Faces in the News
Set aglow on a winter's night
Bursting into amber flame
Combating eerie, mournful light
Darkness to which none lay claim
Huddled by the bricken ingle
Crouched upon a tired knee
Weathered fingers fold and mingle
Crumpling gossipy decree
Balled up in crinkling complaint
Laid upon the ashen floor
Serving to grow a spark so faint
To the warmth that all implore
Every row of text contorted
Stony faces in the news
Lies and hate and crime reported
Melted into inky blues
An ode to one who remembers
A greedy consuming roar
Cast away in floating embers
Smoky ghosts of modern lore
Every word is lost by morning
Where only ash remains
A modestly potent warning
To the press' bitter stains
Paradise
Dreaming we were sea
Swirling cloudless uncertainty
Daft to silken hands
Caressing us as we fall
Chaos holds a steady reign
As we fly against the moon
Holding fast against the light
Things are different tonight
Swathed in melted stars
You look so divine
Fallen drops of sunlight
Mellowed cosmic cascade
Plunging further down
Leaking from the sky
Like stars betrayed
Too lost to feel afraid
Heathens they become
Bound to immortal gloom
That the goddess of promises
Has failed to make right
Impenetrable paradise
Squandered long ago
We only see it now
Hidden in cruel delight
Salvation is a ghost
A shadow of the sun
Some may never see it
Until the time has passed
There's something about change
The unruly knight of time
Laughing in the face of fortune
Clashing with the known
There's something about change
Jesting at predictability
Severing bonds of promise
Spinning webs of progress
To dance in the streets of madness
And relish petty ire
There's something about change
Keening for lost desire
Hardened by blood and coin
Corrupted by lust of men
Cosmic fingers clench tighter
Steady lies the master
Kings enslaved and helots crowned
There's something about change
A cosmic confluence
Entwining time with fate
melon runners
Bump, thud and rumble
The melon runners take a tumble
Like a bullet from a gun
Up and down the stairs they run
Leaping high to catch a bug
Scrunching up the area rug
They awaken when their master calls it a night
After they've lazed all day in sun's light
Yet who can be the master
To agents of disaster?
Creatures designed to rule and roam
And saunter about a home
Creatures unnatural in their construction
Masters of chaos and destruction
Committing acts that physics should not allow
For one that weighs eight pounds and says "meow"
loss
Sun's flames reduce to embers
The sky is no longer blue
Darkness casts a silver eye
And in it I see you
Stars encrust the darkness
Among them you travel far
Still, there is a place you remain
Grasped by aching love
Deep within the ocean
Floating in the sea
Misty air surrounding
Will you come back to me?
Steady beats a bleakened heart
Empty in all but grief
Heavy is the chest surrounding
Yearning for relief
Birdsong beckons the day
Before the umbra is complete
Lithe rises the dawn
Darkness admits defeat
Shrouded by dappled light
In a kingdom free and vast
Welcomed by familiar hands
And finding peace at last
Running in the meadow
Dancing in the grass
Golden light surrounding
At least I know you're free
somber freedom
Down sets the sun
High rises the moon
Darkness casts a silver eye
And in it I see you
Where have you gone?
Will I see you again?
Ghost within the shadow
Held in memory
Deep within the ocean
Floating in the sea
Misty air surrounding
Will you come back to me?
Tendrils of light draw near
Lithe rises the dawn
Skies gray and shadowed
Grace us with a yawn
Strange feels the heart
Empty but still full
Always kept alive
By memories within
Running in a meadow
Dancing in the grass
Golden light surrounding
I know that you are free
Winter Light
Cast upon the snow
Shines a somber light
Soon the moon shall rise
Beckoning the night
Low lies the sun
Weary to the bone
Succumbing to darkness
A stranger to the throne
Steady reigns the umbra
All becoming shadow
Star speckled blackness
Casts a ghostly glow
Clenched by icy fists
A time of plenty quelled
Silence fills the land
Barren and bespelled
stuck
Caged within bonds of bone
Aches a thrashing heart
Spiteful and merciless
To sleepless eyes and leaden limbs
Murky darkness presses hard
Yielding little solace
Beneath the crushing weight
Bows the weathered spine
Upon a humbled back
The lashes never stop
A poison to imagination
All so devastatingly mundane
Infected by a crazed heart
Grieving what never comes
The frightened mind becomes ensnared
Drowning in its own creation
A sea of darkness
Swallows the withered soul
Combated by a light so dim
A single candle on the darkest night
Bedraggled hands thrust upward
Fighting to reach that light
A promise for something better
A guide within the mist
The glow grows larger
Any escape is heaven
Ragged bone grows hostile
Fighting for what could be
the biggest road
Glimmer in a mother's eye
Upon the first breath a stubborn cry
Soothed by a loving hand
Knobby knees and gangly legs
Every day is its own wild adventure
The world is a wonderland
Time passes and adventures thin
A path once wide is suddenly narrow
And none seem to understand
No feat will ever sustain
Where none can slow down to see
The world has become bland
Ever present pleasure and pain
Course through the spindly fingers of time
Falling back to murky sand
Sanctuary for cats
Finally got that novel published
I never thought I would
Never mind the fact
It really made a fortune
At first I was elated
For adventures that awaited
Until the day I woke and thought
What's it all for?
For a while I pondered
Alone I paced and wandered
Until I finally saw
My destiny before me
A sanctuary for cats
We'd never have any rats
And all the cats without a home
Would never be alone
They could come as they please
And slink around with ease
And sleep before a roaring fire
In winter's longest nights
Beside great windows they'd rest
Knowing nothing but the best
And and eating delicious meals
Prepared by a full time chef
A library or a bookstore
For passerby to explore
That would do quite nicely
I've never wanted more
And as people choose their book
Down upon them cats will look
Curled up proudly with half moon eyes
We the guests within their home