Stand on the edge and look down ....

























It is so far down that reality blurs
into an abstract haze.

Is it solid ground,
soft verdant green
that will envelop you in its caress as you land?

Is it hard concrete that waits
to shatter-splatter you into a liquid pool?

Is it that empty eternal void
you tumble into night on night,
as you clutch at your throat,
as you gasp for that last, lingering breath?

Perhaps it is Death
that awaits you in his welcoming grasp?

Stand on the edge and look down …















The ground is giving way beneath your feet.
Your heartbeat rises to a crescendo in your chest.
You cannot breathe.
Frantically, you grab at the cloth by your neck.
Your legs are weak.
You feel the earth crumbling away.
Your eyes stare wild and wide.

A scream echoes ghastly, panicked,
reverberating around you
in a maelstrom of despair.

Is this your voice?

Stand on the edge and look down …

















only scant seconds remain.
What will you do?

Dare you step back?
Can you will your shrieking mind to comprehend, to obey?
And if you do,
are you safe?

Reach behind you,
go on, you can ....

Feel it?
The wall, rough and damp?
Touch it,
grasp at it,
your scrabbling fingers
shredded and bleeding from the sharp rock
it doesn't matter.

Find a purchase
and drag yourself towards it,
rest your clammy face against the rough-hewn stone,
caress the damp rock with your cheek,
ignore the ****** tears that course down your face,
breathe again;

Your chest heaves,
your mouth agape
drawing in draughts of cold air.
The pounding of your heart lessens.

Now close your eyes,
sleep, sleep ...

a moment ago:
I was born,
gasped my first
lungful of air.

a moment ago:
I took my first steps,
uttered my first words.

a moment ago:
I realised I could
disagree
with what I was told to know.

a moment ago:
I began to doubt
my own hypotheses.

a moment ago:
I loved you
with every sense
and every emotion.

a moment ago:
you rejected that love,
casting me to despair.

a moment ago:
I realised I could never trust
those who feigned to care.

a moment ago:
I left this life
to its bitter devices.

a moment ago:
you expressed regret.

now the moment has passed ...

I wrote a poem on a bus
but to hear it you must
climb to the top
of the bouncing metal stairs.
  
Slither snake-like
past the rail
and sit
on the rainbow nylon bench.
  
I'll be there
at the top of the bus,
reciting my rhyme,
written as we ride along,
past shops and houses
with musty nets
and peeling paint
on dingy doors.
  
There's the old woman who
lives in a house no bigger than a shoe box
who had so many children she didn't know what to do!
But they've all grown and flown now and she's all alone
with no-one to talk to but herself.
  
Look at that kid: grimy smile and mischievous eyes,
skateboard-scuffed knees,
darting out from the roadside.
Screech!
As we stop and angry words.
The kid glances back and tosses a vee
leaving just his smile behind.
  
The bus lurches on
at a snail's pace and stops at a stop
for a giggle-girl-gang
to chatter up the stairs
with a clatter of feet and voices:  
weekends and boyfriends,
music and laughter.

The bus trundles and sways
past shops all shuttered,
old folks gathered by doorways
talking about people
dead and forgotten ...
except by them.
  
Into the town now:
a river of road-rage
as our bus ambles onward
toward car-parks and markets
and rat-racing shoppers
  
And stops by a brown pigeon-stained temple
of public philanthropy,
a gift from a long-dead civic leader
and now proud home
to dogeared tomes of PC persuasion.
  
Our bus, like some Trojan horse,
disgorges its riders
who spatter and scatter
like rays of dawn light
to shop till they drop.
  
So, just me and you seated
atop the steel stairway
and you say to me sharply,
“So where's your poem then?”
I look at you strangely:
“It's happened around you,” I tell you quite curtly.

As a dark flash,
a mere flicker in my mind's eye
does she come to me.

Her breath,
light as a spirit's passing,
is cold as death
as her lips brush mine.

And I draw in that sweet breath
feeling its chill course through me
tantalising my senses.

Her hand lightly brushes my cheek;
a gentle caress that wakens my
deepest needs.

I reach up to enfold her in my arms
as though seeking to embrace the wind
and, wraith-like, does she melt into me
inside my mind and body all.

And our passion is all consuming,
her desire and mine,
as we journey beyond this world
to the ethereal plane.

Now nothing more tangible
than a wisp of cloud
that crosses the moon
and reaches out to the stars.

I hold her in that eternity
where time has ceased its onward path,
her hand in mine, fingers entwined,
the moonlight warming us.

And then in a heartbeat she is gone.

I look about
and glimpse a single black feather
dancing on the wind.

At day’s first dawning
I held you close and touched your heartbeat
as the new sun rose over
a green and verdant land.

We walked hands entwined
across grassy pastures and laughed
at the comic antics of brightly coloured birds
who played in the warm breeze
that tugged at your hair.
And I saw the sunbeams dancing in your eyes.

I plucked a bright fruit from a new-grown crop
and we shared the sweet flesh,
savouring its aroma
and I gently wiped your soft cheek
then kissed you, tasting its juices on your lips.

We watched from high above
as fantastical sights unfolded below;
great stone temples looking to the sky,
great cities rising up from the plains
but you turned away from these,
hiding your face against my chest
as death swept across the once green pastures.

Your tears fell for those lost and those left behind to mourn
so I took your face in my hands
and my lips soothed away those tears
and calmed your sad heart.

And now we walked a strange land,
your arm linked with mine,
along straight roads,
through streets hidden in shadows
cast by towering structures of concrete and glass
and the skies cut by craft that left billowing plumes in their wake.

We came across a barren place
where the stench of death hung in the late afternoon air
and you gripped me tight, looking into my eyes
that mirrored the sadness around us.
We saw small faces lost among the ruins,
deadened eyes, ghostly pale,
and I wished for that bright dawn again.

But now the sun was low and slipping beneath the far horizon;
day’s bright warmth gave way to the blackest of nights
save for a few glimmering stars high above
and icy chills clawed at the land below covering it with deepest frost
burying beneath its crushing weight the misery we had seen and felt.

I held you close to me and grasped starlight with my hands
and in its silvery warmth we held each other,
your soft breath on my face,
waiting for the new dawn.

Your ******* gently caress your face
precise in their touch
rhythmically moving upward
to come together;
herald of a new day …

Your dark hours
caress me, hide me, protect me,
I adore your silence
save the gentle pulse of you.

I need with a black passion
to hold these moments forever,
to stop your onward journey into the light of day
for this morning must never come.

But my efforts can never bear any result
for, even if I could stop your relentless march,
you serve a greater master than me
and to stop that celestial dance
is beyond any possibility.

So I know what I must do
and smile at the simplicity of it …

It is I who must withdraw
from this unending journey
of dark into light...

One grain, one taste,
stretches every minute, every second;
you slow your caresses,
the celestial dance ceases,
the black night settles over me…

I have bid farewell to morning ...

Blood-red
you are the
essence of all
that is ******,

a passion
unbound by morality,
sweetest smelling,
your satin skin
begs for my caress.

Such heady perfume
draws me closer
fills my lungs,

my eyes closed basking
in the Aphroditic aura of you,
swooning as you caress my senses;

to hold you,
possess you is all
I know ...

Reaching out
pleading,
begging,

my hand enfolds you ...

Your barbs
pierce my skin
blade-drawn, my blood
oozes gently out,
mixes with your satin touch,

its rich aroma
startles my perception
awakens me.

My hand jerks open
and you flutter earthward
to lie crumpled and torn
on the ground
consecrated by my blood,
my complete forgiveness given;
your beauty, your passion deserves no less...