Wintry tales
Of warmer days and green space
Jagged snow capped peaks
So high up there is little to breathe
Nestled in cliffs is a warm place
Where my heart beats
Far away from anything
I don't recall putting it there
But there it beats
With strings of soul attached
In the broken peaks it waits
Unbroken and untamed
Its thunderous beat is frightening
Sometimes it scares my sleep away
The electricity arcing through nodes
Down to the bundle
Commanding every fiber that exists
It waits
For the day I can reach the airless peaks
Claim what's mine
And will always be

Look at these words, scribbled here
Black and clean
I wonder where they came from
I know it's me
Of dreams and memories
Some I know
Others are strange, I can't place them.
Are they mine?
My mind so full of different lives
Should the day come I remember
These black lines will certainly fly.

If I weep will you hear?
Set me down and hear my silent words?
If so,
I rest this weary smile on my face,
Let my heart bleed,
Filling every muscle and bone
Down to the marrow where it all began
With this ache my longing brings
I'll release it from the deep
Let you quench the thirst
Fill my cup until its full
And I'll return it with its due
Let me drink,
A long cool sip
Of the master brew

Wings breaking flesh
Metal piercing through
Raging blood
Of never enough
Poison tipped
Memory can forgive
Acid burning,
Etching metal with runes
Mask of flames,
Heart of graves
Victory singing in tune
Ravaging dust to boon
Held firm by,
Silver bonds of painful sanity
Forged on the blood of a race gone
Nike, never an angel were you

It's a bitter potion
It sours my stomach and taints my mind
Hovering over me in the dark of night
I remind myself it's an enemy I have faced before,
"Nothing is to be feared", I whisper
No matter the lies it says,
I tell myself to sleep but know I won't
I settle for waging war against myself
These anxious thoughts shout a battle cry.
There is a war waging in my mind
I hear the battle cry
I don't need any to confirm or deny
Anxiety is in my mind
So I put on my helmet and strap a weapon to my thigh
I never really hung up the uniform of my soldiering time
I settle in for the long battle into day.

Why do they hurt?
A morning of overwhelming ache
Of the day ahead
Cleansed with a shower
But the voices never fade
Afternoons bright with light
I've always hated mid-day
The evening brings some peace
But the fear of night lurks
Relax enough as eyes grow dim
Sleep permits some fitful peace
Dreams and nightmares await
The best go far the worst further
3 am wakes with a sweaty start
A song or a voice of another brings relief
The next few hours are a coin flip of sanity
By dawn the battle has wore me weak
From restless sleep
The twilight mists disappear
And the cycle begins again
There must be sweet release.

I'm tired,
To my bones I think
Sleep doesn't fix,
What my soul emits
A tiredness so deep,
Time quits
I've lost all sense
As I bail this dying ship.

I've written it this way
The words don't rhyme
The sentiment isn't kind
And the lines don't lie.
I've been told sorrow is in my eyes
It once bothered me but now I see.
I don't always wear the mask
I've thrown it out tonight
I'm looking forward with both eyes.
The world has gone awry
It doesn't surprise me
I think it should but there's something wrong with my eyes.

Fear sits at death's door
I sat and talked with him tonight
He's been busy as of late
Said it's falling apart every day
I asked if death had a moment to spare
And he let me inside.
I watched him with hollow eyes
As he sharpened a knife.
He took my eyes last time
Left me with these glass eyes.
"Tired of seeing this way?" He asked.
I nodded but said I'll keep them anyway
While I looked at my eyes.
Brown and gold with a hint of green glistening in the light.
They're watching a collapsing place
Long gone are dignity and grace.
Don't think me unkind
But my eyes, they know it's time.

A voice echoed in the dark,
Even through the light of day
It was smooth and cut deep
Making my skin crawl and eyes weep,
It pries at my deepest thoughts and sweetest dreams
Of all that is and will never be,
When it comes I grimace and wait
For the five words it always says,
"Does it make you hate?"

Hanging vines
Wrapping around limbs
Gently caressing broken skin
Bringing the body up
To mother's embrace
Holding the bare chest
Soothing its quiver
Dripping moonlight
Over the beating heart
Letting it flow down the roots
Pulsing life stretched in water veins
Hanging vines returning life
To all who ask
The tree of life.

Cast upon the wall
In plaster and stone
Beauty written in sage's scrolls
Sirens calling out in a distant drone
Fools in love
Wise learned long ago
It is worth the tears to hear the heart's song.

