Sidney's Speakeasy

Fallen

2012-03-09T13:33:00.000Z

I hit the earth at speeds surpassing all

And dug in deep as dirt smothered my back;

The daylight came then disappeared to black

And left me buried with my broken soul.

As eons dripped away at timeless pace,

I slept and waited for the time to pass,

My thoughts were lost remembering the past;

My dreams were haunted by a vivid face.

I clawed the earth to sink much further still

And hid my scars from surfaces above;

I fell in ancient chasms void of love

And plummeted through chambers void of will.

My hope lay shattered, scattered all around,

As madness quickly dug its claws in deep,

The demons worked their way into my sleep

And tore my body up upon the ground.

As my mistakes entombed me like a cave

And darkness overcame eternally,

I cast my soul into a blackened sea

And let it sink beneath the icy waves.

And as I reached the furnaces of hell,

I let my body buckle in the heat.

Deserve it all in essence of the feat,

To lie and blister where at once I fell.

But do not pity me, I am to blame,

My choices choked the love I had forgot

And as my heart and soul begin to clot,

I cast myself upon the burning flames.

The Hawk

2012-02-18T00:42:00.000Z

Life,

Unbalanced yet unwavering

Sits like a hawk on brittle twigs,

Waiting.

The winds shake her

And the rain soaks her

But she remains there,

Unbalanced, but unwavering.

The dive to the earth is far,

And the risk, high,

But the prize is just.

So she watches,

Waiting.

A break in the clouds

Reveals her endeavour

And with the rustle of her feathers

She spreads her wings,

Casting shadows

Against the dying light

Of an endless sun;

Soaring willingly,

Into oblivion.

Lost

2012-01-29T12:40:00.000Z

A face of steel is easy
When hidden behind.
Lost in false hope,
Drowning under memories
That my shoulders cannot hold;
They buckle in sharp flaws;
Watch me break at dawn
And vanish into dust.
My soul entrenched
Under a cotton shroud,
Unable to rise.
I will never again stand
So boldly.
Time, the only healer
Has stopped,
And I am lost
In forgotten thoughts
As hopelessness ensnares.
And in the dying embers
Of the vigil flame
I lay and blister
Until the very breaking of the world.

Broken Alone

2012-01-22T22:02:00.000Z

The trees, so hidden well by thickened wood,

While senses hide behind the deep despair,

He, ridiculed by those that can’t but should

And persecuted by those that once did care.

As fingers point and clone the loaded gun;

They choose a victim crying on his knees,

To watch him beg for solitude, in one

And disregard his perennial pleas.

The rights and wrongs of progress blister quick

And fall apart to rapturous applause.

For paths of devils spawn are lit at wick

And decompose before his sharpened claws.

For as the darkness shrouds with efforts lost,

The poisons of the earth are thus entwined.

His tears fall hard and to his conscious’ cost,

His evolution ceases from behind.

And all the while the hands of time do turn,

He passes those that choose to stay their feet.

For oil on oceans life will always burn;

He swims and does not drown in his defeat.

But do not punish him, he knows no more,

His misery is real and chokes his breath,

For it is all he knows to thus endure

And now must live a love beyond its death.

For sadness herein sits effortlessly,

Where ignorance is thickly overgrown,

But when the clouds do lift, that’s when they'll see,

That never is a heart broken alone.

Enola

2012-01-21T09:28:00.000Z

She rose into the air, roaring;

Soaring like the phoenix born of the ash

As the flash of morning sunlight kissed her wings,

Reminding them all of greater things,

Amongst such fragile beings.

Her beating heart shudders

And she flexes her steel shoulders

Shaking off long hours of inaction

For love of a new distraction

In the fraction of beauty above.

Dante's Ball

2012-01-05T22:19:00.002Z

Withered gowns flutter in the acrid air,

Hair, sculpted into cathedrals

Welcomes the thralls of worshippers

At the scorched gates.

The fates have brought them here,

And now amongst twisted rocks,

To the clocks of the demons trance,

They dance.

Tortured chiffon ignites to the tune

Of wailing sirens atop pylons of bone,

Here, beneath a dome of fire.

The earthly desires of the guests of honour

Are lost under a decoration of chains,

The pains of their passing endure

As they step to the molten floor

And sway to oblivions beat.

Arrivals from the bowels of eternity

Walk morbidly through

And swarm to the palace of pyre,

Where the thief and the liar clasp hands

And cavort through quartz chasms

Below immeasurable fathoms of flame.

But eternal the hustle, boundless the bustle

Amongst souls that can never be reclaimed.

And all the while with the most insidious glee,

The hellion conducts his most malevolent symphony.

But still they will dance, lost in the trance

Of a dancer that knows nothing more

Than the dance.

And as the spectres shuffle in imperishable turn,

Here to burn to the songs of an evil, sublime,

Until the very ending of time.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T23:51:00.000Z

A frozen dawn crackles into view

Cottoned concrete, new and flawless

Lays ready for the impression;

For the session to begin.

Footprints puncture the pristine powder

As the march of families reveal familiar paths

Soon enough, they gather around sparkling trees

Propped on their knees, thankful for the company

And grateful for those that can join them

This Christmas day.

Spiced apples dance in the soupy air

Fair smells of roasting foods entertains the senses

As the sharing commences amidst happy chatter

The clatter replaced by the rustling

Of silvery sheets, sparkling

Against the crackling firelight

A wonderful sight, adorned with smiles

As the paper shreds in chaotic joy

And piles up in quiet corners

Into marbled alloys

The merriment bleeds across sleepy towns

As crystals, sparkled with champagne beads

Greet to the sounds of laughter and cheer

A feast of no equal is polished

The sequel of which will repeat for days

Whilst the haze of the wine

After much time turns words

Into the most mirthful of mischief.

Witness the wonder of this time spent together

In company of those that we love

And remembering those that are no longer with us

That were lost in the year soon to pass

But we’re thankful for the time we still have to share

Under the remembrance air of the past
To wish all that I love a magical day

And a very merry Christmas

Under the Shadow of Grief

2011-12-18T22:49:00.003Z

Weight of the earth in thick rock and sorrow

Wish for release from regretful tomorrow

Burden the past as it blisters the brain

Force back the torment and choke on the pain

Weeks roll in seconds through forgotten time

Meaningless chatter within purposeless rhyme

Drifting in masses but walking with ghosts

Swimming the oceans but drowning at coasts

Clouded in judgements whilst clear in denials

Begging for inches then giving up miles

Facing blank walls when staring through spaces

Insincere pity from false smiling faces

Absence of feeling and sick of existence

Happiness muted through tortured persistence

Eyes full of rivers with hearts full of frost

And a world full of strangers in a paradise lost

Winter

2011-12-10T15:06:00.001Z

Mist of midnightfrost on shards of glass,

Peppered snow atrest on rigid grass,

Wind is still butwhispers sleeted breaths,

Threatenedcreatures sleep in frosted deaths.

Frozen branchesdrop their tears for art,

As fashioned moonbeamssplit the world apart.

Air is thick withfog, heavy and blue,

Ground of steel iscrowned with icy dew,

Crystal flakesdescend at leisure’s pace,

Dusting whisperedpowder about face.

Hazy lights arebled of upper zones,

Noise distorts toghostly baritones.

Man-made starsblink hard in absence heat,

Natural flowsbuckle in jagged pleat,
Roaring coals crack hard amongst the pyre,

Roasted bricks irradiatethe fire.

Plated sheets ofblack coat corners new,

Splitting asphaltrocks at once in two.

