The World Without You

The sky was orange, unrelenting
The wake, the waves would swallow hope
In the breeze were vulture's feathers
In the trees, the hangman's noose

With regret, my heart is quaking
With distaste, my friends rebuke me
So the soldier plans his chaos
So the liar joins his court

Love has flushed the cheeks of strangers
Love has washed away from us
Yes, they seek my hastened ending
Yes, they reek from hateful rending

Oh, but naught could e'er effect me
Oh, but naught could burst through stone
Until you broke my inner sanctum
Until you burned my cottage home

I see you dancing with the jester
I see you dancing with your smile
Know that I destroyed your ticket
Know that you are black and vile

Death to all who have disciples!
Death to all who feel no pain!
Can the world go on without you?
Can my life remain the same?

Splendor

As I sit before this crackling fire
My thoughts return to her, to her
I know that she will never love me
I know that it will always hurt
Crimson splashes on the mountain
My blood trickles on the tracks
Then the poet shall be martyred
Then the priest shall march for war
My heart aches for her mere presence
Her fingers pressed against my arm
My lips brush angelic wholeness
Her heart, tha-thumping, glowing hot
The stars that hide in her blue eyes
The oracle slides into a dress
Shoes creak against her floorboards
It was the last I'd see of her
And now the plucking of steel strings
Or the caw-caw-cawing of the crow
Or the sight of burning money
Or the drought of thought surrounding
Or the open smell of sewers
Or the drifting clouds and storms
Or the thunder of true wisdom
Or the purse-strings of a lord
Yes, these and all such wonders
Mundane within the Father's eye
Remind me of the Once we had shared
Remind me of the Then that died

Old Miner's Blues

My lover crawled onto my doorstep
As hornets swarmed around her face
Trumpets scorned my tainted honor
Pianos warned of my disgrace
The ocean parts, the sky is empty
Save for birds and thorns above
The smell of death is what calls them
They smell the death of my true love

Silence thunders in the chamber
As the beggar steals my throne
The taste of summer fills my window
And on my love, the smell of bones
The glades and glaciers cannot hide her
Nor the totems of her home
Laughter leaves her lips in rivers
As she drops her bloody comb

I had hoped to find her lair
With my guitar, my pack of rags
A knife that gleams in harvest moonlight
Where the shadow always sags
I found her lost within my footprint
Stumbling blindly to my door
She pleaded for my own forgiveness
As she died upon my floor

com.position

Traffic jam blues
swerving from
all directions
around Chatanooga
work city in the
crisp summer
comes out to play
round mid-afternoon

Admiration

Mother Earth
A sea of green between
Which the world seems
To dissipate, axis unresolved
Distorted, out of balance
My universe is swiveling

O, loquacious rivers
Between which sense surrenders
A smirk, a heady wisp
Dancer, pure, and healed
Off the medicine
Turned on to knowledge
Yes, I dig it

I dream of a woman
She must be a dreamer
Her slender fingers tracing
The edges of crisp book pages
Pale, with wit and pain to spare
I adore her razor glare

And yet
She is
Taken
By both
Distance
And another.

left upside-down

For the young, love comes quickly
rising and falling in
glorious bursts of crimson light
sweat that rolls from
togetherness unearthed and
hold her by the back of head
double untold hopefulness
teaches moisture in omniform
enlightening and elevating as
eyes lock in perfect silence

manic word-storm

I encourage you to be battered
by the open frequencies we both knew
I'm sitting here, bleeding on this page,
hemorrhaging Kerouac as we talk
and your appreciation
is all I need to feel alive

the bridge stands up and shivers
looking into the evening gloss
there's a hard rain and it's
too damn loud and too fast
to see through the windshield

motorcycles dancing, magnetic
attraction to the trees and
a slip-and-slide mentality off
the starboard bough but
astronauts and cosmonauts
are cosmopolitan, cosmologists

hit the gas
we're going somewhere
anywhere that's not here
mannnnn, who cares