sepulchre

bits of him and bits of her
in dark and dusty selpulchre
no more are they to love or hate
as ash and bone they dissipate
into the ground, into the air
the lives once lived
are no more there

and someday soon
we'll join them too
no more me and no more you
this flesh our body represented
to be returned, a tux short rented
our party over, our time soon done
whether the prize is lost or won
whether we danced or wallflowered
whether we raged or quietly cowered
whether we reveled or despaired
all will end, that we share

titivate

take these thoughts
chaotic and swirling
like leaves in autumn winds
before the storm begins in earnest
before the hail rains down
and titivate them
rake and bag and burn
before the gutters
of my mind are clogged
and tempest worn
and watterlogged
my roof comes caving in

osculate

you come
you go
back and forth
a pendulum perhaps
or chutes and ladders
you trifle with my heart
as though a toy
if your feelings oscillate
why then should we osculate
except to say goodbye
my enthusiasm waning
for this waiting is so draining
while I don't wish to be complaining
I don't wish to be a pawn
in a game I wasn't playing

variegated

color ourselves in contradictions
wear our rainbows like scales
on the belly of a fish
we shimmer and shine
in variegated hues divine
we are all the things
we wish we were
and all the ones
we wish we weren't
and with every swish
we switch

myriad

I wish that I could suppress
the part of me that obsessively
picks and pulls apart
my joy, my ache, my heart
shredding them
for any evidence
of the myriad muggings
the mistakes
the missteps
in hope that future me
adjusts course and corrects

you said my loneliness
was of my own making
but in this undertaking
you were the undertaker
of this misery
I was not the only maker

never would you admit
nor feel any shame
but in all my uncertainty
of this I am certain
I am not the only one to blame

beatific

autumn crinkle and crunch
a papery symphony underfoot
and in the cinnamon nutmeg air
hangs anticipation
plaid flannels warm the body
as friendship warms the heart
and from each face
lit by campfire light
beams a smile beatific
as marshmallows burn and bubble

imbue

I cannot make it live again
except in memory
but there, vibrant and serene
I revisit a late spring morning
the sun not fully wake
but I fully dressed
yet unwilling and unready
to greet the dawning day
I remove my shoes
lay me down again 
to curl against the curlicue
of the still sleeping
sweetly groggy you
just five minutes more and
the rest of my day infused
with comfort and calm
that radiated from a soft snore

I cannot make that day again
nor all the days around it
in reverie I can but hope to imbue
my current days with a little bit of you
a paltry substitute, it's true
but compared to the alternative of nothing
it'll do

domicile

she lived in dark depravity
in dankest domicile
and yet, within her squalor
she built castles all the while
with bricks of dreams of better days
and mortar made of hope
windows glassed with some day soons
and that is how she'd cope
she shuts her eyes against the world,
the mold, the house that creaks
the sad condemned shelter
where she hides her head to sleep
bulldozers of reality
threaten to destroy
the architecture of delusion
and her only source of joy

glaucous

under glaucous skies
the blue-grey eyes
reflect a sweet sadness
and I regress
into reverie of memory
gradations of blues
that gave me the blues
so many eyes defied

frieze

moments of life
documented across
the face of him
the youth he was
the man he made
age and infirmity
cannot erase
from his edifice
as a frieze
upon his pediment
wry wrinkles
describe a time
before impediments

evanescent

a memory of a dream
an echo of a whisper
evanescent perfume
of a rose long past bloom
and withered to dust
the feeling I feel
when intrusive shadows
creep across my room
as midnight overtakes
the lingering dark
without and within

hoick

i worried over the necrotic zombified corpse
of a thing that never really lived
and missed the flowers blooming
grabbed a satchel tossed aside by another
hoicked and hoisted and hauled it along
hoping treasure to find
but could not mine the jewels
lodged deep inside the rocks 
that at the first river to be crossed
dragged me into deep water
and would drown me there
released i float downstream
bounced and battered by rapids
and dreaming of the sea

colubrine

sinuous and sinister
he oozes down the street
a walking oil slick
his arms colubrine ivy
creeping over and around
so you sidle away
but he slithers along
and he leans in
just a little too close
holds a hug
just a little too long
and it doesn't feel right
but it's not exactly wrong

jacquerie

puppet masters pull the strings
and fund the uprisings
jacqueries bought and paid for
by the few
and the rest of us
don't know what to do
what do you say to those
with nothing left to lose
jerked this way and that
by those who chose
to stoke the flames
with hatred and with fear
what truth could you say
that they would hear

ab initio

THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE,
MY ANXIETY:
the words run
on a loop inside my head,
like a tide rising
acid encroaches
inch by inch
until I taste
the bitterness
and the heart does race
and palms do sweat
and every moment I regret
as I retread
and flog the horse
that's long since dead
actions ab initio
should have warned
but I listened to the lovelies
and fell victim to the maybes
and every time I swear
never again...
until I get lonesome