Purple lights loomhigh above; surreal,

Endless twilightbleeds the ethereal,

Objects brought tolife solidify,

Underneath anobsidian sky.

Sunlight glances,cuts the brume to splinter,

As life accepts thethick blanket of winter.

The Titan

2011-12-03T21:25:00.001Z

Too late, Titan lost

Touch the diamonds of the north

Fill her chest

Soak her lungs

See her drown to the ripening

Of stars

Body and soul deep in the water

Gliding softly at first

But the strength of the sea

Takes her slowly

Then quickly

As the mirror of night

Drags the willing

To die

And a sky

Full of sapphires

Gazes down on those left without hope

Hear them choke

On the crystals

Of god

The bed welcomes

She

Whilst above, hopelessly

Those that struggle to breathe

Do so slowly

Mournfully

The queen of the waves

Regretfully saves
None

And bows her head

In acceptance

Regret at once

That a man

Who is full of the strength

To have all

Sent the irons of earth to the oceans

With but ignorance in tow

See the spirit of death

Rub his hands

Without passion

And pull in those lost

In a most desperate

Fashion.

Two Minutes

2011-11-05T11:23:00.000Z

Distant thunder rings out across pristinelands,

Hands, weathered by life’s lessons reach forheart and crown

And settle down for two minutes of peace.

The modern world ceases unfurling and rapidlycurling

To once more remember those long sincedeceased,

For some, not so long, for the songs of war donot stop

Just because the earth has grown wiser with ages,

For the pages of history continue to bewritten in blood.

And whilst we cannot erase the stain of the battle

So often in vain, for those silent two minutes

We remember the bullets that cut down ourheroes

And ended their turmoil’s in trenches anddeserts

In distant lands, on foreign soils and plains.

Hats clasped in hands as heads bow towardsstone relics

As the old boy picks his moment to rise fromthe chair

He is bound to these days, the metal reminder

Still sits in his back, where the threeseconds of lapsed concentration

Cut him down to become yet another hero ofnations.

His knees buckle under the strain of age, but hispage

Is already turned and his strength hasreturned for

Two minutes, no more, as he stands to endure

And to honour his brothers that lie inpoppy strewn fields.

His eyes still burn with the life of that manthat marched

Across shell shocked lands. His strengththerein peaks,

And the tears that have so long stung the backof his soul

Roll forward and fall to his battle scarredcheeks.

A minute has passed and still the silence istrue

The boy with blue eyes rocks forward in hischair

And tries once more to steady his unbalancedframe.

The reminders of war are raw here and he biteson his lip

To try not to slip and let out yet another cryfrom the pain.

His phantom feet ache, and his one good arm isheld firm

To his head in salute; resolute, that for oneminute more

He will honour his brothers that lay strewnacross sands

In distant desert lands that are still findingspace

For their graves. The cenotaph helps with his strength

And watches over the boy, holds the wreath,burdens grief

For his young haunted mind. But he still makesthe time,

To forget his own burdens and remember thosenow underneath.

The thunder returns as chimes of distant bellsring about

And signs the ending of two minutes silence. Then,rising up

Above the retuning abruption, the eruption ofbugles sounds out.

The Last Post echoes beyond barriers ofhistory and time.

Divine souls lost in the eons of conflict oncemore return

From the grave, from the sea and the urn

And stand once again at the shoulders of thosethat remain.

For many still carry the pain of the injuries,memories of war,

But they endure, for their brothers havepaid the ultimate price

For freedom cannot be won without the sacrifice of heroes

That we remember this day. And remember once more,

Until the time comes again to caress the faces of lost friends

In places beyond the senseless destruction ofwar.

But for now, just two minutes in a silent November,

Whilstwe will never understand the loss,
We will always remember.

For my Uncle Gary x

Covered Tracks

2011-10-05T23:29:00.002+01:00

The orchard trees left petals of blood on the ground,

The sound of wood and metal shaking hands

In cold winds, rattled through souls

Lost within the smother of snow

Unknown destinations map out in clouds of misery

The mystery of tracks leading forward

Toward the end of the lines entwined within the depths

Of human annihilation.

Aspirations eradicated beyond pointless skies

As eyes look out through splintered cracks

In frozen oak.

Smoke on the horizon entices as tracks continue on

Through places well trodden, sodden

With the tears and the blood of ludicrous life.

The well written strife of those whose story was never told

Are old and meaningless, clotted within the soil of one point one

Lost under a sun of glowing atoms; forgotten and rotten

In the obituaries of history and time.

But the tracks remain prodded

As the trains of the damned roll on across white waves

Where the slaves are absurd and they scream out the words

Of books that are burning and pushing their ash to the sky.

The lies of the men spread like fire and fill the desire

Of a nation that is blinded by death.

Understand though that some have been left by the tracks

Were the monsters forgot to look back and select

The delectable pain and to punish the same

And they wish they were lost in the boiling

Combusting of those that will burn;

That are fit for the pit, for the urn

And there still behind oak as the smoke rises up to an eternal sky

Those that die, they have done so in vain.

And as the slain turn to dust in the ravenous furnace

Where the ultimate end to the life of the man

Is decided, not by those who cannot

But who can.

This poem is based and inspired by the trains that took victims of the Holocaust to the
'Gates of Hell' at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1942-1945

The Nazis established their largest and most infamous extermination camp at Oswiecim, near Krakow, in Poland and called it Auschwitz.

Between 1940 and 1945 they killed more than a million people there - the vast majority of them Jews but also Poles, Roma (Gypsies) and Russian prisoners of war.

Trains filled with victims from throughout occupied Europe arrived at the camp almost every day between 1942 and the summer of 1944.

Punishment

2011-09-28T12:26:00.002+01:00

Caliginous cage at the ends of the earth,

Undignified prisoner of unnatural birth.

Beset by insanity; skinless and raw,

Cankered, decrepit and burnt to the core.

Bloodied and battered, left there to die,

Hidden in shadows, absent of sky.

Tortured and tattered; blinded and deaf,

Screaming in agony, longing for death.

Chained to the walls in a bottomless well,

Enraptured by demons… shackled to hell.

Fickle Fire

2011-09-27T22:21:00.013+01:00

Burning brightly, fickle fire,

Gift of heaven, man’s desire,

Boil the ocean, all admire,

Songs in honour, demon choir,

Brightly fickle, burning fire,

Born of heaven's dark desire.

Flicker fire, fickle flame,

Out of power, out of pain,

Born so quickly, lost the same,

Move the earth through darker plain,

Fickle fire, flicker flame,

Lost before the pouring rain.

Flaming fire, brightly burning,

Boiling under planet, turning,

Hide the stars, the fate unnerving,

Warm the man, still undeserving,

Brightly flaming, fire burning,

Death in darkness, light in learning.

Flicker fire, burning fickle,

Deliquesce the ferronickel,

Freezed to forge the reapers sickle,

Cut to fever, blood in prickle,

Burning flicker, fire fickle,

Through deaths finger, lightly trickle.

Fickle fire, burning brightly,

Roaring flame from ember slightly,

Kiss the moth; consume the mighty,

Birth the dawn from ever nightly,

Fickle burning, fire brightly,

Praised on earth but cursed, almighty.

Mortality

2011-08-01T23:22:00.001+01:00

I see him at my window tonight.

The moon, full and bright

Casts his dark shadow onto an icy wall.

A familiar silhouette, unmistakable,

Pressed against the pane.

The cold melts his breath into feathery diamonds

Running in thin veins down the thick glass.

