Death Salvage and Inception

Listen to the whistle of crisp
Country winds soaring through louvers and screen
The stately manor and his army of corn
Stand at attention.
His mirror across the road, the
Winding, sun-worn artery of the Northern Neck,
Looks on through four paned eyes
Showing gingerbread teeth
Under a dead Virginia sky.
And then settling.

The twins, a gateway to a slower
More appreciated way of life,
Sleep for 80 years.
They wrinkle and peel,

Crack and rot,
And love every summer night,
Every first snow.

Drift

Drifting off to sleep,
The room cycles through
Fade in’s and fade out’s
My eyelids, strobe the walls.
Fan motors, propellers, the swish of still air
Then silence.

Hush....
I’ve torn my Achilles heel
Running.
Muscles and tendons splintered out
Like the blossoms of the Allium.
The dirt on my lips brings to my attention
The bed of dead leaves I have fallen upon.
I roll over and shut my tired eyes.
A woman puts her arm over my chest and tells me to Breathe.

Her skin, transparent, an acrylic shell through which the organs that make her human
Show though.
Her putrefaction tickles my nose and makes my eyes bleed.
I touch the pine floor of this 17th century colonial home.
Mother crawls up the stairs briskly on all fours and invites me to dinner.
A rotten berry jam in a hand-blown Mason jar.
She warns me of the storm
But I venture out despite her wishes.
The rain pastes wet hair to my face.
The wind whispers promises of a new life.So I find the pier and
Stagger out onto the cold planks,
My frost-bit toes caught in the cracks and breaking off.
In the river the waves batter me
Against the pilings.
I cut my neck on barnacles
And splash violently in the red cloud.
The salt water that glazed my eyes
Ripples the sky above.
I’ve drifted too far this time.
A rushing in, then silence.
Sounds and silence.

Flight

“It makes you a man,” I was told.
And how I felt like God that morning.
The dew had just left the ground
When you passed by
With a lust for life in your eyes.

The sun colored your body
Cream and white. The light dripped
Down your back in a straight feathered line,
Highlighting every curve,
Every perfect curve.
How you smiled with the wind on your breast, the morning air
Warming beneath you.
How did the ground look
When my bullet pulled you down?
I couldn’t let you go.
For I am a man
I watched the sky fade out of your eyes.
Then you breathed. Again.
How could I drag you down?
Deny you vitality?
I remember the last song you sang
When I severed your trachea with my blade.
It was beautiful
How you twitched and convulsed
Dancing on your back
I then looked inside your neck
And touched death.
Oh how I wish I had turned that blade on myself.
Forgive me my friend,
For I have broken your wings, my halo
I left you in the grass and walked back to the road,
Hoping you’d return one day
And hurt me like I’ve hurt you.

For Hannah

Today I listened
To the rain settling on these dry leaves,
The forest alive with
Small animals as they
Run from my entrance.
They came back though,
To see if I was still breathing
Like any good friends would.
A squirrel nestled in my lap
And kept me warm.
He wiped the blood from my battered face.
I looked into his big brown eyes
And saw my horrid reflection,
And I cried.
He stayed with me until the people came,
Yelling and grabbing at my wrist.
I felt the cold from the January breeze
Come in through the cracks in mywindow.
I saw my legs fall limp when they pulled me out.
The sun glistened though the trees
And I slept.
Mother,
I’m so sorry.
I never meant to hurt you.
The curve was just to sharp,
I just wanted to go to work.
And I couldn’t stop.
I lost control mom,
It was an accident.
I met someone in the forest.
He held me until my eyes closed.
He told me that the hardest part was
Letting go.
Mom,
I don’t want to let go.
I’m not ready to let go.

Hello

From within thine eyes I shall
Surface to remind you what’s inside.
When I am near I can feel
Every bump on your skin,
Rising to greet me.
I hear every pulse of your life
As it dissipates into nothing.
I was there when you were crying.
I was embarrassed when you lost control
And wet your thighs.
When you were angry, I bit down hard,
Held your mouth and nose shut,
And you were still.
I wake you when you’re at rest
To terrify and watch you retract
Like a spider
After a hammers blow
Forgive me my friend,
For I have sinned against you and I.
I’ll leave when you exhale.
Don’t let me back in this time.
Even if I choke you until
Your eyes open wide and
Your lungs beg for my return.
Just wait, be still. Blue.
In a short moment you’ll
Cherish my absence.

