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When I was small, a Woman died—
Today—her Only Boy
Went up from the Potomac—
His face all Victory

To look at her—How slowly
The Seasons must have turned
Till Bullets clipt an Angle
And He passed quickly round—

If pride shall be in Paradise—
Ourself cannot decide—
Of their imperial Conduct—
No person testified—

But, proud in Apparition—
That Woman and her Boy
Pass back and forth, before my Brain
As even in the sky—

I’m confident that Bravoes—
Perpetual break abroad
For Braveries, remote as this
In Scarlet Maryland—
--I. M. Edward John Henley (1861-1898)

Where are the passions they essayed,
And where the tears they made to flow?
Where the wild humours they portrayed
For laughing worlds to see and know?
Othello's wrath and Juliet's woe?
Sir Peter's whims and Timon's gall?
And Millamant and Romeo?
Into the night go one and all.

Where are the braveries, fresh or frayed?
The plumes, the armours--friend and foe?
The cloth of gold, the rare brocade,
The mantles glittering to and fro?
The pomp, the pride, the royal show?
The cries of war and festival?
The youth, the grace, the charm, the glow?
Into the night go one and all.

The curtain falls, the play is played:
The Beggar packs beside the Beau;
The Monarch troops, and troops the Maid;
The Thunder huddles with the Snow.
Where are the revellers high and low?
The clashing swords?  The lover's call?
The dancers gleaming row on row?
Into the night go one and all.

Envoy

Prince, in one common overthrow
The Hero tumbles with the Thrall:
As dust that drives, as straws that blow,
Into the night go one and all.
Fools may pine, and sots may swill,
Cynics gibe, and prophets rail,
Moralists may scourge and drill,
Preachers prose, and fainthearts quail.
Let them whine, or threat, or wail!
Till the touch of Circumstance
Down to darkness sink the scale,
Fate's a fiddler, Life's a dance.

What if skies be wan and chill?
What if winds be harsh and stale?
Presently the east will thrill,
And the sad and shrunken sail,
Bellying with a kindly gale,
Bear you sunwards, while your chance
Sends you back the hopeful hail:--
'Fate's a fiddler, Life's a dance.'

Idle shot or coming bill,
Hapless love or broken bail,
Gulp it (never chew your pill!),
And, if Burgundy should fail,
Try the humbler *** of ale!
Over all is heaven's expanse.
Gold's to find among the shale.
Fate's a fiddler, Life's a dance.

Dull Sir Joskin sleeps his fill,
Good Sir Galahad seeks the Grail,
Proud Sir Pertinax flaunts his frill,
Hard Sir AEger dints his mail;
And the while by hill and dale
Tristram's braveries gleam and glance,
And his blithe horn tells its tale:--
'Fate's a fiddler, Life's a dance.'

Araminta's grand and shrill,
Delia's passionate and frail,
Doris drives an earnest quill,
Athanasia takes the veil:
Wiser Phyllis o'er her pail,
At the heart of all romance
Reading, sings to Strephon's flail:--
'Fate's a fiddler, Life's a dance.'

Every Jack must have his Jill
(Even Johnson had his Thrale!):
Forward, couples--with a will!
This, the world, is not a jail.
Hear the music, sprat and whale!
Hands across, retire, advance!
Though the doomsman's on your trail,
Fate's a fiddler, Life's a dance.

Envoy

Boys and girls, at slug and snail
And their kindred look askance.
Pay your footing on the nail:
Fate's a fiddler, Life's a dance.
Their sacrifice a forgotten story
Their braveries are fables untold
In lives they hankered not for glory
In their graves they won't be old.
Lines of them lying under stone
No medal they won no star
In end they've found a silence zone
Where their memories the soils blur.
Someone was too young to die
Still dreaming a life of bloom
Yearning to reach the blue sky
Now sleeping in the casket room.
Youth so cruelly deceived them
Little was written on the white page
Blown away with the war game
Years cannot make them age.
Out of focus, out of lens
On unknown memorial just a name
Let's bow our head in silence
Lest we forget them.
Sobriquet May 2017
here, look-
you're tripping over
your feet and lost love
to show me,

so hastily taped and mended,
by your eagerness and earnest words,
the fragile parts of me
it took so long to build for you.

