Sour Ground

Don’t be fooled by antique grace

There’s something lurking in this place.

It has soured both brick and ground,

Inside this place no light is found.

Sure, the wooden stairs are grand

And yes, there’s beauty in the land.

But the dead have claimed it as their own

And day or night you’re not alone.

Should you die before you wake

Worst of all, your soul they’ll take.

So, mirthful child, run far away

Before you have no choice to stay. 

Inside the Haunted House

Close the garden gate against the dead.

Don’t dream of their dark feast.

Though they pound and wail against the glass

Don’t mind them in the least.

Using pity like a velvet cloak

They beg to be let in.

But they envy us our life inside

Like laughing is a sin.

The ancient ones, more calm than most

They are the ones that weep.

When they watch us love or dance and sing

So lost without their sleep.

Those are the ones that break my heart

Because they are not cruel.

Still, I kept the hounds of hell outside

I was not a fool.

Be so wise, do not be tricked

They cannot stand a smile.

Someday we’ll join them, so they say

But I’d rather wait awhile. 

Truthful Reflection

                               

I passed by a mirror just last night

And it made me want to cry.

The pain of living as your whore

Is reflected in my eye.

Where once my face was smooth as silk,

A young girl’s mask at best,

Here and there are lines etched deep

They mark my lack of rest.

You aren’t worth what you have done

This mess you gladly made.

The mark of you might plague me now

But one day your ghost will fade.

I will grow strong and I’ll let go

Cut all ties with you.

Because there is no one that will break me

As you are trying to do. 

Trying to Protect

Sleep, my love, all through the night

Do not rise with dawn’s harsh light.

When they get wind that you’re awake

You’re broken soul they’ll come to take.

Just listen to the war drum’s song

If you can’t tell that something’s wrong.

I know the sun is in your eyes

But my sweet man, you cannot rise.

Because I’m not ready to let you go

To endure such pain, no one will know.

And once you’re gone I cannot stay

To protect your body where it lay.

So listen close, do not be brave.

Just rest within my cold black cave.

And when they come I’ll fight for you.

If you must go then I’ll come too.

In death, then, if not in life

I will remain your faithful wife. 

Praying for a Storm

                                             

The leaves won’t stop their constant dance,

The rain plays hard along.

But there’s danger in the air tonight

This is no calming song.

I sit outside my window’s ledge

A blanket wrapped around

Praying for a silent end

But hearing thunder’s sound.

I’m terrified of nature’s wrath

The threat outside my door.

Yet I am oddly too intrigued

To not wait here for more.

As the water breaches my high brick wall

The world is drowning quick.

So I’ll wait for death or signs of life

Upon my fortress thick.

All Hallow's Eve

Twilight gleams across the sky

The sign that night is near.

I stand with flowers for the dead

Pushing back my fear.

Scatter them up to the wind

Sing a little chant

Hope the dead will rest at last

Even though I can’t.

All Hallow’s Eve, a festive time

Yet I’ve never felt so lost.

I know I yearn to see the truth

Regardless of the cost.

So I’ll kiss the wind that hits my face

And pretend that it’s my love.

Last year he held me so damned tight

Now he haunts me from above.

He had to die, he had to go

To a place that’s bright and warm

But I highly doubt my loving arms

Aren’t preferred to the greedy worm.

In a coffin he lays now

Instead of in our bed.

And it’s for him that I spend this time

Saying prayers for the dead.

The Delusional One

The road to hell is paved in gold

And a heart once warm cannot turn cold.

I pity you these child’s dreams

Nothing here is what it seems.

That man’s smile hides a frown

What’s right side up is upside down.

Love is having tea with Hate

And Jesus Christ is courting Fate.

This is the place you go to see

Most of life’s a mystery.

Not one damned thing is cut and dry

Every saint has told a lie.

And every sinner once was sweet

Can’t you tell such things in those you meet?

Take the blinders off at last

For every present there’s a past.

I have one and so do you

These are things that you once knew.

Get off that horse that stands so tall

Before upon hypocrisy you fall.

To break your neck for pride’s own sake

Would be your worst and last mistake.

The Castle

My life, a tragic kingdom

Is crumbled into dust.

My eyes, so full of steel and pain

Are sure about to rust.

My mind, a fucked up parody

Of what it used to be.

My body like a broken toy

All of this is me.

And here I stand alone again

A fortress hard with time.

With only cracks and broken glass

To assure me you were mine.

Only now the ways are different

From what they used to be.

The roles that we once held so close

Are but a memory.

Where once I was the galliant queen

Now I am the castle.

Lying in my careless state

Because I wasn’t worth the hassle.

When the wind and rain and bitter snow

Once again come near

It is without protection I must stand

In all my stately fear.

And when my stone façade decides to cave

And I am a hill of sand

Perhaps my king shall return at last

To hold me in his hand.  

A Modern Day Atlantis Tale

          

                                                 

                                                This city buried in the sea

                                              Is all that’s left of you and me.

                                               All the treasure, all the pain

                                            Were buried deep in pounding rain.

                                              I shook my fist at God above

                                              For taking it, my place of love.

                                          But some things, I guess, are for the best.

                                             This immortal city had to rest.

                                            Too tired to sleep, so wide awake;

                                            For centuries sitting about to break.

                                            Perhaps the houses weighed it down

                                            And only ghosts were left to drown.

                                            But still the place was magic then

                                            The greatest world of joy and sin.