His face, hidden and veiled in black

Glances my way and nods;

I nod back

Acceptingly. Suddenly,

The glass no longer divides,

Inside with me and glancing forward

Towards my funeral bed.

My head, frozen, near death

Funnels my sight towards him.

His thin frame stops at my side.

The immortal guide

Reaching his ancient hand towards mine,

Soon to be part of the fabrics

Of time.

And as the warmth of my life turns to frost,

Acceptingly. Suddenly,

I am lost.

Amy

2011-07-26T21:54:00.003+01:00

The breath had left her, not long ago.

Her face, pressed into the pillow

Drained black tears onto white linen.

Her fight had been lost, the long battle had ravaged her

And her iconic war paint scrawled ironic defeat in tracks

Down her pale skin onto paler sheets.

A motionless husk; as she lays there,
Her raven hair, unravelled from familiarity,

Fall's delicately on her back,

Carefully caressing her cold shoulders;

Shielding her from the dawn of life from which now

She has withdrawn.

Silhouettes draped across pleated sails,

Her frail body, brittle and delicate, finally rested.

Tested beyond its limits, too high the cost

And too great the affliction.

Lost in the struggle of the addict

To the addiction.

And now her Palladian palace enshrines,

As the afternoon sun shines through gaps

In drawn blinds.

A silent room, ordered and decided,

Expects an arrival beyond the survival

Of the girl that had no more to lose.

In a time where spirits take spirits, she;

Three lifetimes lived in seven and twenty.

But here, at the very end in her empty home,

The girl that thought she was nothing,

Died for nothing,

Alone.

Amy Jade Winehouse
1983 - 2011

 

Dreamer

2011-07-18T17:23:00.004+01:00

The space you stare into is vast,

I can see behind your glass-like gaze, the maze revealed

Is twisted and infuriating, concealed within

An enigma, wrapped in a riddle

And shrouded in mystery.

You whistle Dixie as the seconds

Unravel into days, unconnected to the world

As you collapse through the motions of time.

To you; sublime.

But a lapse in your absence brings you back to me

Briefly. And as quick as you came you are gone

Once again as you fly away off with the fairies,

The prairies of your isolate mind unravel before you

As you travel amongst them in awe.

The wondrous heat of a sun that’s not there

Warms your skin, which is cooled

By the wind in your hair that you’re so sure is real,

But it’s not.

You’ve forgot what it’s like to exist in the place

Where your face is caressed;

Where your presence is blessed every day, must I say

Anymore how I love you and need you here with me?

Not off in a place where I cannot be with you

My darling, come back to me.

Briefly.

But you’re gone yet again as your eyes roll to white

And your sight is emblazoned with visions of heaven,

The rapture entices, the vices of life

Are dissolved in a sapphire ocean.

Admire it darling but do not forget that the waters are shallow

The jade fields lie fallow

And the radiant sky is as empty and frozen as night.

I cannot offer perfection

But here your reflection is as true as the day

Is the day.

So please bring me back into view

And let me gaze once more on you and see all the beauty of life

In your eyes. Liberate from the lies,

Let your head fall from clouds to my arms

And you’ll be my redeemer, come back to me, dreamer

To exist with me here once again.

Why Make Man That Which Man Can Never Be?

2011-07-13T13:42:00.001+01:00

Why make man that which man can never be?

Why give him eyes to cast from misery?

Why give him ears to blot out cries of pain?

Why give him arms to fight for selfish gain?

Why give him hands to build a tool of death?

Why give him legs to crush a final breath?

Why give him feet to run from those that crawl?

Why give him strength to build a higher wall?

Why give him speech to whisper wicked lies?

Why give him thoughts to overthrow the wise?

Why give him love to batter and abuse?

Why give him hope to arrogantly lose?

Why give him light when darkness he will seek?

Why give him peace when havoc he will wreak?

Why give him warmth when frost will chill his soul?

Why give him freedom when he seeks control?

Why give him choice when errors he will make?

Why give him truth to falsify and fake?

Why give him earth when fires he will burn?

Why give him sea to pollute in return?

Why give him power to bend and corrupt?

Why give him skill to make atoms erupt?

Why give him courage when ensnared in fear?

Why give him life when death is ever near?

Why make man that which man can never be?

When man alone can change his destiny....

Vultures

2011-06-21T15:34:00.011+01:00

Her face had lost its stare, as she lay motionless.

Blood, thick in her hair and painting her cracked brow,

Ran like a sacred river across the fractured ground

Into more cracks.

The picture split her eyes, her face nestled

In broken glass. The dust peppers her cotton clothes

And billows on, unconcerned,

Unconvinced, that this one is ready to cover completely.

Neatly placed, her fall, perfect; just the right angle.

Perhaps slightly jarred but no matter, its better

And makes for a wonderful shot.

The patter of rats, already aware

Of the meal that lays waiting there.

They’ll soon eradicate her and turn her to dirt,

And the world will spin on unhurt, unconcerned,

Unconvinced that she was ever really here at all.

The thrall gathers around, not for pity, not for care

But to stare at the girl that lies dead in the dust,

On the island that fell through the earth

For they must get the picture, the fixture, the prize

Is too good to miss. Snap her eyes as they clearly show

She is dead.

Turn her head, see her face, catch the blood on the floor,

It is raw; such an artistic scene for the world to admire,

To send down the wire and marvel at all of the beauty

Of death.

What is left for them now, should they move her

And show off the wounds that had broke her and sent her

Crashing to the concrete ground that is buckled and broken,

The corpse but a token of the desperate madness of man.

Her blood, no longer flowing so quickly

But thickly and curled through its journey to carry her soul

To the depths of the world.

The vultures that have taken their share

Are full from the meal that they savour;

The flavour of death is fulfilling. Unwilling to leave but a morsel

To those that may snap up a better piece of her flesh....

A distant gunshot signals the fall of another,

Her body suddenly no longer the exclusive it was.

As they scramble once more to the skies

What surprise will await them across these crumbling lands?

But far below still lays the girl in the broken glass.

The blood soaks her clothes as the world without recall

Rumbles on, unconcerned; unconvinced
That she had ever existed at all.

Inspired by the tragedy of Fabienne Cherisma.

Fabienne was a 15 year old girl from Port-Au-Prince in Haiti who, in the aftermath of the earthquake, on January 19^th, 2010, was shot in the head by either police or security forces. The country was devastated, a quarter of million people were feared dead and the looting was underway. It’s believed that police were firing warning shots to disperse the looters when a bullet struck Fabienne – a tragedy upon a tragedy upon a tragedy.

But Fabienne’s end is where the story starts. Because once she’d been shot, she was shot again and again – but by cameras this time. Her corpse became one of the defining images of the earthquake. In fact, the image of her lying dead on the slope with oblivious looters in the background has struck such a chord that of the 15 international photographers who took her picture, five have won awards.

But of all the pictures of Fabienne Cherisma, one has really caused a stir – this shameful image of photojournalists just going about their business and trying to secure the best photo opportunity, absent of mind that this young girl has been left dead in the street:

Paper Lantern

2011-05-29T20:39:00.008+01:00

Oh little lantern,

So delicate,

So pale.

Frail; nothing more than thinly bound paper

Stretched over fragile quills

And filled with emptiness;

Effortless the wind that blows you

And shows you the way

To the ends of the sky

And the place of our birth

At the ends of the earth where the tears of the world

Build the clouds that will swell

When we cry.

