Killing The Past (+2)

I knew you were coming,

  as I walked across the cell

  still in chains

I knew you were crying,

  as the guard called out three times

  announcing your name

Your silence was deafening,

  as my final meal

  was delivered at last

The time intensifying,

  the markings on the wall

   —killing the past

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

In Search Of My Own

I traveled from Essex

  to the kingdom of Wales

  in search of a family tree

And passing a cobbler

  I then was reminded

  what these shoes really mean to me

I’ve walked and I’ve walked

  and I’ve searched and I’ve searched,

  for a name more than mine on loan

And through leather worn thin

   these sparse clothes that I’m in

   will walk to China in search of my own

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Left To Brew

The daylight hid from the nighttime

 like a rabbit from the fox

As the sun ran through my memory

 freeing moments that were locked

With twilight came a foretelling

 and its darkness swearing true

But a light still burns inside me

 —from a promise left to brew

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2018)