Wednesday, August 29, 2012

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. 

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

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.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

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.  

Friday, August 17, 2012

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.


Thursday, August 16, 2012

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.