You looked about twelve
With hair that had grown dark
You were gangly and thin
And could run fast
I chased you through the field
To that lonely hammock
Swinging in the breeze
The shade of the tree keeping us cool
On a warm summer day
The sky was so blue
You asked why I didn't smile like you
Or had fun the way you do
Looking long and hard
That youthful face came anew
The smile when I'd climb a tree
Or any other height
The scrapes and bruises from building a contraption or two
My smile did fade
And my eyes did dim
Now that I look at you
Can I play with you?
So I can remember
All the things that took me from you.

Writing in the night
Marking this heart
With each layer
The marks are deeper
The screams are louder
And the darkness is thicker.
Sick or gifted?
Both speak of their brilliance.
Leaving a figure much different
Her face is calm and eyes cool
Her expression alludes to something cruel
She's grown up hard,
I worry she'll lose,
What's left of the child inside.
I pray none will cross her
For the darkness she exudes
Could crush even the strongest of virtues.

A fox spoke to me last night
I thought myself insane
His bushy silver tail stood *****
As he gazed at me with bright eyes
I ought to run,
But you are of no harm, he said
I nodded, stunned
He chuckled and asked if I had never talked to a fox before
That would be ludicrous, I said
He shook his head and his muzzle bared the finest smile
Oh my lady, we foxes do speak
We are not as well heard as the wolves
Or as majestic as the owl
And we pale in comparison to the cougar
But we do speak
Tonight you've come to hear I think
I've been waiting a long time
For you to listen
I've come before but all you heard was a fox
Now sit and listen to my tale
I'm Keeper of the Winds
And it's time you learned about the storm within.

The heart will not be silent
Its begging is laid bare
An aching wound wanting more
Confessing a painful sore
Friendly eyes no more
A sign of the coming storm

Darken the door,
Trying to prove his worth
He never had to
She saw his value long before
She knew his thoughts
His gaze said it all
Her answer did not change
She cannot be what he needed her to be
He did not believe?
Should she share some of the darkness in her?
The parts no one sees?
Past the pain there is calm certainty
He deserved what she could not be

She'd be lying if she said otherwise
A better friend she'll be
True and loyal to her dying day
Let her be that
As a lover she is complex
She would burn him to ash
Few match her flame
She can be everything,
But please a lover she cannot be
A friend like her will be a gift
She won't go away
Release the grip

Perhaps a drink
Something to wash this emptiness off
It was right
But the heart aches
An echo of a lonely beat
But a lover she could not be

Visiting on a summer breeze
Knocking on the wooden door
Knowing I'll always answer
Carrying scents of salty seas and earthy flames
Dusk hazes your eyes while the stars keep you alight
Smile of a thousand suns
You ask me to stay
To hear the crickets play
Longer days are your symphony
The nights my delicate tapestry
Sitting on the horizon with me
My passing love
My sun among the skies
I'll shine bright in the night
Until you come to visit again
And we can enjoy the silence on the shores of the midnight sun.

I think failure must smell like old coffee
The kind that spills on a white dress shirt
Staining yellow as it turns cold
The once rich aroma turning bitter
An acidic stain that eventually dries
You frown and in embarassment try to hide it from those around
With a bitter laugh telling your mates that's what happens when you rush
You go home and try to scrub it out
If you know the tricks no one will ever see the stain
But you'll see the remnants in your eyes
Everytime you put on that white lie
An invisble ring of sickly yellow
Surely it's obvious, everyone will see.

I think failure feels like this sometimes
A stain we'd rather not see
The bitter aftertaste of something once warm and comforting
I wonder if the stains we hide,
Ever become beautiful?
A momento we once tried
And yeah got burned a few times
Maybe we should stop wearing white
Pretending the facade is true to life
Using magic markers to live up to a lie
Life is messy and anyone who says otherwise
Probably has more stains than you or I.

In the dark,
Candles whisper
Smoky fingers of a lovers embrace
Heartbeats thunder,
Happenings of the heart play in beautiful twisted ways,
Day is a passing memory
A season of warmth forgotten until it returns,
Monsters lurk in the shadows
But they're scared of the creatures of the sun

In the dark,
The stars remind us we are dust
It releases the mind from its tethers
Madness and freedom at our fingertips
If it wasn't for the dark
We wouldn't see the stars
Would we think our dust is all we are?
Pins of light
So far away
Of another place
To remind us to cherish our speck of dust amidst the space.

I was given my name
At the beginning of this charade
One for the dead
Another for a babe
The last is rarely said
But I'll answer to it all the same
Though it doesn't always make sense
It's my passage on this ship.

This time I'm not afraid
Perhaps because I trust myself now,
I know I'll live if you leave.
The past taught me that bitter thing
But now I see,
I'm okay to be
As I always am and know I'll be
So I let myself fall in love with you.
Please be gentle with me
Because those cracks you think are beautiful,
Were once scars that bleed.

