The Last Smile

 

A twitch before sleep

just beneath skin, muscle signals mind

Light has found its way

outlining the edges of a sleeping soul

 

Water slaps and licks

the sides of a boat out to sea

Reflecting the sky above

in arcs and ripples of blue

 

Clouds shift and sway

as the sun peels them quietly apart

Just beneath the skin

a heart begins to time with tide

 

Eyes close at shadows of passing birds

while just miles away, the splash of a drowning past

reveals its last breath with a knowing smile

Drawing the Sun

 

They leave me

falling so slowly away it's hard to see

like the growth of a flower or blade of grass

 these quietly spoken ways to be

 

Buried past sand and rock

the digging has stopped and broken

lack of sun turns leaves from green to rust

 I find a heart that's never spoken

 

Cradling, I hold myself

knee to chest and chest breathing slow

something smiles behind me

 and this heart begins to beat

 

As they leave me these

nights and days drawing the longest lines

turning canvas into forests and leaves

 I draw the sunlight to me now

 like I used to

 years ago

A Momentary Breath

 

Just outside the window

 a younger me safely plays

As miles and markers

 pass beneath us in blurs

 

Away from the arms of home

 I watch the sun still shining

Along the shores I now walk

 the moon still shifts the tides

 

Nothing I can see here

 will stop this soul from blooming

Not the miles

Not the markers

Not the arms of home

 

Rising through a flock of ashes

 I can reach through the blur

 and take the hands that ask to see

 the sun

 the moon

 the shores and tides

Aftermath

 

This black dog lays in a pool of its own blood

 eyes not yet rolled over to green

Side still rises taking breath

 reflecting moonlight on its black-oil coat

 

Mind still firing

 thoughts arc and leap

Teeth slowly wet

 from glands preparing for feast

 

It stirs to rise

 legs shaking atrophy

Bones creak and moan

 as watching moon yells for help

 

Words burn onto a wall

 changing meanings in seconds

 

But no one can hear the moon

 or the padded steps

 of this black dog risen

 on it's way through a forest

 of broken light

Black Prayer

 

and in this haze, this chamber of endless tone

no gentle press of hand to throat

you never leave, and your eyes rest with a hollow sigh

on something stirring, just behind me

under just a crack of light I drop

and my knees never remember the impact

and from my gut flows memory as black as oil

pushing it's way over a sidewalk flecked with snow

years later, near a shore there's a hole

and in it i stare, the moon not daring to light this path

knuckles raw with grains of sand

the smell of rotting wood in air

a heavy ache finds its way from muscle to bone

through veins and time it fills my heart

above, the sky begins a horrific descent

the sea arches its back and coils to strike

finally, time is flickering out

 ready to wipe this virus away

 this human blood, flesh and bone

take these fuckers down

and push them all beneath the waves and sand

leave all souls chained to fire

and memories stapled to skin

at last, turn to me

scatter my mind into darkness

 and squeeze my heart, hard as you can

 every drop right over sun and moon

finish me and rid me

 and then forsake me

and just be on your god damned way

Moment by Moment

 

one by one

i carve these people away from me

so slowly, they don't feel a thing

 

strand by strand

i peel away the fiber of my being

careful so as not to catch myself

 

grain by grain

i let the light of life given me

slide through my shaking hands

 

inch by inch

i make my way to mirrors

to see what's behind me again

 

day by day

i walk alone by my own light

and it's getting hard to see a path

 

night by night

this little piece of God

empties itself out

into a sea of oil

 and fire