Josephine

And her name was Josephine,

she was scarred and tattooed,

intuitive and lean.

She smelled of cloves and ginger,

“Danger” was written on her chest

between drags she pontificates

and lays the beast to rest.

We watch from gothic arches

as fireworks explode into a haze.

Josephine built a house of matches

and turned her back to the climbing blaze.

But Josephine you were good to me

even though landlocked’s never easy...

She was a cyclone twisting ferociously,

her raw fury shook the mountains.

We sat out the rain

and chased the train,

we drift to the forest of firefly fountains.

Goodbye is never forever

I remember as we kissed our last,

Josephine was a meteor over Mercury,

decorating midnight hours with a blast.

Changeless

Remind me of promises that never expire,

spark the life in me that leaps to desire

remind of a night bearing no end,

as innocent thoughts turn into wildfire.  

Please believe me like you do

from my dream of blues I'm true to you.

Keep our constellation changeless,

from the next life it will grow

and lead us to the same coast,

knowing the thing we now know.

It's to beautiful to forget 

to rare to ignore

and can leave you lying,

head on the floor.

Remind me of promises that keep past the day

and the tides I willing let take me away.

Believe in me once from your heart let me touch

the dangers of loving a degree too much.

Keep To The Night

There is no rough draft.

No netting beneath the wobbling wire;

just the thoughts of a doppelganger

breathing on your shoulder.

Keep to the night with me

because it's not our choice who we love.

Angel chains in our remains,

looks like perfect circles from above.

I keep to the night with you

we are guardians,

 we are the truth.

Stop me before I chase the baiting tide.

As long as there is you

and I am there crafting paper tigers

the whisper with you, come the night

is a sparrow flying higher.

I know you are here. 

Catapult

Catapult me straight across the skyline
beyond starlight and atmosphere,
and the blur of buildings and lights.
The breathlessness of great heights
shoots adrenaline straight, no chaser,
to tear through me on a mission
through all the branches,
fueling a mind like a treehouse of veins.
It’s the place that carries me on
down the same old roads 
when it all goes wrong.

“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, soldier.”
Bootstraps or the bullet;
the eventual mantra of the forsaken,
of a heavy mind
and shards of a heart shattered.
To mend the broken limbs,
being baptized by the southern wind
and reminded of treasures that actually matter.

So I inhabit and sculpt the night.
I am a keeper of charms and chains.
In dusky hours I outstretch wings
through the glowing Baltimore harbor I haunt.
I sing that old song about how
“you don’t always get what you want”.
I choreographed this dance
so trust I believe
and know the value of an honest love
and being what you need.

November

This month is mercifully slipping by

reptilian sharp 

with the grace of bird formations.

I expect more from the war

within the the plaster of my walls,

I fall back for a split second

but always walk ahead tall.

I've worn the blackest boots,

my eyes are twilight dark, 

from my soul comes words

from my lips they depart.

My dreams are no longer demolished.

My dreams are rising from the ash,

souvenirs I couldn't part with

are falling into the recent past.

I'm packing a jar of fireflies,

and leaving the rest behind.

No,

it's sadly untrue,

I'll be remembering from time to time. 

Milkweed

Beneath the meadow milkweed
my heart meanders meaningfully
as I turn year by year to driftwood
The doves fly south 
when the iron angels sigh.


The rain is my only lover,
she covers me like a willow
lift the grief
fight for release
I am not suited for the down low.
I dared you as a child,
I pushed you up against the wall.
You raised the anti in return,
not a sound as tear drops fall. 


Please take my hand Adeline
lead me past that sad November,
and the rain carries memories
too heavy to remember.
They pierce the skin of faith.
They burn the flesh to embers,
while pressing on my tell tale scars,
pain and pleasure make my words limber.

Lucid

My lucid dreams are hazy waters

that dig beneath the floorboards,

and I lie and listen

to the riptide tearing towards me.

You came into my life

like a goddamn hurricane,

it all would have come to pass

if I didn’t love the rain.

The road is paved with a glitter of glass

embedded deep in city scarred streetlight

You’ve polished the urban scuffs

and taught me the lullaby of the night.

Mayhem tangled constellations

connect the fibers of our beings

just as the anatomy of our hearts,

keep the lifeblood beating.

You are the love of my life

my tattooed venus and angel kiss.

I never new so many things

because I never learned to love like this.

Your brilliance has been the shine

that lead me to your graces.

In your arms I rise from pyre

and lead you to a million places.

A Paradise in You

A paradise in you
where dragons dream in euphoria
wrapped around dark crystal
and onyx circles.
Your waves have come to glance my shores
at a most unexpected time.
A knowing smile
on the seemingly last chance highway,
where things are not what they seem.
We light a blessed candle
to honor St. Jude
and think only in the present.
Bodies covered in fine honey dust
and the sweat of when night is falling.

Push On

The road is long and the way is hard.
I'm sitting pretty and spare not pity,
in this jungle that is my city
yet I persist on because there's work to be done
and sadness just doesn't seem fitting.
Push.