Amendment (+1)

Fighting his very nature,

disagreeing with himself again

 

Feelings demand what thoughts now command

—leaving verse to make amends

 

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: September, 2019)

 

 

 

Sages And Broomsticks

 

The temperature frozen

Old sticks in the mud

New tracks are untrodden

Lost dreams from above

The raisins in darkness

All pits buried deep

The moon shines unfaithful

Recounting of sheep

The doctors watch broken

Your time shorter still

His prognosis a token

Beyond suture or pill

He asks if you’re ready

You say that you’re not

He asks if it matters

You ask if it ought

And into the night

You begin once again

To hurry the ending

To reach beyond blame

And all of the hate

You then leave behind

To warn all those jaded

Of what they’re never to find

“Partisan dreamer

Audience of one

Killer of grammar

Words on the run

Paragraph’s jilted

The undotted ‘I’

The meaning now freed

All language denied

Rhythm of opportunity

Children of hope

Seizing the moment

Not dropping the soap

Stretching the limits

Crossing the line

To beat a new cadence

Time begs to shine”

You want it to make sense

You want it to seem clear

As your feigned self importance

No longer precious or dear

But the only one caring

And that still in doubt

A mirrored reflection

Of what time has cast out

You head off to work

Your laser untagged

The morning unvetted

Coworkers who brag

The lunch break upon you

Again eating alone

The steak is served raw

Chewed right to the bone

The banter around you

Seems damning at best

The shroud that surrounds you

To defile or to bless

“You gain nothing by trying”

You gain nothing you say

As you then begin crying

For that one gone away

That girl in the tall grass

That girl in your arms

Went to be with another

When you bartered your charms

Her daughter is grown now

Some say looks like you

Could it be then you wonder

When the times were so few

You pay the cashier

As you walk slowly out

This bill had been dear

More than you had allowed

With the bone in your pocket

You head back to your desk

As the cry of a mockingbird

Decries and behests

Your pen running dry

As your mind starts to write

On your third eye a sty

Melding vision with sight

And its then that you notice

Hanging pink and in front

And you know that your future’s

A dog that can’t hunt

So you walk to his office

And sit down in the chair

You look at him soulless

And try not to care

He explains “That he’s sorry”

That “The timing’s not right”

He says that you’re valued

But be gone by tonight

As you clean out your desk

A new feeling partakes

You look up to the ceiling

Lost in all that’s at stake

And that feeling is good now

That feeling seems right

As the feeling then pushes

As the feeling alights

You decide now emboldened

To stop on the way home

At the house of that one

You left forever alone

You heard of divorce

You wonder how bad

The damage it left her

Was it worse than you had

As you slow down your car

She stands in the yard

As you speed up your heart

She says “Directions, how far”

She does not recognize you

Have you changed all that much

She looks at you puzzled

As you long for her touch

And you drive away empty

As you drive away cold

And you drive away blackened

From your heart to your soul

But your path is now clear

You’ve just one place to go

As those things that you feared

Have now falsely been shown

And you walk in her kitchen

The door never had locked

Standing there and still smitten

The one you thought had forgot

“Was that you in the car earlier

Was that you, really you

I couldn’t believe it

Because I still love you, I do”

A reward wrapped in burlap

The priciest kind

Where if never rejected

You are never to find

So make just one promise

To then promise again

To be true to your feelings

From beginning to end

“Sages and broomsticks

motherless pearls

Witches who threaten

fatherless girls

New curse of the ages

old grudges remain

A coven of stages

to hide from the rain

And the mark then of Satan

the touch of the Lord

To the death plated sunset

and the winner forlorn”

The trap in this quandry

which you must break out

As with all dirty laundry

to first burn and then shout

As the truth is not distant

a true word never feigned

And the peace that you’re seeking

still inside and unclaimed

So let go of the dogma

and the medals will melt

Your deck full of aces

all cards are redealt

But the moment is now

and the moment is clear

Once the moment is chosen

new joy spun from fear

So to those who will threaten

with eternity damned

Say “Away with your blasphemy

stop where you stand”

Your wings have resprouted

your eyes looking in

A new life has been started

—you’re blessed to begin

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2017)