War is not a career
—but a calling
Where dreams become martyred
in cold blood
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Never Destitute
In the darkest final hours,
I began to write
And my words once spoken new
from scattered ashes light the sky
To begin and end each day
caught up in beauty’s distant wake
All loneliness filled by pages lined
with happiness and joy
My fate betrothed, once mistress
scorned
—a lover more than wife
Whose vision so much sharper,
her dissection cuts through bone
To slay the muted dragon’s fire
in present tense delight
Beyond all past and future clouds
above the darkening storm
To mate each breath and gifted word
that heaven sends unwed
Never destitute in blessings shown
—or in things I wish I’d said
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Last Domino
To change one word and rock the world,
a verse now dancing free
Its weight unmeasured, breadth untold,
whose key unlocks the dream
The bottle open, the genie gone,
last domino to fall
One word pulled out, or inserted in
—new meaning to enthrall
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Dragons Caught
The tightness of the words
protects the freedom of the thought
Whose voice when spoken gently
—can silence thunder and dragons caught
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
Calling Inward
Are your wishes scribed in combat,
are your hopes relined with pain
Is your motion found still wanting,
as you climb the stairs again
Are your words now of this moment,
is your verse free and sincere
Are your feelings calling inward
—from a heart that’s yearning dear
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)
A Choice
To those who seek acquaintance,
I can’t and won’t befriend
No time that isn’t mortgaged,
no hearts will I defend
Each day begins and ends
with gifted words upon the page
My blood lay rediscovered,
new memories to age
My spirit lost within the Muse,
my shadow running free
Her fond acceptance zero-sum,
her voice my destiny
To those who say they know me,
my verse they must have read
That person lost before the scribe,
much better left for dead
And in the moment present,
where all things take their place
I give myself back to a choice
—no friendship can replace
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2019)
To Rage And Roar
My pen restrained and kidnapped,
but ink bleeds evermore
Voices cry: “Something More Be Done”
—fury to rage and roar
(Villanova Pennsylvania: Dreamsleep-February, 2016)
Impavida
Blood in my fountain pen,
phrases in my gun
Blasts of rapid insight
—words that never run
(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)