Free Verse
Lemonkiss
Panting and praying
we roll through the days bereft of
any gravity to pull us down when
we are in love and impervious to pain
and the trivial eclipses of life that
others cannot avoid.
Sadness madness gladness
these are the three watchtowers
east west north
but beware the south it's hot
and humid with all manner of beasts
and foul things crawling out of holes
and dark places heated by hell's hot core
she told me one night in a dream.
I remember offering her a tangerine
to soothe her fever but to no avail
as she rose in one swift motion and
departed in a shimmer of silk
and the tiny glitters of fate that cling
to the shoes of mortals in their haste
to live and learn the lessons of life
birth death and trembling lipped strife.
Wet bundles of magic unfold in her eyes
each time I gaze deep and long
into the depths of the woman the girl
the one chosen to guide me to the edge
of nothingness where the cold winds of time
blow caresses of vapor and the breath of ice
across the flat landscapes of desolation.
Pressed in close to me on the winter's nights
yet far apart in the brittle sun of days
dressed in clothes that splinter the sight
of stars hearts and all the little ways
she comes to me in sadness and madness
and the gladness of her soul screaming
for salvation in the soundless whisper
carried across the river of loneliness.
Fantastic runes of revelation stream from
the black bible of the dragon wing
in purple and indigo fire ignited by her gaze
while under the surface her other voices
speak in tongues I can barely understand.
Invoking the devil in her belly is one way
I can forget the world and all its sins
and I am never alone with her soft limbs
clinging to my mast as my ship seems to founder
and run onto the rocks of desire in the storms
she creates out of thin air in the galleons sent
to bring me over the rough seas of our togetherness.
Pirate swords clang long into the night
on deck where the yardarm swings free
in the gales that whip out of nowhere or is it
really my imagination that creates the oceans
I am shipwrecked on these days drifting
aimlessly drifting towards the one place I fear
I may not return from.
A serpent rose before me clad in silver
and the alchemy of eternity
resounded through the long corridors of
my mind in sinuous slithers of silken threads
woven from all the chaos I had created and
gave birth to in the fertile days of my youth
when I ran wild and coupled with any angel
or succubus that came my way
fair of face and lithe in body sinew and bone.
Have you ever seen a dragon appear in the smoke
have you ever made a circle of flame
can you see the gate as it swings wide and
all the fears of the world swirl on by
she asked me one night as the moon was in gemini
and the spirits of strangers disengaged from
their hosts and slowly fell up to the place where
a spectral oasis shimmers in the mirages of magic
somewhere deep in the desert of ancient longing.
Come smell the white roses with me she sang
go tell the machines to go to hell
come come with me on a turquoise sea
and burn your clothes and face the wind
its time to evolve and morph into the things
we were oh so meant to be.
A devil's eye blew out of the last sunset on earth
red and glowing in the supernatural way that
all things do whenever she is near and my heart
is beating that much faster in the mad rush of blood
inside the labyrinths of desire and all I can do is
hold on and pray and pant and kiss and hold her
as tight as I can.
Orange laughter pours silently from her soft lips
and blueberry drips from her fingertips
while apple scents fill her yellow hair
with the faintest of lime in her eyes
and the strawberry sweet haze in her gaze
is an amazing way to spend the days
and then the nights that drip on through
with an apricot hue.
Late at night I sit and feel the thunder of moonlight
crashing into my room with quiet milky dapples
and the reflected patterns of solar auroras caught
in the web of my mind as it spins backwards to
the times we lay on furs and skins and the scattered
jewels of longing faintly glittered.
This is when I light the fire that burns for her
this is when I pledge the eternal trophy
this is the moment I am made of flame
burning down through the ages in intricate patterns
of pink sapphire dervishes and the spirals made
of diamond and bamboo and stone and glass
all the things I swore I would never miss but
then she parts her sweet lips and I am undone
brace yourself here it comes its the soft violence
of an angel falling down on top of you
its her gift to the gods of love lounging on
purple pillows in some godforsaken desert oasis
it's the way she recruits my soul and forces it
to face its silken nemesis it's the one thing I
sure as hell can't resist it's the taste of her
delicious
lemonkiss.
Mourning Moon and
Knight
The last full moon
in December
the final gasp of the year before it dies
under the sharp blades of time
and deflates slowly with the escaping
gas of balloons left over from a party
that no one remembers the next day at all.
Vertical tombs of night enclosed me
slender spells of velvet cloaked in shadows
and the crow caw that signals the gate to open
with the creak of rusty hinges long since left
to decay and disarray.
Let us not speak of the devices of dismay
let us break the vices of evil upon
the golden anvil of the day
and read the tea leaves in the bottom
of the cups of hot mint and sugared
liquid steaming hot in the winter's cold
breath that turns bones brittle in
faintly avian acrimony.
Sometimes it only takes a roadside memorial
to remind us all that we can slip and fall
to a rocky death that brings the whole town out
to weep and sing and dance and meditate on
the life we all take for granted until that
windy cloud swept day we all dread when it
is snatched away one final time for good.
Standing before her belly in front of the fire
laying beside her in sheets of satin
walking along the narrow path of spirit
with her my companion in the way that
a trusted lover sighs deep into the ear
a love song that transcends the years
and always allays the fears collected over
a lifetime of blood and salty tears.
Woman holds the hourglass of fate
it's woman who comes early and leaves late
and it's woman who will feel the storm coming
sound the alarm and be the last to close the gate.
The devil's rainbows fall down in slow bullets
penetrating the soft places that only she can go
and the decadent angels addicted to absinthe
sing in the off key way that they do when
the graves send the stink of eternity up into
the sky where the northern lights are like
celestial gasoline and god holds the match
lit and flaming as he grins one last grin before
nonchalantly tossing it in.
I can only hold on to my love for her with claws
of steel grown from the metal gardens of
my desire and longing for union with the goddess
sprung from nature and the trees and rocks and
the wind that blows through the branches above
me along the cherry blossom avenues in my mind
where the fantasy of her lives in a castle of rubies
encrusted with pink sapphires and emeralds
and holds court in the aristocratic circle of admirers
that follow her like pets wherever we go.
Her name is tattooed under my skin in silver ink
it snakes along my arms and down my back
curling along my spine to come to rest at last
somewhere south of the pit of star shine
and the satanic arrow loaded down
with rose petals and diamond grit.
She said she was no poet
she said I was on fire
she held my hand as we stepped into the spiral
of our love and the labyrinth opened up in
arched doorways lined with the sharpest teeth
this side of any seven year itch when love fades
and sleep is the highest pleasure attained.
Not for us was the low land of the mundane
not in our sight was the lonely bed of fading light
never in our eyes was the statue of boredom
ever to be seen clad in dirty garments of
brown and green but instead there came to be
a jewel of the soul's intoxication when it has
achieved its holy grail and reached the end
of the journey with the sword pulled free of the stone
at last to slay the dragons of pain asunder and
to finally come to rest amid the echoes of thunder and
the sorrow has melted and gives way to the
sweet kiss she gives to you because you have become her
mourning moon and knight.
