Do we wait for tomorrow,
  as we wait for today

Do we see a connection,
  false wishes to pray

Do we draw from the past,
  as the circle is spun

Trapped inside or out,
  is it then Zero-Sum

Can the memories forgotten,
  revisit again

Do the feelings held back,
  turn to poison and blame

Is our freedom beyond
  our ability to reach

Are we the one student,
  we’ve forgotten to teach

Is finality connected,
  or separate from

Those things we hold onto,
  and still try to run

Is that voice we hear calling,
  from within or without

Are they really the same,
—once the circle breaks out

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

I harbor a mean spirit
but not in my soul
He roams through my
consciousness as havoc and pain
Trying to break through
to that place where he’s banned
Trying to break through
to where my innocence lives
Again and again he forces  
his will
But it all goes for naught and he
waits till I sleep
Where Laura’s on guard
in my dreams to protect
With insomniac hell
he still tries to invade
Her will ever stronger
than his fleeting advance
Each night he comes knocking
as she turns him away
Until with mocking futility,
he warns me again
In words that are cursed
and bathed in disgust…

“You can run to your Muse
  and hide if you wish

But temptation and trial
  are served from my dish

Go be safe in the womb
  but remember outside

When you leave her protection,
—there is no place to hide.

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2016)

A prisoner of the truth
  sole inmate of denial

Serving time falsely promised
  —paroled in cold exile

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)

Stackable living
  hackable lives

On top of each other
  like bees in a hive

Inside a box
  hard corners to know

A neighbor above
  a neighbor below

Stackable moments
  fractional lies

The walls serve two masters
  invasion implied

All differences measured
  in bedrooms and floors

A blueprinted nightmare
  its maze underscored

Stackable meaning
  the truth wearing thin

Its elevator stuck
  stairs covered in sin

The higher you climb
  the farther you fall

Stackable living
—the death of us all

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)

Training the enemy within,
  universities soldier on

Unchecked and unaccountable
  
They march to the beat of the
  government drum

Tearing us apart from the inside

While Rome burns
  —and Legionnaires die

(Villanova Pennsylvania: August, 2014)

No matter how great the versing
  writing always lacks the note

That music plants inside our souls
  words by their nature rote

Its melody takes you skyward
  all reason left behind

Pure joy out front to then surround
  —what substitutes as mind

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2019)

Hunting the distant banks
Of one lost remembrance
A reckoning came upon me  
Excuses left askance
My tracks grew large
As midnight’s table turned
The prey had changed to predator
Of a memory left unlearned

        The dark repeating whispers
           my soul afraid to tell

        Until its breath upon my back
          —last step my fear to quell

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2018)

Deep within the ashes,
  a last ember burned alone

A final spark to light the torch,
  to guide your spirit home

Deep within the ashes,
  a last beacon in the fight

Refusing to let the darkness take
—your vestige into night

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2018)

Don’t wait for that perfect poem
  to appear

It lives in the seeds of your
  imperfection

Waiting for new furrows of wonder
  and strife
  
To flower in soil you have yet
  to plow

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)

Are we constantly building
  circular walls,
  —that we feel safe within

Are the threats contained,
  as our minds abstain,
  —in our fortress ‘void of sin’

Does the air we breathe,
  serve to then mislead,
  —forming words that echo back

Now inside a prison
  where we must serve,
  —as ourselves, we then attack

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)

I put a saddle on the wind,
  and rode it through the storm

The bridle placed, the buckle cinched,
  the reins, my horse reborn

Inside each stirrup passion spurs,
  the present now in hand

Behind whose mane I charge within,
—in search of who I am

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

You hide behind
  the angels mask

As truth unsheathes
  its sword

Your costume stripped,
  the devil unleashed

His fire,
  —your fate to endure

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)

His life spinning inward,
  to its center returned

A whirlwind of intent,
—through the maelstrom it churned

His end was beginning,
  as the last became first

All time banished outward
—evil Gargouille dispersed

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)

To wit, the editor
  the murderer’s axe

To slay the innocent
  with sharp attack

To wit, the editor
  last drop of blood

Now drained and syphoned
  —in victimhood

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)

I lived inside my timeframe,
  did you live inside of yours

I lived outside my timeframe,
  did you live outside of yours

“I carried things from now till then,
  a toll I humbly paid

Across a bridge where time had stopped,
—the truth to pass each way”

(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)

Words,
A magic
Salve
For the
Unspoken
Tragedy
Of a
Thought
Once
Denied

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)

The light through
My Grandmother’s
Bedroom window
Called out to me

‘Calls out to me’

