The Ever After

I’ve tried, digging in my heels

Going too fast down the hill

You’ll come tumbling after

 

Jaws clenched for the blow

As they know

They’ll meet the ground faster

 

Refuse to eulogize the truth

Disinter the call for proof

This is not a disaster

 

But we haven’t got a clue

What to do

With the drunken toastmaster

 

Here it comes around again

The chalice and the truce

Got ‘head and drink it down again

The honey of the spruce

 

All hail, the emperor’s in jail

His darlings diving down the well

To delay their capture

 

There’s no one left to blow

The silent notes

Of the false rapture

 

Assail, the fox has left the trail

The hounds can’t see past their tails

On the hunt for laughter

 

The chase is dragging on

The scent is gone

Postpone the ever-after

 

Here it comes around again

The chalice and the truce

Got ‘head and drink it down again

The honey of the spruce

 

Curtain’s Drawn

In earnest now, the audition starts

Reading from the end to render

The plot a ruse

 

Far removed from the leading parts

Cast the extra acts, reveal

The pomp and purview

 

I scored it for a thousand more

Guess we’ll overlap the scenes

To give it meaning

 

The curtains drawn, you’re on again

Ballasts twist your shadows spin

Around you

 

The cloak and veil your second skin

Raving eyes are peering in

They’ve found you

 

Placed your lines nose to tail

Memorized ‘for you can spell

They’ve bound you

 

Eye your marks, spots on the wall

Fledgling pirouettes fly up from

Dizzy falls

 

Through the scene and out the door

Perfect and en pointe you barely

Touched the floor

 

I scored it for one and no more

Guess we’ll overlap the scenes

To give it meaning

 

Abraded knees the worst you’ve known

The leaded net’s yet to be thrown

Around you

 

Your vision wise yet never seen

The bone exposed its naked gleam

Confounds you

 

Story line is still too raw

Painting scenes you never saw

Astounds you

 

In earnest now, the curtain falls

The trial’s run its course and rendered

The plot a ruse

 

Far removed from the leading parts

Scratch the extra acts reveal

The stark and virtue

 

I scored it for a thousand more

Guess we’ll overlap the scenes

To give it meaning

 

Curtains close you’re off again

Ballasts still your shadows spin

Around you

 

The cloak and veil your second skin

Raving eyes are peering in

They’ve found you

 

Placed your lines nose to tail

Memorized ‘fore you can spell

They’ve bound you

 

Lamentations are Lacerations

They keep your faults, around their necks

And they rub them like dark, potent amulets

 

Spite and scorn, turned inside out

Shows the stitches of misgiving and tags of doubt

 

Apologies they aren’t always a state of grace

When they’re dusted off and rolled out

Just to save face

 

The breaking up, of the ice

Has left you drifting on floating bad advice

 

Leave the crow, on the fire

Rather starve than come clean as a liar

 

Your glowing eyes and their unassuming grace

They eclipse the scars of lies

That criss and cross your face

 

Lamentations are lacerations that the heart implores

With each succeeding, stinging cut it just beats for more

I’d like to help you patch the wound

And slam the door behind you

 

We’ll make a hole, and throw it in

And promise not to dig it up again

 

Spite and scorn, turned inside out

Shows the stitches of misgiving and tags of doubt

 

Apologies they aren’t always a state of grace

When they’re dusted off and rolled out

Just to save face

 

Lamentations are lacerations that the heart implores

With each succeeding, stinging cut it just beats for more

I’d like to help you patch the wound

And slam the door behind you

 

 

Summer Pond

From the dark, throw the meal

Water boils, cast the reel

Light the fuse,

‘fore the thunder peels

Hope this finds you well

Summer pond, will you

Stay

With me

 

New, new Colossus Blues

Cast out

Pulled from the sea

Sinking

Exile breath free

Console

Mother

Straddles the sea

Golden

Door welcomes me

Console

 

Spear

Licking wounds from cushioned falls

Is not enough to know the taste of pain at all

To betray is simply to change

The path transcribed into your veins

Yellow ribbons tied to the posts

They’re faded white, so many ghosts

 

There were no lies, just differences in interpretation

Only stark decisions for us to make

There was no chance of mindless repetition

The dead prevented reshaping past mistakes

 

Rolling stream beside the road

Molten steel and blood, and black liquid gold

Every home fears our approach

Good intentions shot full of holes

 

Waste no time posing questions to wooden faces

Or rest content till the truth unfolds

Try to wedge into all the tiny places

Like water, when frozen it cracks the stone

 

Hands are calloused from their wringing

The metal is hard and cold

 

We’ve learned nothing from our progression

Made the spear much easier to throw

Hope you’re watching and deciding

When it’s your turn you’ll take a different road

 

The phony dove has been released

It’s talons sharp, no eyes to see

No branch in tow, no branch to rest

It’s plunged its beak into its chest

 

