We once danced like the glowing Lampyridae

Bathing in the molten heat of a new fire

While walking hand in hand
Down loves panoramic highways

Flames of belonging and such sensuous fire

Lit and consumed our aura's

But when the winter of our love season arrived

With the familiar sound of jingle bells

Announcing our Oak wedding anniversary

On that particular sunrise
On December the fifth

That mesmerising spell broke like the mythical Sword of Elendil

And my world
Shattered

So blue is my new season watching the midnight Lampyridae dance

Alone
In the silvery moonlight

Like a young Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth
As we once did

While my life slowly drifts
South

After I lost you
My world and the only thing that once mattered

Wandering lost in my mind's so many labyrinths filled with our hieroglyphs

As I stand alone on
Death's high cliff

When I remember that first time we met

On that beautiful night  
When our souls were ordained by God's light

(C)
Copyright John Duffy


(Lampyridae: Firefly)

(A lone voice speaks to a crowd of poets)

You do know everyone has their own magical style

Don't you

A style filled with such wild illustrious promises and kaleidoscope's of such deep vivid depths

For in poetry
No stone is left uncovered,
Ranging from life to death

Whispers of love’s wild explosive adrenaline filled triumphs

Everlasting hope or altarpieces of self-fulfillment

To descents into darkness

Opening portals to dimensions of festive destruction

And at the core for the inquisitive

The Red Flag
The smiling frown

Up or down

The fire to ignite a curious reader's eyes to the soul
That really matters

Is the what
Why and guile

It's quite simple
It's why everyone has their own magical style

For there is no guide to the labyrinth of the mind

When you enter poetry's smiling black and white turnstiles

And line up to read or write

With so many other groups of people who are still walking or standing still in history

Day or night
In single file

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

A voice whispered at 1 am.

As I sit alone at the worn gates of Yesterday

Looking through the Past's
White painted windows
Unafraid

Lost in deep thoughts as I watch once lost memories

Drive past like a new presidential JFK motorcade

Looking closely at the happy and sad games

We once played

You and me
Eventually
Holding hands tightly

Whilst the ungodly gossiping band

Loudly played
As our Titanic slowly sunk

I can still see
Reflected in your deliciously dark eyes

The night I surrendered

A magical night
I'll always remember

But as all things
In my cursed life

Everything changed as
The metaphorical iceberg struck

And our love slowly drowned as it shrunk

That seemingly endless night we once shared

Is it now torn beyond all repair

You were once all I ever needed
And will never forget

But as I still live in here
Wandering through the Alabaster Hall

Of The Great In-Between

I will always write your beloved name

Using beautiful syllables
In my eternal book of spells

Beside other failed dreams
Called

The Grimore of Light
Filled with Dark Regrets

Where you'll forever live
As I sometimes sit at the gates of yesterday

Once again
Wandering through green fields of yellow memories

Still clinging onto fragments of your sensuous silhouette

Somewhere
If you can hear me

I hope our old love
Still in your heart as in mine

Holds forever strong

With memories of me
As it too pirouettes

Before it too enters your Grimore of Light

Filled with Dark Regrets

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Like grey smoke slowly rising in London's old Southgate

Each morning as I slowly open my tired red eyes in here

Filled with dark thoughts and whispers of the past

I still think of places in Enfield

I used to visit

Or people who’ve died who I’ve lost in an unholy war

Good friends who have now entered God's gates

Now I'm forever 27

I always wake up with a body and soul inside that’s slowly crying

With tears that don’t dry on their own

Here in my own dark painful version of Heaven

Will you still love me
My old friends and lovers
Tomorrow

Even though you all once knew deep down inside

I was so addictive but really no good

Hey little rich girl
I once heard you say

But what is it about men who just like to play

When you still wake up all alone

Rich but still so poor in Camden

Wearing your deep depression like a familiar loved cherished

Old coat of darkened dreams

In tandem

Which still sing but silently screams

I now know there is no greater love
Than the Almighty

For to know him is to love him even more

My day will come though
Like me and Mrs Jones

Love is maybe a losing game

Where you pull in do me black heels and white pumps

Where your soul is love-drunk on cheap *****

From long lines of so tempting *******

I now watch in silence at all those subtle moments

As my life on this big screen in here

Flows

Forever tumbling like forgotten red and golden Autumn leaves

As I stand close to the front of this barrier in The Great In-Between

You may be all wondering if as a historic ghost

I still visit London or my beloved Enfield

My answer is always
Yes

For my reflection in gilded silver mirrors

I still see in passing posters or shop windows

As whispers of doubts slowly still

Swim on the molten surfaces of my mind

Seeking out all my hidden kingdoms

As me, they always stalk and follow

Looking for lost shores to walk and run upon and remain there

Haunting me forever

In some of my vintage old clothes

Especially through this half-time

When the black cockerel crows

And the Great Golden Horn blows

Some say I was always doomed

Just another ill-fated singer simply eating and drinking

New and old pharmaceutical and alcoholic treasures

Walking the long mirage filled ancient winding roads

Towards a certain death or salvation

But still a winding road to the very end

Filled and overflowing with such strands of darkness

That I thought foolishly were just there for my own intense pleasure

But through the blurred white lines

And the distorted visions
I speak this

My life’s story is simply a sad song for just you

For I truly believe my soul will soar again

In time
My inner faith will create a silver bridge

To leave this dark pathway to self-destruction

And instead, lead to my own spiritual resurrection

For I believe Jesus died on the cross for me

And all I can do to repay his sacred belief

His sacrifice

Is to conquer all my hidden demons

And share my inner dreams in these words I used to bury

So deeply hidden within me

Before I am called back
By he who always calls

To fade forever into the Black

Before I go
Can I ask a question of you

Swear on your body and soul in the middle of this dark night

Standing between all those you still love but also those

Who you know still might cheat

Does my memory still stand beside you, and we'll always be best friends

Right

For fame and love is such a losing game and I need you

To always remember my name

I was simply thrown under the Freedom Train as I couldn’t hold on any longer

Due to my everlasting mental pain

Remember me
My name is Amy

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Some may sometimes wonder if the Shadows are at work

When depravity and desire explode like New Year's Eve fireworks

While the Blind don't see
But swim in its dark seas
Daily

Saturated by its rain

Then caught and consumed like Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

By the Devil's Networks

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Tonight
Still on parole 
On love patrol 

In these storms 
Of life

As things spiral 
Out of my control 

I pray Love comes into sight

To make me whole
While my heart is beating
Like a lone drummer 

In the middle of the night
This Summer

As I wear my heart on my sleeves
Haunted by Father Time's 
One thousand thieves 

Wondering 
In this wet silence

As I stand outside
The box
In steadfast defiance 

Will I still be praying 
Come November

With this moon still as bright

That the missing part
Of my soul

Will come into sight
And help me 
Remember

L'amour apparaît quand on s'y attend le moins.

Car tous les papillons ont besoin d’une flamme.

(C)
Copyright John Duffy 

Translation:

Love appears when you least expect it. For all moths needs a flame.

(A lone voice whispers)

Do we the broken lonely souls on Earth

Sometimes run
From seeking a new rebirth

And finding a true love
We deserve

For in running
When in true flight

Do we find a strange soothing solace

In the sleepless drama of a self-imposed karma

In that races dirt

Found in the middle of a dark, endless night

When we no longer need to look
To get hurt

By opening a new leather-bound book
Of possible trauma

Filled with emotional
middle age melodrama

(C)
Copyright John Duffy