Into the valley

A river divided grains of sand
Hour upon hour, slipping through veins
Upon a beach the sunset crumbled
Moons rising in the eddy and tide
Water gurgles drinking in the shadow

Each day is pulled deeper at sea
Each night drowned by company
A legion of waves passed over
Bobbing up and over
The drain wrenched free and the water runs red
every morning.

Washed upon a strange new land
The discovery, a world fossilized
Between a great mountain and the drowning sea
Darkened by endless trees
On fire, the pyre a pillar
Provider of ticklish rages
Reminders from choking gasps of air gusting by
Burning. Escape on foot. Alone.

Climbers slip, falling back
upon the riverbed, desperately thirsty
refreshment from the desert valley
Cruel tricks, illusions. Oasis
Never make it there
Carried back in circles among the dunes

A Shadow that chases shadows
Casting longer to the canyon
Trapping light and screams, echos
every shriek and laugh ignored

The bones escaped long ago
chattering against the wind
Guardians of the peak
Restless rocks flung down
Relentless for the barren slope
Watchful No rescue

Sheepish grin of confusion
exasperating tides whisper
through wind and star lights
Only this mountain will remain
if only the valley can tremble no more

The peak of snow exploded
a gruesome spire approaches
falling blackness, pitch
blind and dizzy
The up is down, down up
Now is soon, then is not

fall upon the riverbed
Hidden in the valley
Everything burns, documented
Calmly nothing to see here.
nothing but this. Looking up
a world on fire tugs and stretches
over the screen, forever

Looking back and the page disappears
Gone, never touched or seen again
Lost in the valley. Forgotten
when the river runs again
Buried by the wave

Empty shells of wordless speeches

Pages turned through the dust
Ink has spilled across the paper
Words. So they say.
To deeds never done
To speeches never made
Toasts of places never seen
and people never met

Stay a while and listen
Or fill the empty space
of others with nonsense
cleverness or viciousness
Attention. Hero at work
Nothing happened
No one needed saving
Indifferent possibilities abound

An empty shell out
for a stroll
Filled the bottle with
a dreadful need
a purposeful hatred
on a voyage to a horrid
place to visit
with no one to speak to
and a song that never ends
blasting on the radio

Quivering breaths
Distractions
Shiny objects, dangling
Warmer. Getting. Warmer

Foggy the room gets
Warmer
Fierce flying object
Convulses

Dialogue forgotten

Shocking. Discoveries
Warmer.
But impossible to warm.

A timer down
Slower. Faster. Done
Slow. Fast. Done.
More. Done.
Done.
Over and over.
Endless ticking
Prodding.
To reach in.
The open door.

No prize awarded
For running nowhere
Faster. Slower. Done.
Exhausted. Disgusted
At dragging
Alone.

Rain comes down
Wind burns the chest
Breathing.
Faster. Slower.

Done.

Never sleep

Just dream.

A poisonous thing.
Some words.
And a promise

Mirrored on the glass
forever
Frozen expressions
molded. As a mask

A mask that smiles
Another to frown.
Crinkled at the brow

The water in the room
overflowing
Flooding. Empty spaces
between the glass

Beneath or behind
Drowns the sinking ship
in a wake of brilliant lights
Stirred up by a paddle

Fleeing faster.
The alchemist turns the air
to mud
Where no one can follow.

Scorched bridges behind
No where to hide
from piercing glances
That never came.

Blank. Divided. Gasping
gulping in the mud
tastes of lavender
reminded

The mirror wasn't always empty
Open eyes walking
shifting
Bumping into things

In circles.
Endless
circles. Repeated words

Never sleep

Just a dream

A contrast of colour

A contrast of colours.
Speeches in languages
long forgotten.
Made impassive, carried
in a breeze of eve'
the ancient tear of happiness
Frozen a time or two
In a glance in the folds

The words unrecorded
in unread tomes
ancient and folly given
veneer dipped in silence
reverence to a natural word

A world without voices
Still has something to say.

Run
Fly, fly away
The fires will catch you
The wasteland returns
Look on my works and despair

Ashes.
A whiff of tar
dries the mouth to dust
where it chokes to embrace
its own lips

Is a dream denied
A dream
Or has it become a nightmare
while it slumbers
burning in sulfur

No exits
No doorways
No tree to climb
No birds to sing
Only a resolute fortitude

Will carry it across to the riverbank.
A beastly countenance.
Stares with softer eyes
where a rose grows
in the concrete world.

A day in the life

A day draws older
lines along the riverbank
wasted away
Fresh are the doorways
and the doors stay shut
Unwalked and unopened

Empty.
On fire
Asleep and choking
within in a furious
cry. It echoes
with no return

Fog

Breaking a spell
cast invisibility
There's a walking man
finding a way into a dream
left the door wide open
There it is right in
your face, Cheshire grin
and there it is going
back into space
And time, vanishes the cat
Only way it happens
if it's a fog
cloaking the ground for
your walk, silence the steps
Seeping under the cracks
and flooding the room
can't see the door
or the intruder
They are invisible monsters
hiding under the bed
make you cry out hopeless
into the night
Because you can't see
blinded by the divisions
stumbling on ecstasies
confronted by the night
and lost in the veil

A juggernaut

Speak to me in rhymes
I hear only whispers
Without the volume turned up
The walls keep out the noise
Slide though the bars the tune

Look at me, I'm trapped
in a circle, running
There are only two doors
to nowhere
Escape is not his plan

Tied down to the mast
Watch a siren song
Burning through desires
A long time forgotten
Abandoned in worlds past

No box to hold it in
A glass to pour it out?
Or it wells up behind
Pushing out two at a time
Seeping out an ache

Thought that wound was covered up

Removed

It healed

As the runner paced
Victory is far away
A lane for no celebrations
Only to keep going
Express lane is closed