There were no lies, just differences in interpretation

Only stark decisions for us to make

There was no chance of mindless repetition

The dead prevented reshaping past mistakes

 

Hands are calloused from their wringing

The metal it’s hard and cold

 

We’ve learned nothing from our progression

Made the spear much easier to throw

Hope you’re watching and deciding

When it’s your turn you’ll take a different road

 

Passerine

The nest is lined with holes

Snake skin blazes warning

 

Last night safe at home

Windows taunt the morning

 

You’re on your own

You’re not alone

 

Passerine

Here’s how it all begins

Take off unknown

Once overflown

End unwritten

Now bring it in

 

You know it only glows

When it’s barely burning

 

Can always paint it gold

When the grey is turning

 

You’re on your own

You’re not alone

 

Passerine

Here’s how it all begins

Take off unknown

Once overflown

End unwritten

Now bring it in

 

Predator

Knew the danger ‘fore you took aim

Wager pleasure on your pain

 

Of all the times to hit your marks

Ruts of sharpened scorn smoothed to dull blame

 

The predator and unwilling prey

I guess it’s your grace to give away

 

I’d tell you you missed me but that’s your intent

Targeted stunt show how close you could get

Headlights and steel and a roar of contempt

Our blessings were carved from our innocence

Honor your lapse with my gratitude

More of the same comes to you

 

Feared your tracks were a crooked frame

Despite your lucky miss, you’d never be the same

 

You left the scene to remember you by

Now I’m inclined to do the same

 

I’d tell you you missed me but that’s your intent

Targeted stunt show how close you could get

Headlights and steel and a roar of contempt

Our blessings were carved from our innocence

 

How hard it was to

To be naïve too

What you already knew

More risk makes a better game

Made your gamble

You knew you could play and I’ll stay

Right here at home

 

The predator and unwilling prey

I guess it’s your grace to give away

 

I’d could thank you for the lesson learned

Or light my own flame and let you feel the burn

 

I’d tell you you missed me but that’s your intent

Targeted stunt show how close you could get

Headlights and steel and a roar of contempt

Our blessings were carved from our innocence

 

How hard it was to

To be naïve too

What you already knew

More risk makes a better game

Made your gamble

You knew you could play and I’ll stay

Right here at home

 

Fence out

When we’re, all in

And cutting out pictures of faces

We’ve lost to time

We’ll keep hiding

And hoarding our strength with our share

Until it shines

 

With open arms, meet the imposed will

And downcast eyes, bid the lips be still

 

And we close the gate

Fence out the exchange

Perhaps it protects us

But it works too well.

 

Board up the booth,

Got no tickets to sell

To the shoe-string charade

Got no stories to tell

You listen long, you listen well

It’s your turn the parlance is stale

Perhaps it protects but it works too well

 

 

No one stops

To taste what we’ve grown to expect

Is lost on the vine

Furrowed dreams, bleed

Until pillows are full and betray

Our empty heads

 

Blowing rings of smoke,

One for each lost year

Can’t help but choke

Trying to fake the tears

 

And we close the gate

Fence out the exchange

Perhaps it protects us

But it works too well.

 

 

Board up the booth,

Got no tickets to sell

To the shoe-string charade

Got no stories to tell

You listen long, you listen well

It’s your turn the parlance is stale

Perhaps it protects but it works too well

 

 

Orbit Bound

Once for all we saw

The slow rise and the fall has won

It’s done

The taming of the sun

Flaring out in hiding

It’s down, unwound

The orbit it’s still bound

Bound to the dark and distant

To turn, return

The stellar lantern burns

 

Once for all we saw

The slow rise and the fall has won

It’s done

The taming of the sun

Flaring out in hiding

Its down, unwound

The orbit its still bound

Bound to the dark and distant

To turn, return

The stellar lantern burns

Burn off the daylight

Burn away wick to finally set free

To see, set free

Freehand the meaning

The last leaves on the tree

Treelined twilight

Tree bending softly over to the saw

Is all we saw

The slow rise and the fall

 

Signing off

Signing off again

I don’t know what’s happening

I don’t want you looking in

On what I fear is setting in

 

I have always known

That I would see you again

A false web I’ve had to spin

With no thought of falling in

 

We’ll run, run till we fall

Then we’ll try to make sense of it all

 

I have always wished

That I could reason

A place we would meet again

When this earthly life ends

 

A pearled paradise

A gilded Elysium

With all that we’ve loved at hand

An eternal reunion

 

We’ll run, run till we fall

Then we’ll try to make sense of it all

 

I have always wished

That I could reason

That we would be born again

A journey that never ends

 

Our love remains

Sustained in a second skin

An oak at the river’s bend

A swallow on the wind

 

We’ll run, run till we fall

Then try to make sense of it all