566
It's been a hot minute since I posted something. So here's a collection of poems I've written over the last year or so.
Mortificata Lacrimis
Autumn burns in peaceful flame
A quiet death, cold winter’s game
Across the dead horizon line
Red and gold, death mask divine
The sun itself slows down its roll
The moon steps up to pay its toll
Flora et fauna tardus in tempore
Ipsam terram gloria renovare
Softened ground from tears of sky
The lords of the air all start to cry
A dulled pale glowing light of day
Plunging lifeblood deep in dry decay
The stormfly dies vainglorious death
The stormcrow crying shibboleth
Corvus vocat mori neniam
Per lacrimas et imbres veniam
Old winter walks the valley of death
The yearling breathes a stormy breath
Bleed the trees, strip them to bone
The jackrabbit spends his days alone
The red leaves fall and mold and rot
The cardinal cries the cold he’s bought
Vide lacrimas mortuorum
Ad solis occasum argentum
Lost at Sea
The sky is clearing up now
From the cloudburst and the storm
The waves rough and deadly
Slowly revert to form
What little life is high above
Is there any left below?
Seabirds fly and sailors die
Just follow the ebb and flow
The water laughs upon the rocks
A mocking, derisive laugh
One single barrel lost at sea
Is the sailor’s epitaph
What families now will miss them?
Sailors sacrificed to the sea
The salty brine and the sailor’s spine
Entwine while the little birds flee
The sunburst dances on the sky
Chasing the cloudburst away
The water calms its turbulence
As the memory begins to decay
The Black Chest
On the ground, sobbing
Over a pale white dress
Shoes too small to fit
Taken from a chest
A pain that feels unending
A heart torn straight from flesh
Made raw from searing memory
Birthed from out your chest
He’s gone away, hasn’t he?
To where you cannot follow
Your black bonnet hiding
A lump you cannot swallow
A woman once had lived here
Lived inside this chest
Wore those tiny wedding shoes
And wore that pale white dress
Now all that has vanished
Long before it’s day
The dress still starched and shiny
No signs yet of decay
A joyous life in ruins
A white veil swapped for dark
From church to mausoleum
No honeymoon to depart
The tears come again unbidden
On your knees you pray and weep
He lies now unperturbed
Your sorrow now to keep
The Hind
The ground was dead and growing not
The trees had died and began to rot
One hind looked out, on waves of white
At water reaching out of sight
The water alight with evening fire
The hind calls dark, bleating, dire
Went down to the water, there to drink
Set foot on the water, and let it sink
The sun died its little death
The moon expelled its bated breath
Moonlight flowed like milky fire
Making the hind a quiet pyre
The hind turns back, back towards the trees
Steeling against the nights cold breeze
The owl cries its dirgeful tune
The hind lay cold under silvery moon
There the hind, it did not stay
It went to the water ‘fore light of day
The owl cried its tune again
Dirging the death of the dying fen
It went to the water, but not to drink
Set foot on the water, but did not sink
It walked on the water, on and on
Into the dawn
Tears and Rain
“Five boys signed up together
None of them made it through
There was Bill, and Todd, and Andy
Cooper and Pritchard too”
Andy left his dad a’raging
Billy left his girl a ring
Todd left his momma nervous
Her other son signed up that spring
Cooper didn’t leave much behind him
Just wanted them to think him brave
And Pritchard was just looking for freedom
His granddad was the son of a slave
Andrew came from wealth and royalty
Always had a Coke in hand
His pa was the local lawyer,
He played trumpet in the band
No matter how hard he tried
Andy couldn’t stay on track
So he shipped out with his buddies
And he never made it back
Todd was a good kid, truly
Sang in the Sunday choir
His grandpa was the mayor
And his father was a liar
His mama loved him real hard
It was his dad he always lacked
So Todd went and followed his brother
And he never made it back
Now Billy, he was born unlucky
Spent two years pacing Juvie floors
His father was a drunkard
And his mother was a whore
He found a girl who was nineteen
Up north in Adirondack
He asked her to wait there for him
But he never made it back
Cooper was a lonely transient
Rode the rails since he was two
His pa was half Romani
And his mother was a Jew
He got the worst that folks could offer
He got sick of hate and flack
Now he’s buried six foot under
He never made it back
Now Pritchard was a dreamer
Watched the stars each and every night
Never thought he’d have charge a hill
Or kill in a firefight
He was looking for freedom
From what his kin went through
He flew out in ‘67
And flew back in ‘72
His body made it back broken
From the other side of the sea
He barely made it through Tet
Had a stump where his arm used to be
His dreams turned into nightmares
His insides bleached from stout
The stars looked more like mortar shells
His eyes were hollowed out
Pritchard ain’t been doing much dreaming
He’s been talking to himself
His youth was shot from under him
In a war made for someone else
His daddy told him “take up praying”
His uncle “drink will ease the pain”
The best thing he found for filling
Was pure, powdered cocaine
So now, was Pritchard lucky?
Never did find himself free
Couldn’t fit the horror that filled him
He was dead by ‘73
It was a war that few could fathom
Those kids were left asking “why?”
“Why was I told to come here?”
“And why was I forced to die?”
Andrew left his dad disappointed
Billy left a girl and a ring
Todd left his momma crying
She lost both her boys that spring
Cooper didn’t leave much to memory
Not many left remember his name
Five graves lay scattered in limbo
Covered by tears and rain
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