Book10Book 10


My shadow

shows neither

sunrise or set

my silhouette

does not portray

the mirror's display of

creased experience

the crow's vigilant furrows

knit brows focused folds

the lines of knowing laughter

the glancing wink of wit

what was a man

embasketed cased

casketed caving in to

The wish to slip unremarked

under the bridge of sighs

a silent escape disembodied from

dignity's inlaid wooden

barque with

a slight acknowledging nod

from the point of no return

and only the appearance

of change

where was dearth, drought

and doubt of dreams

the pall cloth has sundered seams

to show the astute but obtuse

little deaths of entombed truths

to newly minted eyes

that only envision when

dead to the world

the ode is over old

the dirge left for dead

The adage has not aged well

lament and lay

gone the minstrels way

I would stay

with my light loving shadow

for there is no reflection

in the coming night


I know you

must use your

badge of sorrows

now as a shield

to protect the

emerging you

but when the

time comes and you

can believe

a little in yourself

uncover and let

it fall

expose and toughen yourself

to life's sun

feel your feelings

unlensed by

parents, childhood

fears, imagined

flaws and faults

look smiling and unafraid into

your mirror

in the end

there is no reflection

save from your own light


entarped

in royal blue

water widows weeds

shrouds keening

halyards windchiming

yardarm hymns

on the hard

each bell bouy set tolling

keelsons aching

to be making way and wake

heeling and racing

would they were not

cruelly cradled

a pace from the lake


unseeing I seek

with withering wrinkled cheek

fruitlessly groping with mystic nonsenses

for the winter peach

desireable even with

pithy pulp and pit

a raison d' etre hung

on low arbors

sapient limb

yet ever out of season and reason's reach


longer days are gone

the spit of drizzle

the spite of leaving geese

spell spats of cold and sleet

even the duplicitous

indian summer days

cannot fool away

the frost of fall


aspen's applause

for autumn

summer's loss of leaf

falling away with

each shorter day

tipping the balance

toward lifeless

leaving the season

grieving in colorful

disarray


lo

how the leaves

have fallen

down coverletted

in ermine

never to lift again

what was brown

has been downed in drift

warmth will not delay their

deciduous descent

it is lack light

that ends their day


Trailing veils of rain

angled sun trains from

roiled clouds

descends and cleanses

sending shafts of

sheer enlightenment

cross current

crests falling

concurrent on stone

fireworks of autumn agates

beach light burst

cloud hopping and

polevaulting

stilting on

sun shafts

striking on the

broken bottle green

surface

sating the learning thirst


I want to live

in a place apropos

for a glass house

where you and I

eye to eye see

through any

apparent walls

and the distancing panes

of memory are transparent

to our senses

whose sensitive lenses

focus sharp inner mirrors

observing the thin space that

preserves our fears

yet respecting its fragility

knowing we must break the glass

encasing our fire


mortal scenes

daily dramas

seen through

the electric proscenium

reinforcing the

ill nature of our race

ideas resound

but do not resonate

only echoed by

monotonic emoticons

as innocence decreases

experience deepens the creases

never unveiling

softer features of our janus face

Who speaks for the meek

the benevolent non-violent

the inherent innocents

where rests the

less ruthless truth

the easy peaceful caress

the loving and forgiving

awe ought not to be

elusive to the living


Wearing sea foam slippers

I greet the high tidings

walking on the inconstant

sands of castles and dollars

I have a sun hat

and a night cap

the breeze is my breech clout

nor do I care about

an unraveled sleeve

but in time I ask

Where is Eve?


A fish out of water

flightless bird

dreaming in tongues

I've never heard

a wreck on a reef

dead reckoning wrong

come to grief

sailing solo too long

a disenchanted shanty

wailed to the wave's tattoo


Rough men

lost in bewilderness

busily bushwhacked

stumbling stubble faced

back to the woods

boots on the cliff

edge of prospects

mulishly

not towing the line

not cut any slack

left outside the den

culled from the pack

wolfing down

a hill of beans

dead panning

for old gold

left only with

what money can't buy


Ox eyed and dumb

I succumb to

parroting the

library lullabies

to your putti beauty


I want to be

where the sea

ceases and the

sky starts

heaven's horizon

departing from

heavy weather

into thin air

a condensed and unclouded

I land


Cain was able

to decide on fratricide

but his brother died

with eye nor tooth exchanged

did their diety arrange

everlasting reward for

his pleasing sacrifice

or was it just to have

one less day

out of paradise


hermit aesetic

playing your hand

of solitaire

what have you to

show for a soul

laid bare

unless a lesson

to pass on

less is more on


I have a sleeveless heart

divorced from wives unwilling

and faithless lovers leaving

but what has mended

though sadly ended

was not unbroken

and so unclothed

its tenderness toughened

by exposure

still would not be

loathed to hear

your soft disclosure

the word fitting

like a velvet glove

love


save your

false profits

in vestments

of gold and

folding green

your soul

is not holy owned

by its limited

corporeal partner

but held in

perpetual trust

a living will

a game of chance

without a

pair of dice