Paradise
The light is growing dimmer
I cannot feel to cope
I hear less than a glimmer
of the prayer we call hope.
At night we clocked the bold stars
Felt waves of sweetened pine
Traced out maps of ancient scars
through tears that soothed like wine.
I dreamt I still might find you
We’ll ride that mountain train
Where comets trail behind you
and moonlight pours like rain.
Come watch that golden glory
Attend the sky with cheers
It shimmers like a story
told for ten thousand years.
Her midnight eyes are glowing
I swear they shine for me
And stardust keeps on flowing
where heaven used to be.
I pace the halls like a zombie leaking
blood and fire:
It must have been the fog, injecting a
disease I cannot bear.
But when I tried to set it down,
it burrowed into my throat.
I will never sing
at birthday parties again.
Turned out that sip of molten lava was
really an invitation to the cosmos.
All ‘round the rooms, explosive
tangles of lightning and wire.
Their sizzling and thunder orchestrate
like a sadist’s tune.
The waiting, at least, is familiar:
Remember those vacant afternoons
stoned on lethargy, confusion
dissipating to disgust.
Creeping shadows reflecting
the loneliness in your eyes.
When you touched your face
you found it numb as earth,
like you were buried already.
On the Brink
The mountains stretch behind me
Wind blew me out of town
The morning sun will blind me
I rode the highway down
My friends won’t let me settle
I begged for scraps all day
Their mouths turned harsh as metal
They tore my heart away
The sweep of time will bleed you
It forces you to roam
Somebody else might need you
To find their way back home
A gauze of fog has lifted
As dawn broke through the cold
Bright banks of snowflakes drifted
I saw foothills painted gold
God’s Will
You stand against the gentle
tides, that urge you back
into the deep; this terror’s
surely racked your bones, to
cross that bright and mighty will.
Your sadness staring down
the surf, as glassy-green
as emeralds; the sunlight
glinting off the waves, and
dancing brightly in your eyes.
All the gifts you’ve conjured
up, and all the dreams that
colored you; they seethed until
they burned your hopes, and
dried your blood with bitterness.
You cannot let them pull
you down, and drown you in their
soothing waves; too horrible to
go in peace, then find your
soul still cries alone.
A Silver Sea
If you are somewhere still
What a story that would be
Of a girl’s dance down a hill
to leap into a silver sea
Splashing far beneath the sun
Where the diamond waters glide
Drifting out till day is done
to disappear beneath the tide
Like a mermaid gently flows
Through shadows dim and deep
With her skin soft as a rose
and her face relaxed in sleep
What answers did you find
In hidden gold to take
Or leave untouched behind
like ripples in your wake
The sea is dried away
Scorched by an aging sky
Then a field of ashes lay
where spirits went to die