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John H Dillinger Sep 2019
Make The Bed

Today I made the bed
so it will invite me back in.

I cut the wood for winter,
stacked it against the house,

for Autumn will begin.

Today I listened to Her,
She told me what I'd missed.

I smiled at the arching sun
knowing where to go,

as if we could ever resist.

My body hums aloud,
I blow into my tea;

The fire sings it's song
As the bed calls out to me.
John H Dillinger Sep 2019
The Faceless Man

He walks the world without one,
but could borrow any face.

I could guess the colour of His skin
but He doesn't belong to any race

As soon as He's within your grasp
He disappears without a trace

And you can only sense His smile
As He slips into your place.
The Faceless Man is a recurring poetic character of mine. Something always lurking in the shadows.
John H Dillinger Aug 2019
"No, Stop!"
I cry, for the first time
nature is trying to change
me
into an ugly old man
hair here there and everywhere
tired eyes
Alas, my mind wants to go on
and its a price
we all pay
so get ******* on with it
I'm having a tweezers day.
John H Dillinger Aug 2019
A sunrises itches towards the horizon
the beholder begs bygones
for this day to be different
to change
anything new feels unbearably strange
i can only
scratch
the frustration
that bubbles to rage
each ray of light
becomes
a bar in the cage
all i feel
is the craving
& desire
in my face

The sunset reveals true being
the beholder starts fleeing
i can't bear to confront it
my soul
i'd rather chase the horizon and see where it goes
get lost
in the spectrum
as clouds turn
rose gold
as the colours
delve deeper
the world
becomes
cold
but i'm sweating
and shifting
my bones
growing old
****** ****** I've seen the back of it so many times but the world keeps on spinning and it's always back in front of me again..
John H Dillinger Aug 2019
We carry with us our memories and our scars,
strewn across our beings like the clear night is, with stars
and like sailors in the wilderness, they give us a sense of who we are,
which direction we are going, where we came from and how far.

Drops in the ocean, we reach out for our anchor,
that thread that ties us to ourselves, our idioms and our rancour
but when the storm clouds gather on the night of the new moon
I tie myself to the mast, submissive to the jostling gloom.

I catch a glimpse through Lightning bolts, the darks fiery reprieve,
those scarry looming shadows of all the souls whom had to leave,
I'm stunned, abandoned to the whim of whipping waves,
on the tide of all those memories that have formed how I behave.

This is my new scar, but it's not one bourne from pain,
it's one that can sense the morning after midnight's rampant rain,
a mountain emerging from the ocean, to make it's mark in air,
before the wind comes round a-roaring and sinks it without a care.
John H Dillinger Aug 2019
Dad
I still think to call you sometimes
& the thought gets stuck
in my throat.
The pressure builds
and a tear breaks loose,
like your single note,
tattooed on the back of my hand.

I still hear your melody, softly,
as it joins the symphony
in my head;
it breaks free onto this page,
turns into this poem
of Love & Loss
instead.
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