A soul who roams isn't home.
In dying throes we know,
What the darkness holds.
Close your eyes one last time,
And remember home.
My dearest friend,
I'll hold your hand as you go.
A fellow traveler I know,
This isn't what we call home,
But I enjoyed your company before you had to go.
I'll keep your memory safe with me,
Till I leave this place and journey home.

Water tips just above the glass
As spinning records skip
Cracks among the walls
Light is coming through
So are voices speaking strangely too
Radio set till electricity knocks it dead
You've seen this dance
Felt the sway and movement in your hips
Have you lived,
Until you've experienced the skip?
A distant call reminding you this isn't it
A calling card,
You're mind stretches beyond this.

He went to a bitter place
There was too much hate
Perhaps that's why the bottle was never far from his face
When the forks came he always took the darker way
It led him here to a gutter of a place
He was content to wile away
Until she told him to get up one day
He yelled and cursed
How dare someone disturb his disgrace
She said nothing and edged him toward a cliff
If he was so miserable why didn't he end it all today
He sputtered and complained
But there was no sympathy on her face
She gave him the option to either fall down the rest of the way or come with her to another place
He chose to go with her after some debate
She led him away and he followed cautiously
She never said a word on the journey
Until they arrived where the winds meet
She led him into the sea
He panicked when he was neck deep
But she drug him further
He cried and screamed, she was killing him
She laughed, asking how she could **** what's already dead
He protested that it could not be
She smiled and shook her head
Saying he had died in the gutter a while ago
He hadn't learned that he could move past it you see
She came to show him another way
But first he must release all he's been carrying
So breathe the water deep
Let the bitter man lie where your body sleeps
The only thing to lose is suffering.

Like a little lone puppy seeking a home
In memory and history
Catching attention in little things
A scent of laundry detergent in the breeze,
To remind of youthful summer breaks
A song playing from another day,
Reminding of a time and place
A taste of another's drink,
Reminiscent of a lover who has gone away
Go on home pup and wait for me
I'll come along later and we'll play
For all the yesterdays and todays

Rise from ash and dust
Soughter bones until their tough
Call of the night
Is birth and death come to life
Resurrection cry
Rise from the ground to the sky
Bringing light on the darkest night
Combusting to bring darkness in the brightest light
Fly with me one more time
I'll burn us to the ground and make us new tonight
Magic born from ash and dust
Birth and death a cycle of rite
Hear the birth pangs and dying gasps
The balance of creation and destruction
Coming to life in fire and light

I have a fear
Of something real
And something dear
No matter the lies I tell it's clear,
I hurt and so I fear,
A stranger who nears
It's love I fear.

Grey setting in
Turning darker with each passing wind
Blotting out the sun
Winds raging in
Bending grass and trees thin
Agitated clouds taking in dry air
And dusty winds
Storms of breath is all it is
Grounds meeting skies that bend
I'd rather stormy skies
Then sunny days and shallow winds
I don't know why
Been that way since I was a little tyke
Grey skies grant my eyes,
Sweet relief and breath of life
Empty your skies on mine
Rains dance with me,
Thunder provide the beat,
Lightning make me see.

I saw the sun today
It asked me to stay
I said no thanks
I saw the moon today
It asked if I'd visit tonight
I said alright
I sat and watched my skin smoke
Silver wisps stretching up like snakes
Vapors of my breath turning cold
Gems have taken my eyes
And my heart gave way to stone
Burned away inside
I found what was left
A soul of gems and stones
Lit all on their own

Through my eyes,
My human eyes
I saw you standing there
Afraid with eyes bright
Aglow with instinctual light
A hint of recognition sparking to life
A smile of mine
With kind eyes
Will they show you my compassion?
Sitting down in the moonlight
Waiting patiently while you pace
Wild and untamed with feral eyes
Nothing as beautiful as you roams the night
Our empty lives incomplete
You are free and I sit silently
Forever gazing at each other
Separated by mere shadows and light
My beautiful wild sight
I'll watch you every night

He walked in
Dressed to blend in
It was late, hardly anyone cared

She sat on the curb
Waiting for midnight to ring in
The days were getting too long

He sat down and ordered, coffee hot
A dingy cafe
With fluorescent lights flickering

She pulled her coat tight
The wind was cold tonight
Tomorrow she would take a bus

He didn't know where he was
Some little town with no life
The years were passing by

She knew this wasn't life
It was existance in its finest light
How long would she keep this up?

He had lost the will to run
Been going since he was eighteen
Joined the army just to get away

She walked down the dark road
Moving out of the way when lights came
When a realization hit her

Army gave him some leeway
Was a nice life till he was sent away
The sounds still plagued him every day

She didn't have to accept this life
Small town and a job that didn't pay
It was time to make an escape

He needed to find some peace
Not here though
This was a depressing place

They both left
Met in a different place
Strangers who chanced upon a similar fate.

