Days Before Me

I have lost the words
The vowels and verbs
Of my fathers.

Precious sentences
Of hope and desire
Now lie mouldering
Gone
And forgotten.

Phonics of blessing
Are dead in
Days before me.

Breath they summoned
Begging rain upon their fields
Breath used for blessing
Breath saved for desire
Breath stored for welcome
Breath made for gasping the devine
All interred in soil and forgotten.

How came this shallow exchange?

All I've left is a solitary
Lonesome word meaning
Hummingbird.
And in this solitary word
Remains the whole of my grandfathers.

Oh, the loss
The sorrow of
Days before me.

The End Game

The End Game

Remember the sweet blossoms we bore
In the bright
And glorious spring of youth
And our pathless direction
Bound for no place particular
And every place generally?

Do you remember the sun
On our faces
And the moon in our nights?

Tell me true, love
Do you remember?

Snow fell gently in our winters
Melting effortlessly
Come morning's golden sun.

Truly, love
Do you remember?

We could fly
Across wide
Cloudless skies.

Love, truly
Do you remember?

Our feet, my love
Have anchored
And we are now rooted here.

Sweet love of my youth
Here we rest
You there, in stone
And I here, in dust.

Let it go
Darling love.
All is done.

Here we rest.

Your Refugee #1

I am your refugee
Patrolling ditches and ravines
Alongside your roads and highways.

In the dusk before nightfall
I move.
Stumbling at midnight
I move.

Alerted by the screaming complaint
Of your Stukas' siren  
I flatten into the earth
Clawing a shallow grave
To mark my passing.

Scorched earth burns
Along with carts
Mules
Children
And old women.
Men perish sheltering
Their children and wives.

I am your refugee.

PUKA PUKA PUKA PUKA
Your machine guns
Tear the heads from little boys
The arms and legs from little girls
Making them rag dolls
In lots too small for burying.

Get up! Get up! Move!
I implore
But an old woman says
To what end?
Are we not all dead?

My arms dangle uselessly at my sides.
My trousers are burnt and blood soaked.
I must die.

I am your refugee.

Waiting for Redemption

Waiting for Redemption

I yearn breath.
It's been so long since I have tasted life's nectar!

Soaking air through my skin
Through my fingertips
Even the ends of my hair
I drink oxygen from my strands.

I am thirsty.

Last night I stood
In the vex of Venus
Waiting for redemption
To fall
As rain
To the parched earth
As breath
To those dying to simply breathe.

Tonight, I will again wait
Among the toppled remnants
Of what are tokens
Of yesteryear's megaliths.

I will be in the shadow of years
In the tears of deferred hope
In the crushing of the petals
Wanting but to breathe.

Say it, oh say it!
Say the Word
And I shall be healed!
Will me to breathe again.
Bring your magnificent lips
To my begging ears
And say
'Breathe, my love!
I command breath
Into your parched
Dusty lungs!'

Say the Word
And I shall stand again
Breath will be mine
And I will drink the air
Of the first morning
As wedding wine!

Shoes I Stood In

The last time I stood in these shoes

I was a much younger man.

I still believed in attainable horizons

And the possibility of love.

The last time I stood in these shoes

I believed the worst pain

Life could offer was a hard fist

In a soft gut.

The last time I stood in these shoes

I could still blush

When a pretty girl whispered

A few filthy suggestions.

The last time I stood in these shoes

I could chase the sun down

And the moon rise

On nothing but pork skins and Swisher Sweets.

Son, the last time I stood in these shoes

I still believed it was impossible for me

To shuck a blade

And peel the core out of a fool like you.

But I’m a full grown man now

And damn few horizons are attainable

A fist in the gut is the least of pains

Pretty girls say the vilest things

I let others do the driving these days

And a blade shucks as easily as corn.

Things changed as I grew older.

I wear boots now

Hoping they'll make a difference

In the outcome.