A tenuous traveller

Cast to the heavens with a message,

A vestige of hope, carry love

On the breath of the last

To the ones that have passed and have left us behind,

Little lantern you remind us that we are still here,

Seeing clear in the midnight May sky

Looking up to the place where the face

Of our loved ones smile down.

What a beautiful sight.

Paper lantern, please take up our prayers,

For nobody cares more than we do

This night.

You fill up your sails

With the heat of our hearts

And it starts to release you from bonds

That you bore since the day you were picked

From the floor.

Oh frail lantern, as you swell with a fire

To fulfil your one purpose entire.

Please build up your strength for you carry

And marry a piece of our hearts and our souls,

As your goal is no more than to passage,

To shoulder our message to loved ones that stand

With the ageless divine, beyond the very fragments

Of time.

Little lantern you will soon soar on high,

To a place in the sky where we cannot follow,

Our sorrow is deep but we will not keep it

For you will soon take away sadness,

With gladness and help us adjust to the loss.

Delicate paper, enrapture our feelings;

The ceilings of heaven cannot keep you,

For your destination is far from the reaches of all

But you cannot here stall as you cradle despair,

To disperse in the air as you travel,

Unravel these feelings of anguish

Please vanquish these thoughts and scatter their scars

Far and beyond the most distant of stars.

Paper lantern we thank you for staying,

We’re praying that one day we’ll travel with you

To that very same place,

Where we’ll once again look on the face

Of our dear loved ones lost,

For they wait in an Eden, far from our side

But not from our hearts, deep inside

Where they stay here, forever.

Endeavour, little lantern, to carry our love

High above all the clouds that are filled with our tears.

Vanquish fears we’ll forget you,

We regret that you left but are thankful

We had you at all.

Though your life was a flash,

It was stunningly bright,

For you far outshone all other stars in the night.

And as we send up the lantern

To say our goodbye,

Your star shines forever in an endless night sky.

Forever dedicated to my uncle, Ronald Austin and family xxx

Humanity Lost

2011-05-06T14:24:00.009+01:00

I freeze,

And fall to my knees.

The earth is cold tonight, my sight

Is sorrowed as I place my hands on its frozen surface,

No furnace to warm me, but bereft.

Here, on the borrowed hour

Of my death.

The frost seeping through my clothes

Chills my bones, I’m lost here, alone.

The precipice in front of me is wide, and deep

But full. I keep my head dipped,

Knowing they watch me

And mock me.

A pathetic excuse for man

I am; a parasite they long to vanish,

To banish and go from these lands that were free

Not so long ago…

How did I end up here? Such fear;

What evil have I wielded in this life

Or the last

That has justifies my final moment?

The past, is present but no future,

No more will I stand as I grasp at my knees

On the floor, in the dirt that consumes me

And is ready to lose me to the worms

In the bullets and blood,

Left to die and to rot

In the mud.

Soon now, near obsolete,

A front row seat

To my own annihilation.

Devastation, wiped clean, buried.

When I, the very last in 'sin'

Of twenty-eight thousand lost,
Falls in.

I sink further into the soil.

Turmoil. Lingerer.

The harbinger of death

Extends my suffering,

Shuffling behind.

For the sheer joy to witness my distress,

They aggress.

I hear the serpent tongues licking the air,

Tasting my fear;

Rejoicing.

I peer once more into my open tomb.

To fall soon, I see my place

Between the face of the old and the young,

The father, the son,

The well and the weak,

The proud and the meek,

Innocent, all, now done.

I feel god smile,

Thanking me for my presence

But turning away, shielding his eyes.

Even he denies that man can wield such brutality,

For my finality, even the heavens

Cannot stand.

It is said that only the dead will see
The end of war, a small salvation.
In the face of a nation destroyed
By the passing of law.

It seems though I will live long enough to witness

The perdition of sanity

And the destruction of hope,

At the end of humanity,
Here, on the very horizion of life.

I hear the click of the barrel,

His apparel rustles at the effort.

The cold steel, real now,

Presses against my temple,

And chills my soul.

My skull, braced.

I close my eyes

And whisper ‘please’

But useless these words are,

In such darkness, such hatred,
As something,
Suddenly and permanently passes,

Into nothing.

Based upon and inspired by the photograph 'The Last Jew in Vinnitsa'

In summer 1941, in their push to invade Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler’s German army marched through Ukraine. On July 19th, Vinnitsa, Ukraine was captured by German troops. Some 28,000 Jews were massacred by the Nazis. According to the census data of 1926, 21,800 Jews lived in the region which means the entire Jewish people were exterminated in Vinnitsa.

This famous picture, inscribed on the back of the photo as of the Last Jew in Vinnitsa, was taken by a German SS Soldier. The man, thought to have been the very last to be executed in Vinnitsa, is seen kneeling in front of a mass grave, his haunting face and hollow, distracted eyes became symbolic of the Holocaust. Present in the background of the photo are members of the German Army, the German Labor Service, and the Hitler Youth.

Am I the Fool?

2011-04-30T20:37:00.000+01:00

Am I the fool?

Am I the joke?

When all around do warn and curse

When you so cruel

And open choke

Neglected love sent home by hearse

An empty void

Your heart, black tarred

That poisons all that come too close

Emotions toyed

And passions scarred

All suffer from your deadly dose

You care not who

You cause such pain

As long as short term urges pleased

And here I to

Do wait in vain

Unwilling, I am slowly seized

At first you stole

That which I longed

To take into my own embrace

As black as coal

Your heart prolonged

To capture that which I did chase

But boredom set

And want no more

The one you took away from me

And like a pet

Once cuteness thaws

You cast my one into the sea

Uncaringly

You change your tact

And see me as the challenge new

But yet I see

This selfish act

And cast a frozen shoulder to

I stand alone

My arm surpassed

As all around close friends applaud

A heart of stone

Yet set in glass

Shows but this stubborn heart, a fraud

There’s something there

I can’t avoid

These feelings stir inside of me

I do not dare

Jump in this void

For no escape here can I see

So back away

And let me go

There’s nothing more that we can do

What can I say?

All this you know

You go your way and I shall to.

Truth

2011-04-26T20:47:00.002+01:00

Do not look to the stars.

Truth favours no man who searches the past

For answers.

The Addict

2011-04-25T14:52:00.007+01:00

It’s only one more

What harm will it do?

If you really loved me like I do with you

Then you’d let me just have it, no fussing or fighting,

Not sitting here giving me daggers, me lightning

And watching me suffer; I’ll make this the last,

I promise from this day forward I’ll fast

I’ll become a new man; just you wait and see,

But for now will you not be a bastard to me

And just hand it on over; I’ll not ask again,

I’ll open these wrists; how will you feel then?

When I’m lying here dead, my blood on the floor,

Knowing you could have done so much more,

But chose not to bother, for what? Bit daft really

It seems like you over exaggerate, clearly!

It’s you with the problem, see me, I’m just fine,

I don’t touch the vodka or wash down the wine,

My only addiction, a small thing at best,

See look, I’m getting it all off my chest,

I’m already improving, it’s just as you said,

Now let’s put this whole sorry chapter to bed,

And just give me that thing that I need the most,

If you don’t, then just consider me a ghost,

I’ll disappear, and you’ll not see me for dust,

I will find it somewhere, in that you can trust,

You think it’s so hard, so keep it, my love,

And see if I care, I’ll soon rise above

But for now let’s not fight, I love you my darling,

I don’t want to sit here bitching and snarling,

I’ll do you a deal, it’s a good one, you’ll see

Now how about after I’ve counted to three,

You let me just have it and then it is done,

And on this occassion we'll accept that you've won,

No more will be said; we’ll leave it behind,

Now stop being difficult, give me what’s mine.

