I lie down in the shadows
where no one can reach me
My seventh and last
place to hide
The sixth was a funeral,
the fifth when in hospice
The fourth was each time
that I lied
The third was a promise
I made to a girl
That she took
to her own grave
The second a promise
I made to myself
From a vision
my Grandmother gave
The first was the darkness
where I exited that world
On a day that was
cold and bright
Now the process is finished,
as I hide for the last time
In the shadows
—and safe from the light
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2010)
Grief Belies
A briefcase full of sorrow…
the hiding place of tears
One trade to end all others
excuse to lie and steal
The papers hide the story
all documents in vain
As grief belies the glory
—of a life that deals in pain
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)
No Dreams Allowed
Paved over deep,
my thoughts below
Once brilliant shades
of amber glow
The darkest light,
I now befriend
Whose darkest thoughts,
I sought to end
While further down,
the chanting starts
No mockingbirds,
no meadowlarks
Where stillness reigns,
the present weeps
My ashes cool,
my soul retreats
Lodged six feet under
below the crowd
Though sleep eternal
—no dreams allowed
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)
The Magic Yours
You either bend and adapt,
or then you break
The crux in the motion
—your magic to make
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)
New Moments Explode
Like the marathons of my
forgotten youth
I now shy away from the
longer poems
Sprinting restlessly anxious
through the waning light
New moments explode
—the old voluminous tomes
(Flight To Las Vegas: January 22, 2016)
Flashes
Good and bad are truisms…
a qualitative masquerade
Ideology trumping feeling
—in flashes of joy and pain
(Las Vegas: January 23, 2016)
In Conflict
Poetic dyslexia,
the words juxtapose
The meaning in crisis,
where God only knows
Poetic dyslexia,
all feelings collide
Emotions in conflict
—a verbal divide
(Forum Shops-Caesars Palace: January 23, 2016)