the miss.
I miss your eyes.
I miss your laugh.
I miss the moments you would rake your hand across my back.
I miss the birds, you telling me which was which.
I miss our camping trips.
I miss sitting on the couch and noticing your glance.
I miss telling you more...just one more kiss.
It's all been replaced by this constant ache and perplex
Wondering when you began to believe this had an end
Because all I ever wanted was to be your best friend.
- Livi True.
A Host of Golden Smartphones
I travel public alone and bare
On roads and tracks o’er Vienna fair
People in multitudes they do stare
Shining smartphones in the air
In aisles a standing, upon soft seats
Reading tweeting as horn beeps
In the dark, projecting to the face
Brightened people-oids on their way
Row by row in every place
At stops on footpaths in public display
Thousands visible any one time
Their laughs and jokes seem very fine
Those travelled, the ones without a glare
No sparkle they seem extremely bare
Great talkers, of a very good ear
Could not help but they loudly hear
Plainly visible without much thought
It’s amazing what, to me they brought
At home relaxing, a life that’s mine
On awakening, maybee just before sleep
My mind the smartphone it doth shine
Delaying my fall to that dreaded deep
Delightfully I fill with that multitude of light
Many people happy, shining exquisitely bright
...............................................
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
.
The Raven Redux
Once upon a moonbeam's hazing, as the light in pale streams glazing, bursting through the window's raising as I Facebooked friends of yore- Covered over, rather weepy- I, myself, had gotten sleepy, and the creepy moment hit me with a knocking at my door. "Just a wanderer," I mumbled, "come late, knocking at my door-
Simply this, and nothing more."
Now, exactly, I remember- there were chills of cold December, and the fireplace shared its members as if ghosts strewn on the floor. Desperately in my madness, ever emptied of my gladness from my phone removing sadness- sadness for my dead Lenore- Oh, the pristine, prudent package that the angels called Lenore-
Unnamed here forevermore.
And the dueling, dangling drapes departed as a flitting cape, and I became entangled with such fancies never felt before; so that I began denying; thought my mind, it must be lying, and replying, "Just some wanderer there knocking at my door- Some wanderer come late and simply knocking at my door;
Only this, and nothing more."
When I placed aside my cellphone, suddenly a spooky ringtone rang and sang a tune as I decided I should go explore ... "Madam? Sir? I have grown sleepy, and the moment, rather creepy, has me waning, almost weepy by your knocking at my door. Did I dream you?" I said softly as I opened up the door;
Emptiness, and nothing more.
Forced into the empty viewing, how I stood and tried renewing, in the brewing of my psyche thinking things none thought before; but the hollow void that chose me, swallowed all in shallow poesy, and the wind made my cheeks rosy as I spoke the word, "Lenore?" This I uttered, and it muttered back upon me in "Lenore!"
Simply this, and nothing more.
Running back into the hallway, I grew faint from such a word play, then I heard the knocking rocking louder than it had before. "I will Google late night sounds upon my phone about these grounds," then turned around deciding once again that I should go explore- "Catch my breath and forfeit death in this enigma to explore;
Could be the wind, and nothing more."
To the window I strode, branded, as I looked beyond, remanded, and in landed such a Raven as those Odin did adore. In the opening I gave him flew the fowl fiend in the moon's dim light and made his way upon the board atop my bedroom door- Stretching neck and feathers rudely there atop my bedroom door-
Stretched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this dark bird gave me reason to believe it born of treason and no season of the holiday could alter or ignore. "Let me get my phone- I'll rave in how this night I've felt a cave-in as you've come to see me, Raven, from some far off distant shore! Speak into my phone and offer where you hail from- yes, what shore!"
Said the Raven, "Nevermore."
I recorded as he flitted, waxing wings so neatly fitted, I acquitted him of any common sense I thought he bore; for with what my eyes were seeing, surely not a human being ever since me, here agreeing this vile thing atop my door- This vile thing, a demon spawning hatred high atop my door
With a name like "Nevermore."
But the Raven sat there only seeming listless, brooding, lonely and again he only spoke one word and mentioned nothing more. I rekindled as time dwindled and my phone, I held and spindled out disgust at what the Raven said to me, and had before. May he leave me at the sunrise as most birds have done before.
And the bird said, "Nevermore."
Not recording, now in hoarding all the dark fiend said while lording, I surmised, "This is the only thing within its spoken store, taught from some dumbfounded owner, sending out this bird, a loner, and the moaner must have gaped and raped the one word that it bore- Nestled deeply in its vocal chord where eerily it bore
Its 'Never- nevermore'."
But the Raven, still in treason, had me frazzled in my reason, so I moved a futon stationed there beyond my bedroom door; then upon my pillow sinking, I then popped a top and drinking beer, resounded that this bird that only Odin did adore- What this mystic, cryptic bird that only Odin did adore
Meant in cawing "Nevermore."
I reclined and went to guessing what the syllables expressing in confessing just one word as beady eyes burned through my core; with my iPhone set for finding information thus reminding that the knowledge sought was binding as I laid back to explore; with that binding, blinding knowledge sought, I laid back to explore-
Shall she sink, ah, nevermore!
Then the phone fell from my hand, and feeling sick, I tried to stand but thought I saw the Seraphim come trodding o'er my hardwood floor. "Fool," I laughed, "Your God sent you; by this angel, He has lent you, and in my disgust, I meant to take back thoughts of dead Lenore! Caw and caw, but I will take back all these thoughts of dead Lenore!"
Said the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Mystic!" said I, "thing of magic, mystic, or a thing born tragic!- whether teasing me, or teased upon as you have flown ashore- Desolation, as I wanted, all this horror in me haunted, and the isolation daunting as I beg you to implore- is there balm in lavender- oh, tell me, tell me, I implore!"
Said the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Mystic!" said I, "thing of magic, mystic, or a thing born tragic!- by the Universe created by the God that I abhor- Please reveal the hidden measure of the secret, longing treasure, give me pleasure one last time- the maiden angels called Lenore! Will I hold and be held by the maiden angels called Lenore?"
Said the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Say that name as we are finished, and my use for you diminished as I look upon my phone a way to drive you back ashore. Leave no feather to remember that your eyes like blazing embers this December came, now go and leave from off my bedroom door! Get your beak from out my heart and leave from off my bedroom door!"
Said the Raven, "Nevermore."
And the Raven, as I'm grieving, never leaving, never leaving, still is perching on the board atop my lonesome bedroom door; and his eyes have all the scheming of a demon in the beaming light that casts his shadow dreaming all across my wooden floor; and my soul from in his shadow floating off my wooden floor
Shall find freedom- nevermore!
Blood Poppies
A collaboration with the very accomplished and talented @RichWithey and myself. I hope you enjoy this write as much as I did working with him in this collaboration.
I let my vision blur
As I drift, white car lights cascade towards me
Their lights explode into digital dandelions
Gasoline flowers on the road to origins
Blood poppies
Surreal ancestors of life before death
Ghostlike form arises from the pavement
Leaving outline behind
A trail of lilies, harbinger of death…