Pick up your Markings
discover that reading you
is meeting me

A heart cleaved open
by thoughts never spoken yet
I know them as mine

How can this be when
penned and inked long before I
was even an I

Here they are, speaking
words never written yet known
as carved on my heart

These words resonate
pulsing out, low and long as
water on the shore

Washing over Time
one voice drawn from two strings
as Rilke had said

As is you and I
with one voice burning with words
that transcend all time

Thanks for the giving
back of my words which I spoke
long before I was

And for your markings
guiding me along the path
to the Meeting Place

Where you and I are
one voice drawn from two strings
in Eternal Hands

I walk the stones each Sunday
I leave flowers as I walk
Not for certain people
Just in case the spirits talk

I left a rose for Eleanor
Gone 100 years
Just to let her know that
Someone still sheds tears

There's lots to learn while out here
Walking through the stones
Listen close to all the voices
That aren't as silent as their bones

There are soldiers who died fighting
For freedom they did die
From the beginning of our country
Who now beneath us lie

They fought the revolution
Some fought in Vietnam
Some died lost deep inside themselves
Now, folks don't give a ****

There's many here of children
From the old orphan home
They found them buried out in back
So, there their spirits roam

The grass is kept up nicely
Though the stones are left to rot
I try to clean them up a bit
I guess I'm all they've got

I started out just walking
Now, I clean the stones while here
I give them the respect they miss
I can feel their spirits near

So next time you're out walking
And you want to stretch your bones
Bring a brush down to the graveyard
We'll take a walk among the stones

Do you think like me?
Are we the same?
Our issues and confusing thoughts
Addictive personalities
Thriving on love
The thing we hate but crave nonetheless
Adventurous but scared
Scarred and depressed
But refusing to live that way
Could we be kindred?

today i woke up to a spirit.
i opened my eyes to nothingness, but i could feel the warmth radiating off of the dip in the bed.
at first i was dumbfounded
where were you? could you be the spirit?
and so i fell in l-o-v-e with it.

       wherever i go the spirit follows.
i feel it hold my hand
i feel it massage my shoulders
i feel its l-o-v-e giving me subtle back hugs through my days

       the day you left i fell in l-o-v-e with a spirit.
the embodiment of your memory
the sweetness of its silence

       and if the spirit leaves me, too?
at least i'll be prepared for the emptiness

Two days to go
Then we're into November
Then thirty days on
We start on with December

The penultimate day
Before Halloween Eve
I was visited by...
well...read on and believe

I had just settled in
And was just off to bed
When I heard a small voice
And the voice, well...it said

"Roger, wake up"
I pulled my pillow in tight
The voice was the tacos
I had eaten that night

It said it again
More loudly and stern
"Roger, GET UP"
"You have so much to learn"

I rubbed at my eyes
The room was quite dim
Not sure if the ghost
Was a her or a him

It hovered about
A foot from the floor
"I'm the first one you'll meet"
"Later on, you'll meet more"

I said to the ghost
"Come back in December"
It said "Listen up..."
"you have lots to remember"

"A Halloween grinch"
"That is what you now are"
"Touch my hand, and we'll go"
"We have got to go far"

"What do you mean?"
I asked the spirit before me
It said "I am here to help out"
"just follow and see"

"you once had the spirit"
"Halloween was such fun"
"You would love to go out"
"Now, your spirit is done"

"Halloween is for children"
"Just leave me alone"
Then the spirit reared up
And it let out a moan

"Touch my hand now"
"Or the next ghost to creep"
"Into this bedroom
"your soul it will reap"

Against my free will
I did as the ghost said
I figured that if I didn't
I'd not get to bed

"Hold on and we're off"
"Heading backwards though time"
"To Halloween's past"
"To the scene of the crime"

The place where we landed
I knew as a small child
I saw my old friends from school
This was really quite wild

Trick or Treaters abound
Running from place to place
Dressed in flammable clothes
With cheap masks on their face

I saw the Ranger,
A pirate, or three
Then I looked and I noticed
That one pirate was me

"You loved running round"
"Getting candy and such"
"But, now something has changed"
"You don't like it too much"

The vision it faded
I was older but still
I was out trick or treating
It was still quite a thrill

"Remember the feeling"
"You had with your friends"
"We must bring it back"
"Before the night ends"

