(A lone old male voice whispers to his loyal dog)

She came at midnight
Last night
You know


As the fireflies outside in our winter garden
Glowed

In a red dress of moving red lips that whispered of new dreams

Knocking like a reborn Anne Rice
Lestat  

At my heart's window

Pleading with my soul
To cross the threshold and be let in

But I the stone warrior
Whose dear love had already departed

Turned and walked back into the darkness of my loneliness

Broken-hearted

For when true love once calls
In your lifetime

And is then suddenly recalled like a severe blow

To the amygdala

All one can do
Is wallow in limbo

For true love is like the holiest of dreams

One of The Universe's best documentaries

Memories
Forged by Brigid to endure

To be kissed
And be revisited

Filled with lovers and even enemies

And consumed in any rare moment

Like expensive Hennessey

Bright white candlelights
Providing light
In a new darkness

And a holy flame to warm any soul
On any given night

As it clings on to memories of all the people you once loved

And all the things you used to do

To ride through and hold back any new storms

Or midnight visitors like that succubus last night

It's why I put my faith in true love and Jesus Christ

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Well, I guess I'm uncouth
I lied

And didn't tell them
The truth

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

In the beginning

Did you secretly
Walk like a curious
Enigmatic Charles Darwin

Looking
Whilst
Lost in Youth

Seeking The Meaning of Sin

To clandestine dark places where

Angels
Without harps

Profusely lambast and
Sing

Searching
Through concealed ancient manuscript and treatises

Seduced by Mistresses and Masters

Of Seductions

By their ever-changing winds
And rhymes

And now
Are you still covertly
Only understood

By a select few

Riding your Pale Horse
Tempestuously

Through lost
Biographies of Old Beliefs

Always on the lookout for engagements

A means to sometimes
Circumvent dark
Carnal release

Or are you still drinking Cool-Aid

From the Matrix’s ever spinning
Propaganda's machine

As the Cosmic Serpent
Of your own Apocalypse

Approaches with such devious guile

Heralding a new divine invasion

Of your own United Nations

So you still dwell in
A new vision of Gilgamesh

Wallowing in previous dark memories of
Sins

Of old encounters and embraces

Of its sensuous
Flesh

Or are you a new lost Nikola Tesla

Lost in the folds of deep personal histories

Overwhelmed
With impropriety and greed

Still seemingly held in check

By fingerprints of
Memories Old Gods

But still always courageously

Praying silently to the skies

Trying to save
Your soul

Always praying someone
Hears you and your deeds and comes down

To intercede

Copyright John Duffy

Within my dark dreams she always appears and......

She sends me deep spiritual treasures
to read and absorb

By my mind's
Scrying Mirrors

In the silvery moonlights many reflective walls

Which are in plain view
but just hidden from all

My crimson priestess from the Red Church

With a multitude of dark
confessional rooms

Hidden from mortal eyes
Above and below

Only known to them
Who are truly
In the know

Come listen and hear my calls

And join me upon my quest

She always whispers when I dream

There's a red room in here

With silk sheets adorned
with diamonds and gold

Where you can be my guest forever

Until you are old

I'll send you ancient spells to drive your success

Compassion and kindness

To leave for others to follow in your footsteps

I await in the deep ravines
Currently unexplored by you

Look deep within yourself tonight

With the thinning of the veil between your world and mine

After the stroke of midnight

And
I'll appear before your eyes and claim your mind

I'll take you back

Through the dark corridors of the hidden cities and towns

To the Red Church
of Such Spiritual Salvation

And there
I will trace my soft fingertips

Along your new road maps to a new recovery
and tempestuous realms

Of such redemption

That you will stay and never return

But it's here in this room
Your bedroom
Tonight

Your ticket you'll earn

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Lost Love

(A lone voice whispers)

Once lost
In love's asylum

Overcome by guilt

As I sat serving unseen emotional titans

In every second,
Sat in silence

Feeling numb and
Bristling with sweet thoughts of violence

Feeling time,
Enjoying the rush

Like a blackbird crowing in the bush

A bell always rings

Breaking the spell running up and down my spine

Where memories of you sing

In seductive rhymes
When you were mine

Dressed in white
Wearing our favourite rings

It may be a cut
Of a thousand deaths

This night
When I remember a real love
I once possessed

In night and day

But like frankincense and Myrrh

Which always flows and sways

To the secret codex linked
To the excesses of ***

And midnight conquests
When libidos pray to play

As I lay in this solitude
With this curse to be endured

And all that may follow

I look to the divine gift of Apollo

And write poetry of you
To rebuild
My inner hollow

As my pitiful sorrow
My soul

Delicately tries in vain
To
Swallow

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


In a deep dream
I saw an old wooden bridge


A bridge of green and blue
Filled with yellow flowers and red roses


At the front of a huge crowd of watching blinking eyes


Stood a regal black Dobermann

He seemed quite confident and approached


You may not cross here yet
He spoke
Within my mind


These lands are for those who never forget true love

Us
The companions
Of mankind


This is The Rainbow Bridge
And over those ivy mountains


Are the golden cities
Filled with happy owners and their sidekicks


The brothers and sisters of the Watchers


Who you now see
Before you
Called The Bellagio


A sea of eyes
Filled with love
Who'll follow you


Wherever you go

Waiting patiently
In this rain or snow
For their beloved owners to show


Above you
If you look

Is a mirror
So we can see the other side

To know when their time Too comes

To prepare to be reunited
When our true love
Say their final goodbyes


For true love never dies
Only fluctuates


As one walks
Through a new gate

We are all now at peace
No pain
No anxiety


Just happy to sit and wait for our soulmates


To cross
The Rainbow Bridge


For there is no time
And no such concept of being late


Now go
Astral traveller


And recount our meeting and greetings from me and
The Bellagio


And with a low bark
He turned and walked back into the sea of smiling eyes


Who all blinked in unison
Seemingly smiling
And disappeared


As the dream started to fade


He appeared once more
Briefly
In the trailing smoke


And whispered before I could answer


It is I
Caesar
I have always been waiting for you


And as I woke and wrote
In my dream journal


The beloved memories of Caesar returned


Making me smile
That he was waiting


Now at peace
Amongst his happy brothers and sisters


Beyond The Rainbow Bridge


Patiently and
Regally waiting

Like a much-loved priest
Of The Bellagio

Who can now
Speak

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


Write your words like mesmerising spells

Like
California yellow bells

To bewitch hungry
Eyes that see

Using your incredible
Vocabulary
By all means

And the four types of comprehension

Literal
Interpretive
Critical
And creative

To conjure
Themes
And memes

From the fourth dimension
To enrich jaded eyes

To stimulate weary senses

Send forth your unique voice
Via your prose

To grace unconsciously moving wet lips
With a sweet scent
Of your inner

Red rose

That tempts them
To read on

In their moments of stillness
And you'll realize
your love of poetry

May be the missing link
That completes them

Like the three wise men
Who once saw

The shining
Star of Bethlehem

(C)
Copyright John Duffy