Make it home on your own
Drunk on the most powerful
form of addiction
Gets hard to see straight
When the walls are quivering

By sight, and not by light
Shining through the mirrors
No use eventually, pierced
straight through
Crumbled, and shattered

In a million pieces
Careful, sharp, biting
down on the taste of skin
to skin, it never stops
Keeps running for anything

Remember

A shape in the darkness
Follow it with my gaze

A laugh
Smiles. Back.
Bewildered at the same line of vision

A tear.
Wets upon my shoulder
Frustrated. Helplessness
Seeing reaching and restraint tossed in the breeze

A dream
Good one, who can say?
Built in castles of sand
Washed away by tides
Brought back by a memory

open eyes

A vision blurry fades in
takes a time frame of people
are petrol, sleepwalking through
in the hallway
Blasting a tune, beats and keystrokes
Open the window, watching scowls forming
on the highway
Privately a pirate looting them

Repeated track
Here is the hook
Catching on, head nods
Visibly, disappearing is hard strolling
about a crowded room
Sit in a corner, lurking
Ready to pounce, reserved the rights
remain silent, talk with the eye
Evil or not.
Swimming with feet made of lead
in a gated community

Wake up with the bird
in the window
And open up an eye to the moonlight
that was once a sunlight glare.
Wait a while, tinted fashions
will be needed soon enough
to avoid the blinding
brilliant shimmer of a sunrise caught
in a fog.

A hazy sensation
Of being along for the ride.
Drifting where the current moves
faster, slower when a finger curves
into the drink.

Food

There's no food on my plate
Put it back in the fridge
Fasting is easier to do
when there's nothing to say
Pacing.
            Takes.
                       Time.
And patience.
Richer, stronger, better features
Get up, get out, and get to the door
Open and shut, there's a fire to see

Burning the bridges,
Floating ashes singeing the vision
Pops and crackles, remembers an image
Doesn't see the resemblance.
A whole new portrait, or is it a mirror
Bouncing back in a case with a whisper
Rushing the day to its end, sleep for a minute
Take a sip of the river,
Clogs.
          Chokes.
                        Coughs.
is the mission. Stay on top of it.
Get out of the picture. Slip out the window

The door will be open,
when there's a better ignition.

Song of the day

A day perplexing, a night convincing.
Sun still came up though.
Reminder. Still living like a shadow
A ghost in the light.
Disappear when you will.
Vanish without a trace,
Except for the place
where they walk softest of all.
Snarling and cursing and dragging
The people will follow.
Only what they cannot see or know by sight.
It's a vicious invention
To know what a dream is
And not be able to speak.

cocoons

A form once hideous
A monster, a brute, a beast
Now regarded at least
not unfavorably.
In action, how like a devil
of horrors mysteriously,
of terrible disdain
now at least a hopeless mind
casually brushed aside
And what has changed?
No thing. Only the wind has spoke
The sun and the stars still shine

Darkness is light
upon the mind
Clear away the brush
All the shadows are fixed
No longer flickering
Time stopped
Closed eyes imagine
The great and terrible alike
Over and over and over
Watch it all burn
and watch it come back
The light holds majestic,
the breathlessness takes hold
A moment quiet reflected
will boil over with rage
Strolling among the shadows
will have its charms
Is the only way to be afraid
through the eyes

Notes from the life examined

Carved a piece out tonight
Left to drift in a murky river
Babbles a little, or gurgles
No rhythms, no pace, no spaces
Won't need a watch here
Occupies a place, but no time
Every sentiment misplaced
Seconds pass, words are spoken
Yet no stories to relate
A hole would notice
Its own depths
But a shadow does not exist

And he carries the reminders

Step lightly son
In the paths that others do
Vanish in plain sight
Perch in the darkest corner
With the best view
Where a scream goes nowhere
Arrested at birth
A filter for perfection
Would only hurt your eyes
To walk in daylight
A foot in front of the other
Hides the brutality
Behind the shades
Tethered only being otiose
Or perhaps obtuse
In the presence of nothing
Find more than a shiver
Whispers from your shadow

An everyday greeting

When you look through a mirror
Everything looks backwards
When you look through the water
Everything looks askew
When you look through the window
Everything looks clear

A life spent in the looking glass
Bound to be a little warped?
A question, sincerely asking
can only be answered by
the things left unsaid
and a repeated trite politely nodded

Presently the eyes are open
And seated upon a throne
encased in the thickening webs
of spiders drooping upon the pillows
Beside them, calm Impassive

There at once to war
Watching the Hun march off, twice
And there at once to the future
A desolate place this is
Only footprints trampled in the sand
Around a strange countenance
Frozen by the wind

No time passes
All has come to pass
Is it Troy they see
or just the meandering paths
stole through without companions suddenly appeared
What is it that wisdom provides
That it pays so with its price

Confined in these orbs
Unforgotten, vigilant before
Now asleep and yawning open the gate
Content to fiddle as it burns
Now awake.
Not to the Inferno.
Not to Paradiso.
But eternal guides sought in ancient time
Or at least touched by within the month

What makes it so
That a ghost may pass
A web may weave
Imprison into time
And no difference may be felt
Insensible it seems
Between which night would we choose
If forgotten be our fears
And to charge right in and blundered

It could have been a Conjurer
Before and after haunting footsteps
So easily it wisped to being

It could have been a Demon's
Breath of smoke and fire and ash
So acute the moment's flare

It could have been the Enchantress'
Impish grin laughing in memory
So the beauty once captivating as she

It could have been the dark Lake
Deep and reflecting nothing
So empty and cold the feel

It could have been the Blade's
Edge, shining against the light
So eviscerated and bled was he

Twas the smallest smile upon the Mirror's
Face that brought him low
So intertwined were they