Kurt Philip Behm

Unredeemed (+2)

Are you hiding inside your writing,

making it impossible to see what you mean

 

Camouflaged words based on muddled intent,

to confound, confuse, or mislead

 

Is it cryptic or gibberish in nature,

your attempt to impress with your scheme

 

Are your words still unlived as you write them all down

—unpurposed and left unredeemed

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2020)

 

 

The Mask

 

Do you synthesize your anger,

do you cauterize the burn

 

Do you anesthetize the wonder,

as your dreams are drugged and scorned

 

Is your judgment tempered badly,

with emotion fiery hot

 

Is your vision colored madly,

by your choices—sold and bought

 

Does your music play reclusive,

do your words fall off the page

 

Does your ego feed that last excuse

—a mask you can’t explain

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)

 

 

Death In Bloom

 

It was the 3rd day of the battle,

and thousands lay dying or dead

 

Lining the edge of the smoke and chaos,

the roses and daisies were spread

 

The screams in the night were ungodly,

 sounds of cannon fire ruling the day

 

With blue and grey bleeding side by side

—the flowers in joyous array

 

(Gettysburg Pennsylvania: March, 2020)