A place time forgot
There are no clocks
Blinking and flashing lights abound
The exits are confusing signs
When outside it's no better
The heat will push you inside
In winter the promise of warmth will draw you away
It's never day or night
It's 24/7 all the time
You can risk and play
Or dine on delicacies from far away
A little money can buy you anything
In this land of many things
For every desire and disgrace
Come one come all
To our desert place.

There are more on this list than I care to admit.
Some I knew well, others were just passing through,
Some are blood and I remember them well,
Others I shared a little of their pain at the dying end.
A man waiting for death to near,
His body nothing but a shell, still bearing scars of a war raged in hell,
I saw his tears.
A woman gone too young,
Born into this world with a body that was a cage,
Muscles made not to work and bones built to fail.
There are more of you than these two,
But there is not room here for all of you.
Know each of you are in the little lines of the things I write.
Sometimes my head gets full
And I think of all of you.
Wondering why you stay
Is it the etchings you left on my soul?
Or perhaps the dead never fully leave.
They stay in memories and in the quiet keeps.
Blood and spirit walk with me,
They watch as I dig through this darkness
And I swear some days I see them smile,
Encouraging me,
Like they know this dark and twisted way,
Telling me I've found the journey to take.

I didn't cry that day or the next
I never do
I'm ashamed that way.
As I've grown I know I loved you dearly
And even today I wish you were here
So I could say all these thoughts of mine.
I think we probably shared these things
But back then I was only fifteen
And I didn't know how to speak my mind.
I've learned now you knew and felt these things
It may be the blood we share
So I write this for you grandfather
As I write so many things
Of the day I saw you go.

I don't know if you knew I was there
I saw your children cry and grandchildren too young to know
I know you knew, when we last spoke
That you had to say what was on your mind,
When you told me to never quit
That I was better and to remember this.
So I say this not in tears, but with some pride,
I never did and I remind myself sometimes,
Of a man I knew who was kind and burdened in ways I never knew.
I didn't have the words to say that day
But now I do, it's taken some learning and truth.
Illness took you too soon,
This broken family still needs someone like you,
I know why they say the good die young,
You were burdened but never stooped,
And I dearly hope you knew how much I cared for you.

It was empty
Nothing but glass
Broken and smeared
With stains of time and rust of tears
It didn't look the same
Not as it once had
In better days
Before the cracks and chips
If not for the reflections it would be bare
I think it shouldn't matter it's broken and old
The images are twisted now
Perhaps it's more real that way
So many lies in mirrors
Better to look at one broken and smeared
It'll paint you as you are rather than how you think you appear.

If time were a fly,
It'd buzz around and die in 72 hours time
If time were a candy,
It'd be bittersweet
If time were a string,
It'd be crazy and go every which way
If time were a memory,
It'd never be complete
If time were a ship,
It'd be drifting in the horizon
If time were to slip,
It'd be but a tick of eternity
Time's arrow split,
Like a candle wick
What a trip.

A young girl wondered why there was so much hate
She hadn't known it till her family moved one day
To another town in another state
There the people were different
She didn't think much of it
But the other kids didn't see it that way.

Friends weren't easily made
And she learned to be without
It made her stronger in many ways.
As she grew older she heard many things
She began to question herself more.
She made friends with a few like her
Those who didn't belong.

She wondered why there is so much hate
She never understood when people asked where she was from
Her answer was always the same,
A few hours away.
It never stopped the questions or guesses
East Indian one said followed by Iraqi,
Jewish, Moroccan or perhaps the Philippines.
She would smile and say her family came a while ago,
It made her think she wasn't home.
Race never existed until she moved to this place
Where they were only familiar with their own names.

She's older now, not a girl anymore.
She saw some old friends one day,
Did you hear so and so was told to leave?
She nodded and said yes.
Perhaps it's because they were religious.
Lucky we were born here,
We'll never deal with such things. Said her friend.
No we won't she agreed.

She wondered why there is so much hate,
Too much ignorance she realized one day.
When another friend came and said,
Our old friends have gone away,
She nodded and said perhaps they'll come back some day
This land of immigrants has lost its way.

In my hallowed keeps I roam
Never knowing if the path I'm on is right or wrong
Only discovering when I step on
It is both and none,
Libraries of old
Holding stories never told
Walking the halls and rows
My cup overflows
As I drink from what I've always known,
My soul is busting these bones
I know I'm heading home
The compass points north
To the lands in which I've grown
As my journey grows
I write the unseen and untold
For anyone to see
It's time the stories are told
The oracles speak and minds are set free
Settle down and listen
To the Storyteller who has come to wake you from sleep.