Or I’ll leave you I swear; you can go rot in hell,

There’s plenty more fish in the sea, can’t you tell?

In fact, what’s the point, how dare you do this!

I am the victim, a point you have missed?

Regardless, irrelevant; man I feel sick,

Please help me baby, or i'll slip away quick

You can still save me; you know what to do,

Just give me the fucking pill...

Make that two.

At Water's Edge

2011-04-22T15:42:00.004+01:00

She played with sticks at water’s edge,

When the moon was young and bright.

Her sullen face and matted hair,

For none had ever seemed to care

And often cast her out of sight.

You’d find her here at summer’s heat

Or in the grasp of winters chill,

Her company, the river deep

In which she’d often stare and weep

And wish upon the waters, still.

A painful child, a lonely soul,

She’d wander down beyond the trees

And often thought of jumping in,

To join the river in its swim

And out to meet the roaring seas.

Then one day true, the river rose

And snatched the girl upon the bank,

Where, dragged her to river bed

There on her body creatures fed

And on her misery they drank.

But no one went to find the girl,

The world forgot her, time removed her,

And at the ageing of the moon,

The river dug her only tomb;

An effortless eraser.

So should you stumble on the place,

Where once the haunted girl did weep,

You hear her still on darker nights,

Her shadow cast in starry lights;

Forever wailing in the deep.

The Reaper

2011-04-10T21:09:00.001+01:00

You’re early.

I wasn't expecting you so soon.

Could you come back later?

No.

Didn’t think so.

I’ll get my coat....

Giants of the Earth

2011-04-06T18:15:00.002+01:00

Giants of the Earth, in ancient air,

Watch silently as earthly rumbles deep,

And as the world below drifts off to sleep,

A ghostly peak, refreshed beyond the glare.

Beauty in the vast, unparalleled,

Iridescent on one side of two,

Overcoat, to cast off; overdue,

Tremble underneath where others dwelled.

Tyrants roam, to crumble at their feet,

Crushed, reanimated in the well.

Deepest floors promote above the swell,

To join their brothers in a higher seat.

Born of the inferno, ash to earth,

Rises up to split the world apart,

Illicit in the breaching of His art;

Eventually accepted in His mirth.

Spherical, in rupture; oh the scars!

Forces, darkened, unable to tame,

Ironically those which born of flame,

Inexorably die among the stars.

Epiphany

2011-03-31T22:25:00.003+01:00

Amazing how the tables turn when least you do expect it,

I thought I’d seen the last of all the pain you had inflicted,

I took a beating, took a fall, absorbing all your bullets,

And yet, reload your gun of lies you did; then I was wounded.

Down on my knees I prayed that you would grant me coup de grâce,

But still you did persist; your torture clearly had no par.

I crumbled at your feet and begged forgiveness in your presence,

Of course I’d done no wrong but insignificant in essence,

For I must be reminded of my place when I am with you,

I had to prove my worth; I was the lesser of the two,

Available at any time, just shout and I’ll be there,

Click your fingers, I’ll be gone, it’s not for you to care.

But there was only so much snapping, shouting I could handle,

You pushed me to the brink; you broke my heart, burnt out my candle,

I cried so many tears and yet your thirst was insatiable,

Your constant retribution became unstoppable,

It seems your punishment was dealt out best when multiplied,

The surface tried to harden as inside, I slowly died.

And as I lay there on the floor in shattered glass and tears,

A sudden word of strength was whispered softly in my ears,

I clawed myself up to my feet and met your glassy gaze,

And stared at you to try and solve your twisted little maze.

But then it hit me like a freight train screaming down the track,

For too long I had shown you love instead of show my back.

Well here it is, take a good look; the last you’ll ever see,

From now on I will show you a better version of me,

No longer broken, battered, bruised and weeping on the floor,

Not begging you to turn around as you head for the door,

Now I’m the one who turns to go, to leave you here to rot,

A heart as black and cold as yours will quickly set to clot.

But as a final fairwell there is one more thing to do,

Accept this middle finger and a well deserved ‘Fuck You’.

Realise Nothing Will Make Sense Before God

2011-03-29T22:03:00.008+01:00

Whispers on the wind tell lies,

‘It is Truth’ they will say. And you will believe them

As temples justify the malevolence, the whispers mature,

You think you understand at first, before you

Realise

But what is truth? ‘The belief of Faith’ they will say

Fractured and scattered by the chaos of wars

Across the eons of time. Blind and arrogant,

Spilling blood in the name of blood for the belief of

Nothing

Illuminated by the parting clouds, the bearers of truth

March forth unto the saturated lands

Of other truths. ‘You have Courage’ they will say

As the truth rains down, many more the enemies He

Will make

In dark shadows the ground is soft, disturbed;

Easy to fall through. They will say

‘Be in His light for Salvation’. Belief, however

Will not substitute the thin sheath of ignorance for

Sense

However the lies in the undergrowth are thick.

And its roots run deep. Fires will not scorch them

But fuel them. ‘Bathe in His Love’ they will say, but

Eventually, you will burn in it. This is the real truth

Before god.

In Limbo

2011-03-25T19:59:00.009Z

She’s lost here somewhere,

Lost in limbo,

In these dark woods

Where we dare not go.

But I must find her

And bring her home.

She doesn’t belong here

Amongst the ravenous crows.

The moonlight spears

Like shards of blue glass

Through the thick canopy,

Piercing the black grass.

The trees block me

But I have a promise to keep

And I’ll push on through;

Miles to go before I sleep.

The air is thin

And the wind is stale.

Ancient undergrowth darkens,

As its victims pale.

I am lost here

And tread spiteful ground,

But I will stay lost

Until she is found.

And what of the trees?

They bear a strange fruit,

As blood stained leaves

Drip blood to the root.

Awkward figures sway,

Their faces sunken,

As cadavers drain

To the roots that drink them.

The high hanging bodies

Gaunt and garrotted

Not long had they fallen

Their blood not yet clotted

Why have they done this,

What had caused such fear?

To pick such an ending

So sudden and severe.

Monochrome midnight

Hides shadowy figures,

Their traps awaiting

Near concealed triggers.

I hear them shufflling

Deep in the dark,

Their cruel intent

Scars ancient bark.

A ghostly mist gathers

And sinks all around,

It thickens the air

And crystals the ground.

Distant whispers drift

In unnatural tongues,

They conspire in blindness

To futile these lungs.

The woods are deep,

And I go deeper still,

The darkness thickens;

The wind is shrill.

I squint in the blackness,

Trying to see,

If I follow someone

Or if something follows me.

But I have promises to keep

And miles yet to go,

Further lost in these woods,

Where we dare not go.

Long before I sleep,

Where strange fruit hangs low,

Falling deeper into darkness,

Lost in limbo.

Inspired by:
'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' by Robert Frost
'Strange Fruit' by Abel Meerpol

Sniper

2011-03-21T19:39:00.008Z

I felt nothing, at first.

Just the loud crack of a distant whip, the echo

Bouncing through the crumbling streets and fetid alleyways

Painted with the stench of unintentional sacrifices

And scorched by the Middle Eastern sun.

He can see me this one, even now

Staring down the lens like a wayward sailor scanning distant rocks for Sirens,

Tempting him to death.

