.
Two lines of cold grey cottages stand,
like decaying teeth in the mouth of Hades.
Grim acknowledgement to a long dead past,
monuments to the what if's and maybes.

A dark stain on the undergrowth of Nature,
the mud filled pond reeks of sick disease.
Brick and concrete tumble down slowly,
as She reclaims land in shallow degrees.

But peace and tranquility live here now,
under the pall of a decomposing host.
Trees grow, birds sing and flowers bloom,
perhaps to entertain the departing ghosts.



© Pagan Paul (2017)

.
The conquest notch on the heart,
a symbol of success and achievement.
But another year closer to the grave
reflects the sadness of old bereavement.
The love of life has long driven passed,
a life of love into the darkness been cast.
The symbol has slipped so far away,
the notch has healed and had its day.
So now the heart is as cold solid stone,
and I climb the stairs to bed alone.

© Pagan Paul (01/01/18)

.
And so; Zeus condemned Sisyphus
'to Tartarus thou shalt henceforth go.
Thou hast cheated death now twice,
not thrice shalt thou escape below.

And so; Sisyphus again descended
passed Hades and on further down,
eternally pushing a boulder up a hill
from the base up to the crown.

And so; for eternity did Sisyphus
employ muscle, sweat and pain,
to gain the summit with heavy stone
which rolled slowly back down again.


© Pagan Paul (2018)

.
When the feelings run and hide
and when there is nothing left inside.
I cannot even begin to disguise
the fact that I have cemetery eyes.

An empty shell, a carcass, a husk,
autonomic movement from dawn to dusk.
I will not allow my emotions to rise
and bring back life to my cemetery eyes.

There are words I just cannot repeat,
questions and probing, an enforced retreat.
The shutters fall, there is no compromise,
nobody sees behind my cemetery eyes.


© Pagan Paul (2018)

.
The wind moaned out loud

"oh my ****** back hurts."

© Pagan Paul (18/01/18)

my heart so dark as to shadow thee
I seeketh shade from the opaque
rest thy soul neath a linden tree
smell the life in Grasmere lake

in thy rest a lass wanders by
she chats me up a bit
I see her face as clear as sky
yet something does not fit

she whispers me a lovely rhyme
then turns and bids farewell
'I've loved you since the dawn of time
through heaven and through hell'

she disappears like foggy mist
in the wake of a rising Sun
our hearts were merged in that first kiss
for eternity we've run