I looked and I smiled
At the costumes we wore
Yelling Trick or Treat loudly
As we knocked on each door

"My time it is waning"
"We must head on back"
"Another will come"
"To get you on track"

The next thing I knew
I was back in my room
The spirit had vanished
Then I heard a loud boom

"ROGER, GET DOWN HERE"
I heard from below
"WE HAVE TO GET MOVING"
"GET UP...DON'T BE SLOW"

I followed the voice
To the kitchen and there
I saw the largest ghost ever
Sitting drinking my beer

"I've looked all around"
"You haven't got candy"
"So, I grabbed a beer from the fridge"
"You could say it was handy"

I looked at the ghost
Dressed in orange and black
Where are we heading to?
And when will we be back?

He laughed at me then
Said "You'll be home in time"
"Touch my hand and we're off"
"Right now, you are mine"

I asked if the visions
I was going to see
Were recent incarnations
Of my friends and me

He answered "of course"
"You must see what you are"
The first stop we made
Was up the street at the bar

"See that sign there?"
"A big Halloween Dance"
"Are you going to that?"
I said "No, not a chance"

"I'll work if I must"
"I will drive all about"
"I'll go hide in my basement"
"So, I will not shell out"

"I hate Halloween"
"I just cannot abide "
"It's legalized begging"
"So, downstairs I will hide"

He showed me some houses
"They think just like you"
"Their porch lights are off"
"They hate Halloween too"

"See" I then said
"It isn't just me"
"It's gotten too costly"
"To give candy out free"

"Listen, you fool"
"That is not why it's done"
"Forget all the candy"
"Remember the fun"

"We have to get back"
"My time it draws near"
"We'll stop off in your kitchen"
"So, I can grab one more beer"

We arrived at my house
The spirit pointed and said
"Have you regained your spirit"
"Or is your spirit still dead?"

I said "maybe some"
Then he disappeared
Then the final ghost showed up
The one that I feared

It was dressed all in black
There was smoke all around
It was floating, not standing
Three feet off the ground

It said not a word
But, held it's hand to me
I thought , I'm not going
What was there to see?

We were off in a flash
I knew the street we were on
It was the one where I lived
The street lights were off, wires all gone

My house was in darkness
The front screen was ripped
I walked up to the house
And I suddenly tripped

There was garbage and lumber
All over the yard
Finding my way it the dark
Was really quite hard

There were eggs on my windows
And then a group of kids came
Then I smelled smoke
And then I saw the first flame

They were burning my house
And the others as well
The street was all vacant
It looked like urban hell

The spirit just floated
Did not utter one word
The sound of the burning
Was the last sound I heard

We went on from there
Saw kids at a party at school
The teacher told them
"Remember, our rule"

"Don't trick or treat children"
"Unless your parents come too"
"It's no longer safe"
"They must come out with you"

I said to the spirit
"Not safe? that just mad"
I though of the past
And the fun that I had

"It isn't the future"
"Say it's not true"
"I must make amends"
"I know what to do"

I awoke in the morning
Halloween was today
I got dressed in a hurry
And I got on my way

The first stop I made
was for candy and stuff
I spent eighty dollars
I hoped it was enough

I rushed home from work
Turned on my front light
I then dressed as a pirate
I would do it up right

I can't tell a soul
Who'd believe what I've seen
But, I can promise I'll never
forget Halloween.

Mammy had a cauldron of stories,
And Mammy never lied;
Strange tales about the living,
Still touched by those who've died.

She spoke of a friend who read the leafs:
When babies died, she heard banshees;
She foresaw the cornice collapse,
Saved me when I was three.
She whispered these tales
Through pressed lips,
Would pause to sip her tea.

Seers told her of her one-legged mother
Standing guard at the foot of her bed,
Long after she was dead.

One prophet spoke of an open door,
A one-way trip to a foreign shore,
And agonies she'd bend to endure.

For me, these stories rang so true,
For mothers wouldn't lie to you;
Yet Father said she was a sinner,
Spinning yarns against God's will.
That's not the story in Bethany,
Or the fairy homes beneath the hills.

Are there ghosts under our beds,
In the closets in our heads;
Hovering over marked graveyards,
Abandoned houses and Tarot Cards?

When the unknown night tore at me,
I'd been told I could pray
To the Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Now they're the ones I fear the most,
They're the stories she often chose.