He’s watching me crumble to the blistering ground

My skull cracks at the impact. I feel the warmth running from my ears

As I baptise the dust. He must be watching, even still

Assessing the state of his kill;

Am I still moving? Am I still breathing?
A foreigner in his lands is ripe for picking, he’ll say

As he recollects the bounty of his day.

And all around will praise him for the win

I was trespassing, they’ll say.

And I got what I deserved.

I guess they’d be right, it might be my error

To be here in a world that is not mine.

Branded a ‘terror’ but I’m not here by choice

My voice is not heard when the generals of war jab at maps

Perhaps a lapse in their pointing has landed me here

The bastards.

They should be more precise

Like the man that is watching me, still.

His finger no doubt on the trigger, no mistakes

He’ll figure me out before long

And know I am down but not done

As I lay here and burn in the afternoon sun.

A flash of light from the rooftops gives him away

But I cannot move, he’s watching me still

Trying to confirm his kill

He’s a smart one, clever sod, not mindlessly gunning

At anything running through the streets to which now

He is god.

Funny though how it transpired,

So tired now, the heat no longer burns my skin,

It’s thin, like a warm dusk choked by thick cloud.

Not long left for me I think, I should shift

But he’s still there, and he won’t move on

Until my stench fills the air in this afternoon sun.

He’s won, of course that much is clear

But the blood running thick out of my ear

Is the same as his, is it not?

It would clot if I’d been just a little more careful

An inch to the left perhaps?

Maybe not...

Not that I’d know anyway. It’s unseen.

At eighteen, you don’t really understand the madness of war

Do you? It’s true, so my dad says anyway.

‘You’ll soon learn’ he said ‘as the bullets fly overhead’.

A second whip crack soon stops me

Dead.

He was wrong though, my dad.

All I learned is that you don’t really feel anything,

At first.

End

2011-03-20T22:53:00.004Z

You left me standing here alone, in a world that’s turned to stone,

A brilliant marble of blue and green

A beauty that has gone unseen

Decaying to the bone.

How can I fight your so-called fight, when all around the fading light,

Leaves darkness spreading further,

And now I don’t know whether,

The plunder's worth the plight.

Why wash your hands of what you made, you sit here watching all life fade,

As oceans take the land,

And rocks crumble to sand,

Your final chess piece played.

These roaring fires turning ashen, it’s been too long, our time in ration,

And now the blackness swallows,

An earthly body hollows,

In necessary fashion.

A Moment Ago...

2011-03-18T13:53:00.010Z

My house, it was here a moment ago.

I swear it was here, over here

By the trees that are no longer there

Standing strong in the crystal spring air

And the unnatural breeze from the shore

I am sure that’s where it was before.

Have you seen it? I swear it was here,

A moment ago....

My friends, they were here a moment ago,

They were here , not that far

As their laughs quelled the quiet

Like a innocuous riot,

Then, running fast up the tracks to the hills where we go

When we want to escape from the bustle below.

Have you seen them? I swear they were here,

A moment ago....

My mother, she was here a moment ago,

She was here, at the table

Drinking tea, talking folly about times long gone by,

Complaining to god of the thickening sky,

Demanding more tea and a sympathy ear,

I love you dear mother but why aren’t you here?

Will someone please help me? I swear she was here,

A moment ago....

My son , he was here a moment ago,

Over there, he was playing with cars,

By the house of a friend,

Over there round the bend

Off the road that is no longer there... but he wouldn’t go far.

He’s a good boy you see, an angel, my star...

Have you seen him? I swear he was here,

A moment ago....

My love, she was here a moment ago,

I swear she was here, standing here,

Next to me with the wind in her hair

But her eyes flashed a look of despair,

I remember her cries but why? I must know.

She is somewhere up high, surely not down below

Have you seen her? I swear she was here,

A moment ago....

But the sea wasn’t here, a moment ago.

She was quiet and calm, with no cause for alarm

In the gentle spring rain with no sadness, no pain,

In our village that rests by the shore, I adore

And my home with the little white door.

But the sea did not care, as she rose in the air
Her torrent, it came all the same....

Unstoppable.

Indiscriminate.

Chaos.

Where are you my friends?

Where are you my mother?

Where are you my son?

Where are you my lover?

Why have you left me here on my own

Swamped by the shattered remains of our home?

Why can I not find you?

Where did you all go?

You were all in my arms

A moment ago....

Now I stand here alone with my face to the floor,

And I long to be free of the thoughts I endure,

As I look up and scan the destruction and death,

I fall to my knees and beat at my chest,

I feel the despair welling up in my heart,

I wish nothing more than this pain to depart.

I look at the waters as they filter away,

And carry the souls of those lost on this day.

Though my body remains, my soul joins the flow

My world was extinguished

...a moment ago.

My Mona Lisa Lover

2011-03-15T23:29:00.004Z

I glance up over cobbled stones, appreciate your golden tones.

Your eyes are closed; a smile appears to make the Mona Lisa sneer.

The sun beams brightly on your face, the sea applauds as wind gives chase

And ruffles softly through your hair; your looks and charm a deadly snare

That has me caught, I can’t escape, no flying rug or magic cape

Can free me from these prison bars, so still I linger from afar.

For having you comes at a price and yet I long to roll the dice,

To take the chance and make you mine. Is it a punishable crime

To fall in love and be a lover with one that seems to love another?

I do not care; I will persist for in you I’ll find happiness,

Abundant as the sun that shines upon your sculpted body lines.

So lie there blissfully unaware of what ahead lies in wait there,

An evil plot, I’ve worked the sums for it soon round the corner comes.

To sever bonds and form another… not long, my Mona Lisa lover.

In Your Skin

2011-02-28T20:33:00.010Z

It’s a funny place here, in your skin. Why do you keep it

So very pale? Like a sail left out in the sun

For too long and then flown at the turning of tides,

Though it glides across all of the seas

Its beauty is gone.

Such a strange place here, in your skin.

Like an ivory sheet thrown

Over sharp bones, pale tones and fingers

Pointing blame at passersby of unknown crimes

In times when everyone seems guilty of lies.

Toughened like leather, but stretched too thin,

Keeping the world out and the warmth in.

Let he, without sin

Be the first to cast stones and break this skin

To warm the world and everyone within.

Why keep it in?

A barrier to the world

Unfurled across brittle twigs and branches,

With chances of breaking at the slightest touch.

Is it too much?

Let me help you cast off this blanket

And thank it

For you will be free from the burden to hold it all in.

Your skin.
Like porcelain, so delicate.
A feathery silk dressing

Impressing all those that long to be part of your heart,

A start, would be simply to look past your skin.

What an odd place here, in your skin.

It’s clearly protecting but something’s deflecting

From letting the happiness in.

A blank piece of paper draped on an easel

Is nothing without the artist to do the drawing.

Boring. It’s gnawing at me where I’m trying to see

That you have so much beauty but choose not to show it,

To grow it and let it be free.

Is it me that stops you from being happy

In your skin?

I’d happily show you that all that I love

Is not above but below what is covering,

Smothering the splendour and wonder within.

Your skin.

Such a burden to be in your skin

But I thank you for letting me in,

As it’s clear that you rarely permit for it

To have ever happened before,

But more should really be here to see

And be part of the wonder of you,

My love,

To be part of the wonder

Within.

Poison

2011-02-28T11:58:00.004Z

Tonight is just like any other night,

And nothing like any night before

I’ll sit here till the breaking of the light,

But never again see another dawn

The darkness blankets me but I am hot,

I shrug it off and cast it to the floor,

The arctic wind chills my blood to clot,

Near frozen, so I slam the open door.

