LEFT EMPTY THE SHERRY BOTTLE

Left empty the sherry bottle
On its side
The effect achieved.
No ties to bind as other
Things that lie about:

A broken radio.
An old
Thread-bear shirt.
A friendship not maintained.
Cluttered corners of disrepair.

Things
Dreams
Ideas

That make sense
And no sense
Logically or practically
Held onto.

Scraped together scattered
Moments of happiness or seeming
Happiness from childhoods
Flower-lined paths to
A cold
Empty street.

Everything emptied

Abandoned

Left on its side.

A lifetime of

Memories reduced to plastic bags in an old

Grocery cart we all push around at certain
Points in our lives when no connection is
Made with others who push their own carts

Filled with remnants of things that may
Have had some value at one time
But are now more precious than
Any treasure on earth.

But we keep our distance--
You don't touch my cart
I don't touch yours.


PHANTOM PAIN

Here I am bleeding again
Taken aback by mortal fear.
Staring at faith
Staged by hope.
Pouring rain on visceral cage
The sound of deep
Calling to deep.

Repressed feelings buried by time.
Epitaph reads on the forgotten grave:

"Here lies the child now grown
His hopes and dreams
Dashed to pieces.
This is where the child died."

Walking barefoot over these coals.
Crouching low
To hide my eyes.
Running through barren
Fields of doubt.

Mystic Keeper
Calling from night.
Tradition calling from artificial light.


I run
I hide
Only to reveal.
The tombstone says it all.

Fleeting glimpses of
White cliffs of hope
Shining on the edge of melancholy sea--
Withered-white
Seeds of religious ideals.

Looking glass tricks the beholder
For in it truth is not seen.
What is seen is graffiti of soul
Hiding the crumbling
cracks of age

The threshold where
Sanity meets its end.

Isolation
a shining steel blade
Cutting deep
into the heart of hearts.
Nothing lives after amputation.
Depending on emotional prosthetics
Phantom pain
When nothing is there.

Taking the hand of trust and grace.
Hope building a fortress for dreams.
Set boundaries better
Than no control at all.


WHEN THE MOUNTAIN
I AM AFRAID TO CLIMB

When the mountain
I am afraid to climb
The ropes and tackles
In abundance be.

In perfect shape
My body and mind
Not a weak link
In the expedition.

But when the mountain
I dare to climb
The ropes and
Tackles are tangled.

In ill shape
My body and mind.
Weakness as a
Spell doth bind.

Hopes and dreams
Of tireless youth
Spend fast in
The spiritually aged.

Strength the glittering
Cloak of youth
Fades in weakening
Jaded resolve.

But in me all common
Traits dissolve.
The bucking steed
Will neer be tamed.

Pigeon-holed the
Misfortune of other souls
Has not been allowed
By my rebellion.

But this resolve is
Not without price--
The foothills of youth
Are far removed

By erosion caused by
Unstable belief systems
Washed away into
Ambiguities Sea.

A distant mountain
I sometimes see--
Distance the deceiver
Of proportion.

Challenged at the foot
Of the formidable sight
Halfway climbing
Only to slip and fall.

Does this mountain
Need to be climbed?
Do youthful dreams
Need to be fulfilled?

When these dreams
Are all you ever had
You wake up falling
Or climbing higher.

Driven by dreams
And gifts and talents
That rage like a river
In the driest desert

Calling home
What must go home.
Holding on to what
Must be fulfilled.

Obstacles that have
Become landmarks
Seem to fade
Into obscurity

Like threats that
Always remain empty.
Laughing at what
Used to bring tears.

I remain standing
Through all these trials
Not unscathed
And a bit weather beaten

Halfway up another
Formidable mountain
Making up for lost time
From a major fall.


LANDMARKS

Established landmarks removed test the fates--
Burning wind in a vacant sky.
Rearranged cosmic hemispheres of mind--
Oracle of day not seen with naked eye.

The need for warmth a thing of the past--
Frigid waters the basis of new-fangled cell.
Tortured derelicts kept from the naked eye--
Oracle of night hangs in days empty shell.

Dubious means to generate a sun of artificial light
But a fling cannot replace a love that is shunned.
But warm rays of sunlight still flow above the temporal
Still hanging in defiance of the 60 cycle hum.

Regain your bearings oh heart of true light
Everything in its place: oracle of day
And oracle of night.


DOUBLE YOUR EFFORTS
& TUNE OUT

Assertion
Clammed-up
On the relay
Second guessing
The balding head
Of old therapies.

The clock says
It's time
To nod off
Greet the morn
With withered fist.
Rationalized fury

Trying to
Replace the
Pimply face
Of inbred
Angst baseless in
Content
On the tether
Of just another

Addiction in a
Succession
Of spiritual
Vices perpetuated
By the nonchalant
Visage of a world

Uncaring
In derision
From callused hands
Caused by
Hard work

With no
Monetary avail.

Hand to mouth
Foot in mouth
Hand on crotch
Crotch saddle sore.


What's the point
Of a worn-down point?
Dull but
Double-edged
Just to prove

The sword of Damocles
Is still hanging
Over the head
Of thine enemies?

Who pop
Their heads
Up over
The hedgerows
Like pictures
In a shooting gallery
At the carnival of
A battlefield distant

Filled with relics
Of another
Dead-end
Ill-purposed war
Of the worlds floating
On the crest of
Mine-dotted airwaves
Prompting viewers
To drown negativity
And to salvage
The positive.

A broadcast from
Bipolar formats
In living colour.

Double-edged
Double-standards
Double-dealing
Double-meaning
Double-minded
Double jeopardy
Double-trouble
Double your money
Doppelganger leading
Double-life

All propagated in
Double-time.
Best
Double your efforts
And tune-out!