Kurt Philip Behm

No Way Out (+4)

The journey kindled,

hopes ablaze,

a future now unseen

 

Moments of ecstacy,

moments of grief,

lost ashes inbetween

 

Cowling on fire,

time a slow burn,

the stationmaster cries…

 

“The tracks have melted,

locomotive’s in flames

—your ticket singed and fried”

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

 

 

 

A Blue Dawn

 

If consciousness is emergent,

where is it emerging from

 

The dualists say… the naturalists say…

but answers just won’t come

 

As the blue hour seeds the dawn,

before the new arriving sun

 

One question hard, the self must ask

—how consciousness becomes

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

 

 

 

The Hourglass

 

I wish that I had cared enough,

to mention once or twice

 

That what I wanted now has changed,

old virtues turned to vice

 

The past left misbegotten,

and future long disclaimed

 

The present what I’m running from

—its hourglass in flames

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

 

 

The Last Setting Sun

 

He defeated his family…

this battle was won

 

The war still in doubt,

a General shunned

 

The casualties lingered,

 fatalities mount

 

Old reasons to fester,

in spite of the count

 

His Grandmother’s death,

the last coup de gras

 

The love of his life,

he held her till gone

 

But after her funeral,

his troops on the run

 

Tents folded and burned

—the last setting sun

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)

 

 

As Twilight Calls

 

Before dying alone,

our choices define us

 

To love and be loved

—to care and believe

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2020)