The blood is boiling up behind my eyes,

But draining out from deep within my heart,

I slump down on the floor and grip my thighs,

And pray soon that this sadness will depart.

Enraptured in a fit of hate and fear,

I crawl into the corner in the dark,

The tides of hell are flooding in, so near,

And yet I will not board the saviour’s ark.

My breathing starts to shallow and arrest,

As pain in speared deep into my side,

I sense a crushing demon on my chest,

Then feel it writhe around on the inside.

I grasp my hair as tears roll down my face

And leaves the tracks of misery behind,

My fading soul drifts to another place,

A fragment of salvation for my mind.

The rolling hills are bathed in the light of the morning sun,

A cloudless sapphire sky enveloping everyone,

A weeping willow blossoms in the light of the warming rays

An emerald carpet spreads out as far as these eyes can gaze.

I feel the warmth caress me and fill my soul anew,

No longer do I suffer from the pain I have been through.

I lie down in this paradise and wrap myself in jade,

Finally I am in the sun and far from any shade.

There is no pain, no sadness, found here in this rapture,

No eyes bleed tears of sorrow, no heart suffers fracture,

Could this be the peace that I have searched forever for?

Finally an open window, not a padlocked door.

But suddenly that window slams, the door is bolted tight,

The emerald carpet turns to dust, the clouds blot out the light,

The weeping willow rots and dies and crumbles to the floor,

Euphoria is smothered out and pain returns once more.

A rush of lightening races through my veins,

Where once was warmth there now is only pain,

I try to scream but it is muffled out,

A mask of plastic smothering my mouth.

I try to see but blinded are my eyes,

An unseen force preventing me to rise.

My efforts, futile, lose ferocity,

I feel a faintness overcoming me,

And as before my body turns to stone,

I suddenly feel desperately alone...

The weakness this time heavy and forever,

Please let not this be my last endeavour

I want to see your faces one last time,

And ask you to forgive my wicked crime.

I did not mean to hurt you all like this,

It was a desperate cry, a final wish.

A prisoner like me had no escape,

For these bars were not so easy to break.

Incarcerated in my shattered head,

My mind had rot, my soul was all but dead.

And as I slip away from howling cries,

I see no weeping trees or sunny skies.

No fields of green but oceans, painted black,

I feel not warmth, but ice upon my back.

Exhale a breath for one last final time,

I wish forgiveness had somehow been mine,

But no more does my body let me live,

I have no more to life which I can give.

Embracing hand, oh why not here to lend

There is no guiding light here at the end...

Progress

2011-02-22T21:11:00.002Z

Keep on running, walking, crawling, clawing at the floor.

Pushing onward, upward, skyward, forward all the more.

Don’t give up and don’t give in and let the bastards win through.

In the end you’ll look back at the space you’ve left between you.

The Ground is Soft Here

2011-02-17T20:35:00.011Z

The ground is soft here,

You cannot see the earth, for it is littered with men.

Like the fallen buckled branches of a forgotten fir tree,

Twisted against the dying sun, casting awkward shadows

Onto the scarlet soil.

Bloodied. Battered.

Broken.

Bodies,

Ensnared in wire, strangling the last splutters of life

In a fountain of red toward the stars, offering a sacrifice to the heavens

In exchange for a quick death.

An offering,

Ignored.

The ground is soft here,

Craters scatter into the horizon.

Graves

Filled with lost heroes, spilling over into the mud.

Men twist together, locked forever in their final battles,

Dashed to pieces by the metals of man.

Decay is quick.

Bravery is turned to dust effortlessly,

Lost forever.

As though it never were.

A red river, thick and dirtied, carries life from the fallen.

Into the chasms of the earth.

Providing nourishment
To hell.

The ground is soft here.

And the night is long.

A thunderous applause shatters the unnatural calm

Beyond the darkness

From afar.

But there is no rain.

The foundations of the earth are shaking.

Distant cries of terror are silenced.

As more graves are dug, effortlessly.

A desperate soul cries out,

Dear God

Help us, but come yourself, do not send your son

For this is no place

For children.

The ground is soft here...

Dawn.

The sun bleeds across the sleeping earth.

Warming her face and awakening her.

Rolling plains, as far as the eye can see.

Show no scars.

The bodies of the fallen long since lost;

Eradicated, by the churnings of time.

The ground is still red.

Bloodied. Painted

An everlasting shrine to the perished

In the face of the scarlet flower.

Flourishing on the fallen

For eternity.

The ground is soft here,
And you cannot see the earth.

My Soul Entire

2011-02-15T21:16:00.004Z

This loneliness, this blackened void,

The charred remains of passion’s fire.

Left lying here, as constant toyed,

My heart, my breath, my soul entire.

With nothing left and all but gone,

You left me here to linger on.

I long for you on winter nights,

And pray for you in summer’s heat.

I see your face in starry lights,

And breathe your scent from linen sheets.

But now as echoes you remain,

You leave me here to bear the pain.

I step outside; I hear your voice,

Whisper on the wicked winds.

Denied the right to make a choice,

What was our crime, what were our sins?

That justifies us lovers parted,

Left nothing but the broken hearted

So now I walk this earth alone,

Nowhere to go, this pain won’t cease.

No one around to call my own,

No one to help me find my peace.

My heart, it floods, with constant fear,

I cannot live without you here.

I gaze into the endless sky,

As distant starlight’s shimmer round.

The tears roll gently from my eyes,

And patter softly on the ground.

I take one step, and then another,

Until the ground beneath is none.

I see your face my darling lover,

And close my eyes, and then it’s done

To leave behind this pointless life,

And join with you in paradise.

The Way the World Ends

2011-02-10T16:32:00.005Z

This is the way the world ends.

Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Do not fear the light of the dying star for it will yield no pain.

It is mortal, it is ended.

Fading out like the dimming of the candle, then extinguished, forever.

No light shall ever again grace these barren lands

As dust forever billows across its scarred surface

And drinks its voluptuous seas.

Like a standing ovation,

Brought to its knees.

This is the way the world ends.

The celestial dance shatters as the marbles of the universe scatter

Tumbling eternally through the blackness of time.

Erratic and meaningless as the horror of nothing

Becomes everything

At the end of all things.

Life fades on the horizon of eternity.

As lifeless as a doll,

Staring into emptiness,

Exhausted of soul.

This is the way the world ends.

Frozen remains long devoid of consciousness,

Drawn deeper into the dark.

Whispers of brilliance find no listener

In the nothing.

No heaven to accept the irrelevant traveller.

The hand of god can only reach so far.

Unable to halt the death knell chime

Echoing thunderously,

For all time.

This, is the way the world ends.

Animals

2011-02-08T21:02:00.007Z

The Fury

Pitiful the morsels for the feeding of the rats,

Dished out unemotionally by vicious little cats,

Like vermin, out the rats they come and scurry back to hide,

Whilst all the while the fat cats feast voraciously outside.

The Persecuted

In the darkest corners of the high walled city streets,

The rank and rotten souls of human waste claw to compete,

Shuffling through the blackness with no light to shine the way,

Incarcerated minds that will not see the dawn of day.

But in these deepest caverns of the mountains made by man,

A foul and ancient evil weaves its spiteful master plan.

For in these fettered alleyways no man has power here,

The lost, condemned and damned are ruled by unrelenting fear.

The smog and putrefying air sits heavy all around,

As bodies of the weaker souls lie scattered on the ground.

For death does not discriminate amongst the cluttered throng,

His scythe of execution swipes erratically along.