                                             To you, to me, and to our life

                                             She was like a faithful wife.

                                           Too bad your faith was not as strong

                                        And this love of ours couldn’t last as long

                                          Before into the roaring sea it crashed

                                           The waves upon the earth it lashed.

                                          You could’ve gone, I could’ve stayed

                                          And with the spirits I could’ve played.

                                            Without regrets, without remorse,

                                             Instead I failed to see the force.

                                            And like a fool I followed you;

                                           So pissed, so scared of all you do.

                                       While we cursed and fought and told our lies

                                         Those who stayed called out their cries.

                                       Now both our love and that precious world

                                         Has cost me more than I could afford.

                                        To lose you both has brought me here

                                         And as the water comes I have no fear.

                                            I’ll go and be with what I am,

                                             The happy sacrificial lamb.

                                         Don’t weep for me when you get word

                                            The very act just seems absurd.

                                           Just know that I’m content and bright

                                          Drinking and laughing in the night.

The Club

A piano plays in a room of smoke

The mirrors reflect it all.

Ghosts who dance the night away

Spill out in the hall.

The music’s clear, the voices loud

And why not let them go?

They’ve all been through something more

Then you and I can know.

It’s not so bad to take a peak

At what was once the thing.

Flappers, cowboys, jazz galore

And opera in the wing.

This crazy place, it keeps them all

From the confines of their graves.

All of them have come to see

That Jesus does not save.

So all the fun they feared to have

When life was still within

They indulge in now both night and day

In this place that knows no sin.

As I turn to leave I wish them well

Though my face they cannot see.

Hoping when my own time’s up

I’ll join the revelry.

Untitled

The room is filled up tight, my love

With words we never said.

They drowned out laughter, tears, and pleas

Inside my aching head.

You never want to answer me

The questions that I bring.

You only want to lie and cheat

While handing me a ring.

That simply isn’t good enough

The walls have eyes tonight.

They see the things you’ve done to me,

They see the way we fight.

The windows listen to the final blow

As I storm away.

While the moon lights up the way to go

Since I just cannot stay.

So when you’re sitting in that worn out chair,

The one you held me in,

You can talk to what you’ve built around

Your little life of sin.

Maybe they can make you see

By recounting our last breath

That you’re not strong enough to treat me right,

That I scare you to death.

A Moonlight Meeting

I met you in the moonlight

In a garden made of stone.

Dressed in mourning, drunk on wine

Standing all alone.

Morbid thoughts, they plagued my mind

Until I saw you smile.

How could I stop my stony tears?

It had been a lonely while.

It surprised me when you said my name.

Who knew the dead could speak?

Even after all that’s passed

Your presence made me weak.

Assurance that you’ll be just fine

Spilled forth from your form.

But such words only cut me deep;

Since you left I’ve not been warm.

So tell me, love, if you can

How is it that you deal

So well with being far from me

While my heart just won’t heal?

By the time I made my way back home

What peace I had was lost.

It’s so like you to prove a point

No matter what the cost.

Yearning for the Past

                                          I’m lost here in this crazy town

                                             Watching madness all around.

                                             People dressed in such a way

                                        That invites everyone who comes to stay.

                                              Flowers seem to never end

                                             And every neighbor is a friend.

                                              Best of all, there is this man

                                          Who seems to come from another land.

                                             He sings his poetry majestically

                                         And he taught me just what lust can be.

                                                I see him wander, lost inside

                                            This pretty place he made to hide.

                                         It’s his madness that will bring him fame.

                                           People will come because he’s insane.

                                          But they’ll miss the rest, the bigger point

                                              That at one time he could anoint

                                        His whole generation with the strangest things

                                          And only they can feel it when he sings.

                                          Their children may now yearn to know

                                        But they will never have the strength to go

                                                  Back to San Francisco, ’67;

                                       When the whole town was a brilliant heaven.

                                          And the Lizard King ruled his court so fair

                                         With a secret truth that was always there.

The Double Standard

                                                 Tell me something, if you can

                                                Do you study hard to be a man?

                                               If I can be used to scratch an itch

                                               Why can’t I be a heartless bitch?

                                                 If I have a harem in my bed

                                            Then I’m not a pimp but a whore instead.

                                               Men like you loyal, mute and dumb

                                             But all they really want is just to come.

                                              So don’t tell me that I’m too unkind

                                           Because a change in me you’ll never find.

                                                I’m not sweet and I’m not nice!

                                              In fact, my heart’s as cold as ice.

An Invitation to Stay While

                                              I saw the strangest thing today

                                                 While walking all alone.

                                               A garden for the dead it was,

                                                Though slightly overgrown.

                                          It welcomed me with a friendly warmth

                                                 Like none I had back home.

                                                But once inside I felt a chill

                                                    Seep down into my bone.

                                               The tea set out on a silver tray

                                                  Had long ago grown cold.

                                         Ants covered thick the sour grapes

                                                     Even the air was old.

                                            For years and years this party sat

                                                         Waiting for a jig.

                                          But the dancers tired of it all so quick,

                                               Their sorrow grown too big.

                                           I felt this place was not without

                                                 Its share of souls alive.

                                         But a body with both flesh and blood

                                             In this place could not survive.

                                         With shock and wonder I understood

                                               They wanted me to stay.

                                            It took a while to think it through

                                                  Before I went my way.

                                             Whether I was right or wrong

                                              To leave the way I came

                                            I know if I should change my mind

                                               The place will be the same.