The Dove and Phoenix

I woke from a wine induced
sound sleep of tipsy dreams.
Dreams of Vaudeville songs
feathered masks and acrobats.
Everything went a blur
and a shook myself awake
bolting so hard I could feel
the blood coursing through my veins.
Oceans and sea creatures
and distant land between us,
I hold you tighter tonight
in a grip,
feverish and ironclad.
Because sometimes you are all
in the grey world that reminds me
there is beauty, mercy and kindness
even though the stage of life
hosts a crushing amount of pain.
A dove flies as high as ivory towers
and the sparrow
with the heart of a phoenix
rises not with the sun
but is already awake.

For KPG

Ani Difranco - She Says (lyrics)

Mt Royal Ghosts

I’m living in a room
filled by beautiful ghosts,
souls that have passed
though my heart in their travels
    ....and drift.
Spirits vapor and smoke
pressing me to my bed,
I’d have like to have been outside,
but my ghosts wouldn’t let me.
Writing surgically removes parts of you
never to return,
and sometimes you feel the emptiness
of a space once haunted
now filled by nothing.
Ironically, ghosts make good company
just as lonely feels like nothingness
and yet is something.
I would be one to end here
love is most often better
once it’s been set free
I wish I’d said goodbye better
but in wake
my ghosts wouldn’t let me

Soliloquy

With weathered leathered hands
and soft eyes
I build sandcastles in soliloquy
from wine and coffee stained blue prints.
Arches and circles that look back at you
and praise the day despite the distress.
The Magothy becomes a mistress at night
and a silver mirror of midsummer constellations.
It’s been mild on the East coast
barely any snow fall
just the sound a rusted tin
scraping morning glories from street cracks.
I imagine her body rolling from one side to the other
and always found weight on the bed
to be a comfort,
a silent friend that makes everything safe.
Lovers move as do the morning shadows;
I find myself trying to calculate
just how I ended up here
revolving in the barrel.
I was dared into desire’s deeds
and unafraid to up the anti.
I’m in a black parade
a fall of strangers,
as you rearrange your life
for reasons I don’t know.





















Soliloquy

With weathered leathered hands
and soft eyes
I build sandcastles in soliloquy
from wine and coffee stained blue prints.
Arches and circles that look back at you
and praise the day despite the distress.
The Magothy becomes a mirror at night
and a silver mirror of midsummer constellations.
It’s been mild on the East coast
barely any snow fall
just the sound a rusted tin
scraping morning glories from street cracks.
I imagine her body rolling from one side to the other
and always found weight on the bed
to be a comfort,
a silent friend that makes everything safe.
Lovers move as do the morning shadows;
I find myself trying to calculate
just how I ended up here
revolving in the barrel.
I was dared into desire’s deeds
and unafraid to up the anti.
I’m in a black parade
a fall of strangers,
as you rearrange your life
for reasons I don’t know.

Warnings

I should have warned you
time can betray you
there’s a bullet in whiskey
there’s no real heroes.
The love’s a catalyst
throwing you into motion
and before you know it
you’re half way across the ocean.
And you,
you are just like everyone else
you,
you don’t know me at all.
The streets move along
and I dive into withdraw.
I should have warned you
the world’s stark raving mad
my heart has fractures
though my defenses were flawless.
It’s irreversible this time
I’ve fallen a victim
There’s no one to blame here
there’s no one to blame here
So I sleep with one eye open
I’m only night time’s guest
I look to kill at sundown
A thousand things to confess
Just to end up at your front door a
drunken truthful mess.

Unanswered

A shot of life who can open me up
like a wildflower in winter
is something that makes me crave rain,
pinned by the lucid star light.
I hang my head on echoes of secret prose
because it's chemistry I've come to know.
Here I am plain as the day
Between the grind and the liquor
I've almost had it this time
I'm still here
Candy is dandy but the hard stuff is quicker.
That was three hours in chords of the phone
A part revealed as we're thrown
into a tempest of unanswered questions
unrequited and smokey confessions.