and then...
and then...
and then...
ad nauseum, ad infintum

lavation

oxidized by time
and atmosphere
we change
our outer face
so slowly
we never notice
until we are obscured
so sink
into the waters
and in lavation
clean our soul
let go of all
the worries
and regrets
the bits of detritus
which tarnish us
until we are made whole
again

waggish

beware the ones
with waggish charm
your defenses
they disarm

nemesis

it would be so easy to cast blame
lord knows, there's several
I could call out by name
but truth is, it's all me
I am my own nemesis
I knock me down
and pick me up again
I am both my best
and worst own friend
no one more cruel
to me than me
enumerating all my faults
with a hatred born of familiarity
luckily, my superhero self
resides within me too
to battle the enemy
when she threatens to subdue
all joy and hope
sometimes, I need a cape to cope
I let them fight it out inside
while the rest of me
gets on with the day
trusting (fingers crossed)
that in the end
the hero will hold sway

univocal

murky waters
I can't see the bottom
what wonders
treacherous or treasured
share the briny deep
if monsters like a kraken sleep
to rise and all us eat
i miss the crystal waters
of my youth
less mystery
that's true
but a univocal view
perhaps one day
there I will float again
we who are flotsam
cannot pick our seas

phlegmatic

i have faults, a fair few, i know
i struggle against the stream
oscillate wildly from bank to bank
gullible above, resolute below
broach the giddy, let down by the gauche
wounded by the slightest of slights
fighting to find a more phlegmatic flow
instead of the rapids, the rocks
instead of the exhilarating exhaustion
but when my way i win
when i float along the stream meandering
i fidget and fuss
letting go feels like losing
and i've already lost enough

scion

with leonine grace
she stalks and walks
no scion more regal than she
beglittered and bejeweled
in nature's finery
scarlet of hair, eyes of jade
perfect just as she was made

roister

puckish grin flashes
behind beard and
blue-grey eyes
still groggy and unfocused
reflect a weeping sky
and yet defy all sadness
sleepy sigh swells chest
recharging after roistering
and i, contentedly tired too,
snuggle in to find my rest
in arms wrapped
round me like a vest
rainy Sunday mornings
are just the best

odious

spouting obscenities

hating those

and blaming these

odious and vile

mask of orange death

the mass of rage

impotently shaking tiny fists

you have to want

to be better than this

truncate

ghost limb of love
severed so quickly
truncated truly
and i still feel it
though it's gone
the pins and needles
of nothingness

macadam

summer song sings to me
the thwack-thwack
of flip-flop on macadam
the soft shoe rustle of sand
stowaway grains like strays
at your door, upon the floor
one last chorus before us
before autumn's melody
begins in earnest

vulnerary

i licked my wounds
and hoped they'd heal
but tended them no further
they festered until you
my vulnerary remedy,
peeled and cut
cleaned and calmed
dressed my hurts
and made me
me again
whole again
and you, dear friend
have other journeys to make
our paths diverge
yet take a token
a souvenir
to remind you
on your worser days
in times when you
your own worth may forget
that one, at least, will be
forevermore and always
better because you she met

invective

sure I am that invective is effective
ranting and raving
satisfies some dark craving
spewing venom through a smile
and you think it benign
because the things and people you're decrying
generalized are and without specifying
but your judgement in this misaligned
for implicit in your words
the idea
that the people who hold a different view
are stupid and somehow lesser than you
I never realized how true
or how much your temper tantrum tirades hurt
until that person who disagreed
was me

banausic

alarm

hit
alarm

rise

put on clothes

close front door

subway ride

coffee
paperwork
routine

day after day after day
banausic and banal

and I know there is
a better way

but there are bills to pay

and so I stay

guerdon

i think myself
grateful and kind
slow to anger
and I try not to mind
most of the
minor indignities,
the thoughtless acts
perpetrated upon
and, sometimes, by me
don't always succeed
(no one ever can)
but I attempt to empathize
with my fellow man
i turn the other cheek so oft
my face perpetually is red
but by my better angels
I hope always to be led
the price paid,
the burden
nothing to
the guerdon
of knowing
how much better to be
in our shared humanity
always growing

deliquesce

sugar on the tongue
i deliquesce and dissipate
because i could not anticipate
esteem i built so carefully
crystallized and spun
the architecture of me
sweet but fragile
not strong enough
to withstand
the deluge

empyreal

cloaked in dream
floating darkness
on a tide
empyreal blue
a shoal of stars
swim through
you
twirl into light
waltzing across the sky
led by shadows
and broken mirror men
luminescent ladies
with peacock eyes
smile and you
smile back
a shark tooth grin
in an ocean infinite