Leading me to places
Where I had to go
Revisiting me now
In my twilight years

‘In my twilight years’

Reminding me again
Of those places I’ve been
And my reasons for going
As the mileposts shone

‘And the mileposts shine’

Reaching into the distance
Where the horizon pulled
And the dawn arrived
In what drove me once

‘In what drives me still’

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2014)

The distance between what you feel
  and what you write…
    —your measure as a Poet

The difference between what you think
  and how you act…
    —your measure as a Man

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2018)

Long before the clocks ticked,
  the garden was burning

The law had been laid down,
   only the animals ran free

Long before the clocks ticked,
  two lovers were yearning

The power, the struggle
  —the lust to deceive

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
Giving and taking,
  both day and night

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
Some then mistaken,
  some often right

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
Last right of refusal,
  the one holding tight

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
The lows though not many,
  the pain always right

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
Words ever radiant,
  the music so fair

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
The sweetness of children,
  my soul they ensnared

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
The darkest of moments,
  their message to share

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
A voice though unchosen,
  inside me declares

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
As the days grew short,
  and the visitors came

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
Their voices cry out,
  calling my name

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
One verse was enough,
  no time to explain

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
My final breath,
  a lasting refrain

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
The money fleeting,
  any fame now gone

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
A 5-star boardinghouse,
  no curtains drawn

On my own terms,
  I lived my life
With arms open wide,
  and the peace to move on

On my own terms,
  I ended my life
All that I’ve written
  —turned back into song

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)

The open West is an iron lung
  for the polio of my soul

Lifting me up and breathing in
  at once to make me whole

Wild and free, its air blows clean
  to minister my wounds

And nurse me back to perfect health
  —a second none to soon

(Durango Colorado: February, 2019)

You want it to make sense
You want it to become clear
Your feigned self importance
No longer precious or dear
But the only one caring
And the one still in doubt
A mirrored reflection
Of what never comes out
The lunch breaks upon you
Again eating alone
Your steak is still raw
Chewed right to the bone
The banter around you
Seems innocent and yet
The shroud that surrounds you
Wards off and deflects
“You gain nothing by trying”
You gain nothing you say
As you begin crying
For those cast astray
That girl in the tall grass
That one in your arms
Went to be with another
When you bartered your charms
Her daughter who’s grown now
Some say looks like you
Could it be then you wonder
When the times were so few
You pay the cashier
And slowly walk out
This bill had been dear
More than you had allowed
With the bone in your pocket
You head back to your desk
As the cry of a mockingbird
Decries and behests
Your pen then runs dry
As you again start to write
On your left eye a sty
All vision in blight
Only then do you notice
Hanging pink and in front
And you know that your future
Now a dog that can’t hunt
So you walk to his office
And sit down in the chair
You look at him soulless
And try not to care
He explains “That he’s sorry”
That “The timing’s not right”
He says that you’re valued
But be gone by tonight
As you clean out your desk
A new feeling partakes
You look up to the ceiling
Knowing all that’s at stake
And that feeling is good
That feeling seems right
As the feeling then pushes
And the feeling alights
You decide now emboldened
To stop on the way home
At the house of that one
You left forever alone
You heard of divorce
And you wonder how bad
The damage it left her
Was it worse than you had
As you slow down your car
She stands in the yard
As you speed up your heart
She says ‘Directions’ how far
She does not recognize you
Have you changed all that much
She looks at you puzzled
As you long for her touch
And you drive away empty
As you drive away cold
And you drive away blackened
From your heart to your soul
But your path is now clear
Though you’ve no place to go
And those things that you’ve feared
Have now rightly been shown
As you walk in the kitchen
The door never had locked
Standing there and still smitten
The one you thought had forgot
“Was that you in the car earlier
Was that you, really you
I couldn’t believe it
Because I still love you, I do”
A reward wrapped in burlap
The priciest kind
Where if never rejected
You are never to find
So make just one promise
To then promise again
To be true to your feelings
—from beginning to end

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)

When I was starving,
  the poetry fed me

When I was sick,
  the verse made me well

When I was homeless,
  the words gave me cover

When I was lost,
—the voice led me home

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)

The Muse continues to punish me,
whenever I write prose

Her slaps severe with pain heartfelt,
—no fury 'Hell Hath Known'

She sentences me to endless nights,
and days when words won't come

Until I succumb to writing verse,
—and she, my breath becomes

The Court at KOP: February, 2016

S
H
E

C
A
M
E

MY HEART AS RANSOM

S
H
E

L
E
F
T

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)