop

Or stay down there,
Stuck in your rut

Well, that was so long ago
And I still see Love
Everywhere I go

Repeating what she said before

But this time

I'd rather stay slightly pure
With a heartbreaking free

Trying to be carefree for all to see

For even though Love still smiles at me

She can keep her red spiritual gallows and metaphorical chair

For sometimes she tempts
Only fools

To proudly
Stand up there

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Do the broken abandon the chance of love again, after going through a painful heartbreak?

Has it happened to you?

Madam Astor
The Dream Enchanter

(A lone voice whispers by candlelight)

In a dark dream,
Every night

In The Great In-Between,
Whenever I dream
It's always the same

I hear you scream

"I'm here"
In your soft pulsating voice

Just hidden unseen
Not wanting to be seen

Then right out of the darkness and void

Above that darkness's noise emanating such fantastical heat

You appear like a half ghost in my midnight street and as my heart beats faster

You take my hand and lead me deeper in The Hereafter

Hidden still by the shadows,
Bend low and whisper

"Call me Madam Astor
This realm's Pastor"

And as your sharp fingertips play a deep country tune across my skin

As my astral sweat drips faster

Whenever my eyes start to spin and my soul speaks out and pleads to sin

You dig your nails in
Even deeper into my skin and whisper

"Soon
So soon, I'll come to you in that quiet bedroom

For the last time

In two days after the fall of the midnight king, and the rise of the morning spring

I'll return to sing in this realm's unspoken rhymes, to make your spirit and eyes spin

One last time

Then fireworks will announce you're mine"


And then you're gone
Letting go of my hand

Leaving me standing alone at the gateway to The Blue Portal

The way back to the land of living mortals

Gone with that soft pulsating goodbye ringing throughout my mind

Like church bells

But I can feel it's going to be soon you'll return

As time undeniably does fly
When you've been marked by a spell

Somewhere in that places darkness

The Hereafter

For I've got goose pimples on my skin

And tonights the fall of the midnight king and the rise of the morning spring

And deep down I know
You'll soon return

So hear this my call

I'm ready to take one last walk

With you
My dream enchanter from The Great In-Between

Madam Astor
My soul's attractor and captor

The Great In-Between's
Ghostly Pastor

My beloved wife

Who I once loved in the land of the living before Death

Quietly crept up and grabbed her


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Take this
As a now bearable parting gift

From someone who will always love you
The most

As we bid our last painful goodbyes

After renouncing
All known ties

And departing
Like two lonely unloved ghosts

Into life's
Slow-moving mists

For
It's been a wonderful dream

But the dark god
Deimos

From The Great In-Between
Now let in

By emerald eyes
Hidden or seen

To slow shadow walk
Towards us
As we drift

Has gloriously
Destroyed us

Smiling
Wearing

A white Captain Bligh
shirt and

Old nineties
Faded Levi's blue jeans

Grinning like a mad fool
In our slipstream

At the joy and wonder
Of all our frail emotional screams

Which creep in

In extreme
Sinful ways

As we fall apart
At the seams

In the fading lights
Each midnight

Or in so many dark secretive corners
Everyday

For our deep love

Like an abandoned
Nightingale

Has upped suddenly
And flown
Away

Once
In a vision
Or a divine play

I saw you
Lovingly

Looking my way
On Malibu Street

But now
Feeling cold and
Numb

Eating crumbs of
Defeat

Like an outcast,
A *****

A reborn
Fletcher Christian

Sailing away
On a new mission

I beg you, Please look away

For even though
I'm broken in two

Constantly
Thinking of you

My sad heart
Will once more soar

Like a Martial Eagle
In full flight

When true love
Eventually returns

And she knocks
Hard

On my tired hearts
Beating door

Pleading to be let in once more
But until then

Gossips
Racketeers
Gaslighters

And every incarnation of the known Devil

Hear my rebellious lions roar

As my soul
Stands so ready and majestically
Tall

Holding a golden sharp diamond-encrusted sword called Hope

Clutching a solid silver shield with

Veniet Amor *** Paratus Sum (L)

Inscribed on the front in gold

Love will come when I'm ready

To banish despair
Forevermore

For this pain and old memories are no longer civil

So here I stand
In pure spirit

On
Freedoms
Sandy
Yellow shores

As my higher self
Prepares
To go to war

To earn some more
Golden and red medals

For my old true love
Has walked right out of my life

And joy doesn't live here
Anymore

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Deimos /ˈdaɪmɒs is the personal god of dread and terror in Greek mythology

I still visit you
Somewhere deep inside
You know

For our old memories together

Carry me still
Everywhere I go

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

In brief moments of reflection, do you still remember those you still love through introspection?

Beyond these dark days of ever-growing political dystopia

Social and claustrophobic phobia's

Find something or someone to love and try to absorb that feeling like
illicit *****

Why

It could be the way to survive this life cycle's current pandemonium

(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

In a deep dream,
I once heard a whispered call

It came so softly
Vibrating over all my inner walls

It said boy
Stand up tall

Be courageous

Throw away all of your life's toys and climb over all your life's many walls

But I thought it was but a dream and did nothing at all

And now at ninety-eight
I'm still haunted by this soft call

Of
Boy boy

Remember
Throw out your last toy
For a 98

It's still not too late
We've still got a chance

Climb over that last wall
And together

Hand in hand

Into eternity
We'll still dance

If you can still hear this call

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

A poem of regret and lost love.

We mark this as our hallowed oath
A mark, O Lord, for us both
To forever carry

For together
We stand

Eye to eye
Heart and hand

Now we're married

And by this mark, we swear by peace and love to forever trust each other

And always try to understand

For this, the seal upon our hearts is real

As it carries deep inside
All we feel
Amen

(C)
Copyright John Duffy