The freezing air fast preserves the corpses of the fallen,

Their faces twisted painfully as death had overcome them.

The heavy snow, relentless in its everlasting fall,

A heaven sent salvation of a cold white burial.

The Choice

Decrepit are the backs of those on which they choose to ride,

The carriers of power burrow in from the outside.

Driven by the ignorance of hosts on which they feed,

And through which they do multiply with each new tiny seed.

A weakened mind, a fickle thing, is easier to corrupt,

So quickly will the blisters form and rapidly erupt.

And further spread well scripted lies as fast as forest fires

Burning all that stay the path of mankind’s great desires.

For power comes at such a price; mans soul in which to sell,

No longer need you thirty coins to pass the gates of hell.

The Fall

However on the cats there feeds the cunning little fleas,

Which unbeknownst to them do spread the vileness of disease.

So while the cats sit smugly by in total self belief,

The swiftness of decay quickly rots them underneath.

Adieu

2011-02-06T13:02:00.005Z

I’ve a book in one hand and a beer in the other,

With no soul around and no pain to suffer.

Not a care in the world as the black eats the blue,

It’s time to move on... but I’m thinking of you...

Get out of my head and exit my heart,

It's been but a month since you ripped us apart.

I’ve a cap on my head and a song in my ears,

But that message you sent has just brought me to tears.

I try to move on but each step that I take,

Is met with one back as I drown in my wake

So take back your words of affection and trust,

Our relationship built on loose shavings and dust.

I slap on some jeans and go to the town,

But seeing your face is bringing me down.

I claw at the walls in secret, alone.

This once caring heart is now rock solid stone.

I never stopped caring, to try and to love,

Met with disapproving eyes from above.

I open the sheets and crawl into bed,

And burrow to where you once lay your head.

Your scent is still buried, I draw in a breath,

But shadows and memories are all that is left.

Curl into a ball and cry off to sleep,

Alone in the darkness a soft, solemn weep.

I truly did love you and all that you are,

Your smile and your eyes that I longed from afar.

But you never did show that I meant this to you,

And I asked nothing more than for us to be true.

For a feeling of warmth, of love and compassion,

A want to see me... not dealt out in ration.

A reply to a call, a response to a text,

Not leaving me striving to better your ex.

My self esteem crushed, my confidence shattered,

You tore me apart and left my soul scattered

It was you that you loved; it was you that you pleased,

A chance to be absent was a chance often seized,

To survive on your own in a self absorbed bliss,

The perfect utopia for a narcissist.

They say love that's lost is better than none,

But a love barely gained has left me so numb.

You took what you wanted, discarded the rest,

No thought for what’s right or what may be best.

I was brought to my knees yet you still sought for more,

As I poured out my heart and wept on the floor.

But no lower I sank, no further to fall,

The bottomless pit had been reached after all...

For now I see you and all you really are,

A selfish expectant that loves from afar.

For I was no criminal, committed no crime,

I deserve so much more than a lover part-time.

You had it all there and it could have been right,

But you left me alone on too many a night.

And now I stand up, reassemble the puzzle,

Sift through the debris, restack the rubble.

Take back what is mine that I’d given away,

And show you my strength, less my weakness this day.

So take one last look as I turn and adieu,

Goodbye wasted love...

...I feel nothing for you.

The Last Word...

2011-02-05T17:01:00.001Z

Let’s stop and take a minute,

This isn’t what you want,

Why kid ourselves, why drag this out?

Why make this what it’s not about?

Why kick and scream and fight and shout?

It’s done let’s just move on

You say you want to love me,

You say it’s what you need,

But why should I just sit around,

And scrape my feet along the ground,

Leave you alone until you’ve found,

New hearts from which to feed

I show you that I love you,

I carve your name in flesh,

So in return you say you do,

But empty words these are, not true,

You say it’s not me, that it’s you,

You’ve made me such a mess.

You look at me, so fearful

And say I scare you so,

But it is I that suffers more,

I pour my heart out on the floor,

And scratch my face until it’s raw,

And yet you still let go.

What more could I have offered?

How much more blood to shed?

I gave my soul to you alone,

And etched our names in solid stone,

Placed you up high upon a throne,

Yet to you I am dead.

And now I see you leaving,

There’s nothing I can do,

You tore me up and left my mind,

Shattered, impossible to find,

A pleasant thought, a picture, kind,

It was not me... it’s you.

But I can play a trump card,

A hand you’ll never beat,

You think it’s easy to just leave,

And leave me here to sit a grieve,

What possibly could you achieve?

I’ll stay your wicked feet.

And no more will you torment,

Your path of pain will cease,

I will free you from your own cage,

In one almighty hand of rage,

And start anew, turn a fresh page...

Forever... be at peace...

Waxen Wings

2011-02-03T20:07:00.002Z

I feel the darkness creeping in,

Abhorrent beast of hate and sin,

I try to fight, not let it win,

But futile have my efforts been,

For in it seeps and overtakes,

Inside my soul, despair it wakes.

For happiness is hard to grasp,

Try as I might, it cannot last,

It’s never present, always past,

It stays so brief and goes so fast.

I thought I’d found it in those eyes,

But as before, it was but lies.

Why can I never find my peace?

Where is this pain, why does the beast,

Enrapture me and on me feast,

Upon my joy, for this has ceased,

And left me crying in the dark.

I fear I’ll hear no morning lark.

My life is but a carousel,

Around it goes, I cannot tell,

If I still ride or if I fell,

A prince in heaven, bound for hell,

As waxen wings decay and die;

I plummet through the blazing sky.

For life is but a simple task,

The meaning though you cannot ask,

You must traverse with any mask,

Your actions, choices, all are classed.

A short and crucial judgement plan,

Upon the very soul of man.

Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down

2011-02-02T21:50:00.004Z

Swimming in a sea of sand,

Pushed by the soul, pulled by the hand.

The outside strong as insides rot,

A liquid mind that will not clot,

And spilling out onto the floor,

A fight, unbroken, I endure.

A desperate cry in an empty forum,

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

As dawn breaks through and sirens fly,

And open eyes begins to cry.

Dragged reluctantly from unwashed sheets,

Two faces in the mirror meet,

Exhausted, gaunt and full of sorrow,

They long for something else tomorrow,

Those sights too sad for those that saw them,

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

Heavy feet meet solid ground,

As snow falls endlessly around.

Cars drive past no souls to drive them,

Journeys, destinations, live men,

Driven to insanity.

An endless path stretched out before me.

Walking on, my spirit fallen,

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

Welter in well-known surroundings,

Tied in tight but no real groundings,

As I stare out through the glass dividing,

From the outside, inside, hiding,

In a place where no-one can see,

Leave me here and never find me.

Curtains betray, and so I draw them

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

The emptiness consumes entire,

No drink can douse the raging fire

Nor can the food defeat the hunger,

An empty heart, no love to plunder.

Come not to save me, leave me here,

It’s not for you to interfere.

For those I loved I now abhor them.

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

Abyss

2011-02-01T21:30:00.002Z

Candlelit vigil on the shores of the sea.

Submerged in the depths of the blue, endlessly

Awaiting a moment when the sorrow subsides,

And washes ashore with the turning of tides.

My clothes sodden through and an anchor to bear,

Threaten to drag me down from the air,

And into the deep where no-one will find me,

Wrap up my arms and ask them to bind me.

For I will not struggle nor cry out in fear,

There are none that will miss me when I am not here.

So let me slip gently under the waves,

And join countless others in watery graves.