Naked
Like water
Full of beauty
With your fingers
Write your love
On my heart

I did not
Love you as I should.
That much is clear.

I could not love you
As I should then.
That much is clear.

You loved me as much
As you could.
This now I can see.

I could not love you
Then as much as I should.
This much is clear.

I love you now
More than I could have then.
I thank you more.

This much is clear.

I want you
like I long
for a return
to myself
as if
to enter
my own
psyche in a
a single lit-up
journey, its
incandescence
led only by
pure breath alone
thoughts out of
bounds as
they fly off
unknown
into the night,
fulfilling
thick waves of desire
dreams in vibrations
love in realms
      higher
the cells weaving skin
go so much deeper
a craving for
a force
uncontrollably sweeter
and I know
that I am intense
with it, like that
but I would not
want it
any other way
for in this
weightiness of emotion
it's the weightlessness
       that stays
a breaking down
of barriers
that ultimately leads
to letting ourselves
open like blossoms,
to see and to be seen
for what is
heaven
but a soul recognition
revealing innermost depths
by our own volition
It is a return
to the lull
of the subaqueous rhythms
to the instincts of pre-birth
          of subconscious decisions
blood knots twisted
                     into the cord
                               of the heart
                       linking its beats
                     to a light-infused
                  spark
sealing the deal
without drowning,
your heart beats into mine
soul within soul
in connection, divine
For the inner eyes
              see in colors
beyond usual hues
and from my
innermost womb
shines a most
beautiful
                  view

I watch the sunset fade
beneath angry wintered seas
cresting furiously,
drowning possibilities
of another moonlit night
washing up on this
frostbitten shoreline

Fading reflections falter
atop a jet stream,
coerced from below,
chilled from above,
willing feats of great wandering
as sleet licks old wounds
and footprints
become yesterday puddles
of journeys ending

Castaways cling to ancient dreams,
their treasures sinking deeper
in the murky silt,
while I brace against a frigid wind,
traversing drifting dunes
and snow fence barriers,
heading towards the light

A lone flickering candle
left in the bay window,
the flame, a signal
that your love still awaits,
and my heart warms
as I approach the beauty
I have so longed,
on the other side of
a blue weathered door…

Covered in darkness wearing a veil of evil the bride stands before her groom and a group of vile wedding guests waiting to be joined in matrimony.  The heat and hate that filled the air was so thick that they all choked on it.  Lust the biggest **** ever getting married to Greed had everyone baffled and amazed.  Everyone watched with confusion as a union of sin was joined in unholy matrimony.
Pride the priest took the left hand of Lust and puts it in the left hand of Greed then he took tthe right hand of Greed and puts it in the right hand of Lust and began the ceremony.  The words that flowed from the mouth of Pride the priest cut through the air like swords cutting through flesh.  
"Disgustingly wicked we have come together in the presences of demonic forces to behold the joining of this devil and **** in unholy matrimony.  This band and covenant of marriage was established by evil in darkness.  Lust will you have Greed to be your husband to live together in the covenant of marriage?  Will you obey him, lay with him, and fulfill his ****** desires as long as you both shall live?"
With the flames of hell burning in her eyes Lust answers "I will."
Pride looked at Greed and said "Greed will you have Lust to be your wife to live together in the covenant of marriage?  Will you supply and adorn her with riches as long as you both shall live?"  with a twinkle in his eyes that sparkle like gold Greed answers "I will."
"By the powers invested in evil the groom and bride may kiss" said Pride.  As Greed and Lust's lips touched their wedding guests were as silent as a corpse.  Lust turned her back to the wedding guests and threw a bouquet of Poison Ivy over her head.  Envy stepped in front of Sloth and snatched the bouquet out of the air.
"Nice catch Envy" said Sloth with slow slurred speech.  "Thank you Envy and I do believe green is more my color" said Envy.  Lust turned around to see who caught the bouquet.  She wasn't a bit surprised to see Envy holding the Poison Ivy.  "Well Envy I guess you're next to be wedded off" stated Lust.
Pride motions for Hatred to release the Owls.  Hatred unlocked the huge cage and released the Owls.  Slow to take flight the great Owls flapped their wings and ascended into the darkness.  "Lets get this party started" yelled Greed.  As the sins partied the night away in the country Darkness the sun came rising in the country Tranquility.
"Are you ready to spend all eternity together? " Loyalty asked Love as they stood on their balcony.  "My dear, dear, husband soon to be you already know the answer to the question you ask" said Love.  As Loyalty and Love stood locked in a warming embrace being kissed by the rays of the sun the two share a kiss of their own.

Written by Keith Edward Baucum

It is hard to say father;
the thought of you stumbles through me when I see
a Gerber baby food jar or a wooden pop crate.
Once you came to mind when I saw a Polish flag
on TV; that is humorous because
the only Pole I know is a pale man at the gym
whose left eye is shaped like a rotten pear.
Do you still burn your fingers when you
fall asleep smoking in a recliner?  I hope
you still do not trim your fingernails while
sitting on the toilet stool; that seems so un-American.
Today is your eighty-fourth birthday;
I hope wherever you are you do not think of me.

I hope you think of me
When it's late at night.
I hope you remember the way I smiled
When you said "I can't do this anymore."
I hope you think of me
And wonder why I smiled then.

I smiled because I knew,
I knew I loved you even if
You couldn't love me.
I smiled because
You were breaking my heart,
And I didn't know what else to do.

I hope you think of me and you realize,
I smiled every day for you.
Even when I hid my tortured life
From you.
I smiled so you would be happy.
I smiled so you wouldn't worry.
I smiled so you would know my face.

And I smiled then,
Because it's what I always knew how to do
When everything fell apart.

Like so many
times before,
she went out
into the dark
and pulled it
around her--
its cloak of
          charcoal
              staining
        her fingers
as she
grasped its
deeply opaque
fabric of smoke
turning her
eyes into mirrors--
mirrors reflected
inside out, thoughts
and feelings
brash and quiet
in their subtle
points of weaving
until the cold
gleam of shards
of the onyx air
clung to her form
like an inky abyss,
the very reverse
reflection
of black snow
spilling and seeping
into her essence,
filling the weeping
in whispery presence
until all she could do
was curl into the
soft embrace
of obsidian,
surrender her soul
to the starless sky
and let
it in