it was all for you,
the tiny castles
I spun from glass and love,
monuments to small braveries,
a tribute to your residence in my bones

tripping over my feet
to show you
I was strong
and that I loved you
Matthew Goff Apr 2017
Smashing glass pretty faces evening sunsets wild failures and important questions, wild abandon adventures and swimming pool braveries, desperate lover knocks on the door with wild abandon jumps into the wet air, car crash of memories and experience, party at Paula’s house parents away and many escapes, meeting friends that are met with glowing excitement romances fit the evening with a candlelight kiss.

© Matthew Goff
Hamzah 3d
In this void and isolation,
Sit Eames serves his damnation,
Neigh in his ears voices of the past,
Wrought sanity in each moment that last.
Please stop!—Shout Eames with braveries,
Beneath his ceaseless reveries,
Retardation for him is inevitable,
Henceforth, numbness is insatiable.

Whilst the time lives as is,
Forsake the lunatics,
Sought means in stampede,
Mere discovers naught awaits,
Good God! Creat’d us for greed!
Forgotten the innocent without traits,
In this void and isolation,
Sit Eames serves his damnation.

Locketh every door that once unveil’d
Refuse Eames’ present as he walk’d
Thou hast no haven herein!
Spurn’d wherever he’s within.
All the doors slow gone,
Thus Eames abideth alone.

No solitude he bears,
Pure absence of any wight,
Naught but none ought to care,
Mere presence none weight.
These isolation he wish’d to end,
He no longer able to withstand;
Poisons swallow’d,
With the hope of termination of sorrow,
Yet death neglect,
To make his mind dissect.

Rest ye’ rusty ol’ fool!
The world won’t bestow you any tool!
Albeit wield’d dagger in his hand,
Pointing towards thee who abandon’d.
Thou know not the travails I hath endur’d?
Shout Eames with eyes hollow’d.
Naked knees bruised as old rag,
Due to an endless beg,
He seeks no salvation,
He seeks no redemption.

Out of the blue,
A soft hand reach’d for him,
Ask’em to grew,
From the kneel did by him.
Is shelter is what you need?—spoken voice sneek
Suddenly terminate Eames’ bleak.
As a goddess who descent,
Radiated an impeccable scent.
With the spirit to back stood,
He finally stands for good.

Why do you take a sinner’s hands?—Eames inquisitively ask’d
At what cost one died in his sins?—said the woman thought it’s her task.
Eames fallen deeper into the pit,
A sudden urge flows in his pith.
There’s a hive and there’s a home,
Yet this one freed him from his catacomb.

Days upon, the broken man bloom,
As the slow march of his gloom,
Awaken an unbeknownst mirth,
Henceforth the absent-mind rebirth.

Pray tell, what dost thou call thyself?—Eames ask’d with fervent haste,
Julia—said the woman who’s innocent and chaste.
They wander to wheresoever they might wend.
Whilst Eames wish’d it’d never end.
Deeper known he hoped to know,
About Julia, the one he thought was faux.
Enlighten me further of thyself, Julia.
Ignore and thou’rt blessed—said Julia.

His insatiable curiosity dost leadeth to his demise,
Lead to many questions arise.
Ask’d but none answer’d,
His curiosity grew as cancer.

Once upon, Julia doth unveils,
About her story and her tales.
She was wound’d like Eames.
As well she never experienc’d dreams.
That verity, left Eames dread,
Is she just a ghost he creat’d?
Delud’d with his lunacy,
In which his brain and eyes have incoherency.

Eames’s brain illuminates,
That Julia is the one he creates.
Eames sudden epiphany
Compose a hymnody
That Eames,
Is still living in his dreams.
Whilst the world keeps forgetting,
Whilst the time keeps marching,
He is still in void and isolation,
He still sits and serves his damnation.
He is still damaged
Hence, he can’t be salvaged.

— The End —