Inception and Ascension

Three thousand days past, and about
This time of year,
A chill made his way over our land.
Leaves fled their boughs,
Dense clouds mired open skies
And two hearts fluttered around
Tingling fingertips.
Grasping each other as if
A moment apart was an
Unbearable agony
Neither wished to endure.
Seasons passed and the
Flutter of fingertips became a
Strong-hold of hands as
People and places
Cycled through.
Time rotated on his dial,
The everlasting pendulum
Swung from city to city,
Home to home
Never missing a tick
Nor ticking off-key.
And tonight we stand together
My Love, you and I.
The fluttering we feel is no longer hands, but
Wings beating against the
Earthen walls of our vessels.
Waiting to lift us
High above cloud-mired skies.
Above these Autumn-kissed boughs
And tumultuous seas
Where the very root of our being
Is splayed over vast fields
Of light and sound.It is here in the
Eyes of the Divine
I embrace you,
The wings of my soul

Jake’s Song

With one word, one subtle gesture
It was over.
Five young years of
Yearning proved to
Falter, when years
Couldn’t hold their own.
Through talk of
Architecture, the sheer
Beauty of our home,
No one noticed the
Paint begin to peel
And fall away.
No one noticed the joist
Begin to bow under the
Weight of your eyes,
As they twitched and teared-up
As if they belonged to a doll
In the arms of an angry child.
May you live long, my friend.
May the grass always leave
A reminder on your cheek
That you, too, have fallen.
May you shiver alone at night
Without skin against skin.
May you wake to emptiness,
To your own withered reflection.
May the dirt tempt your tongue.
May you never forget
How it rained the day you left me here,
Cold, wet and vulnerable
To the corrosiveness of tears.

Prayer

And the Lord said unto me:
May my name fall upon deaf ears,
may the sightless graze in fields of vision,
and may Thee never forget
that the reborn birth themselves
and the hopeless yearn for decadence
as I am nothing but spaces between molecules
and warmth in the hearts of many.

Reflection

Frost is crystalized sweat
Scorched against a steep slate slab
Here with Air’s mammals Thy lay blackened,
Lethargic and warding off Wind’s vampires
Six legs, long-grotesque snout,
Disease incubator.
Lay Thy head on my lap and watch
The weather change.
Storms bring rain, sun and
Death to the ivy
Wilting, wrinkled skin
Amber tinted nails
You are Time’s Icon
Living to one day perish and
Learning in thy travels that
Earthen acne is a scenic rest stop
Ten days from the pool called Atlantic
Where mindless aquatic insects
Scuttle over saturated sands passing
Lovers loathing departure from a moonlit
Horizon line smothering seas.

Skin

It was January.
I remember the cold and quietly
Peering into the dining room windows,
At the dim firelight that
Warmed the panes.
A lunar eclipse grazed
The night sky just hours ago.
I received no warning.
There was no telephone call
For me last night,
Just silence.
And darkness. That is how
I like it to be.
I was just like my grandfather,
Living out life alone.
Holding only the air in his lungs for a moment,
And then letting that go as well.
it’s mother’s birthday today.
She usually gets flowers, yellow roses,
Her favorite,
Always have been,
But not tonight.
Tonight she likes an empty vase.
With the yellowish residue from
Last year’s roses,
Holding on and growing older.
Never to let go and fade away.
Like the smile on her warm-lit face
When the phone rang.
She and Dad got their coats and told
Me to watch the younger kids.
I knew.I knew yesterday, he didn’t call.

Spirit

Who is't thou
Reflected in the panes?
My perifferal friend.
Reveal now thy face
Marble,
Expressionless
Gray-vein.
For I am lonley,
I speak with canine minds,
Carress canine hair,
So hold thy self high
Dirrectionless sound,
Attenuated life,
Converse with me!
Unresponsive air.