Sixteen Just Arrived
But Soon Will Away
Where Tomorrows
Become Yesterday

A Grown Man, Now
Who Makes His Dad Proud
Sentiment, I’ve Too Seldom
Stated Aloud

But You Made Me Better
Right From The Start
The First Born Bloom
In This Father’s Heart

Up Ahead, All Those Dreams
Await Being Found
And If Bravely Sought
Good Fortune Will Abound

These Achievements, Unlock
But Don’t Grade By The Letter
True Success Is The Degree
That You Make The World Better

If The Journey Is Fraught
Stay Vigilant, Tread Right
Where Other Sparks Falter
You Must Be The Light

Lay Siege To Those Demons
Without And Within
However Dark Is The Night
Be Assured… Light Will Win

Crushed velvet
Your skin, soft
Fingertips dance
Softly
Gleefully
With sudden liberty
To explore and retrace
Each subtle nuance
Each supple curve
The sun, ever-curious
Peaks through the window
Engulfing and invading
Our crumpled fortress of sheets and pillows
With a warm, blissful cascade of
Impossible oranges and reds
Celebration for the new day, together
Your lips brush against mine
Tenderly
Eagerly
Your heartbeat quickens
As I feel you press against me
The world melts away
Nothing else matters
Just this
Just you
And when your breath catches
There is no reason left to hide

What is it that keeps you going?
What inspires you not to quit?
What drives you to be better?
What gives you that warrior grit?

The faces are foreign
As with rubber masks
Caricatures, grotesque
Not wholely unknown
But seemingly apart
Blank, vacant, stares
Each visage bringing
Only further numbness
Their mouths, agape
Their eyes, hollow
Their hands, pale and cold
Ever reaching
Ever grasping
Ever clawing
Ever filled, but never satiated
Lost souls
Infected by desperation and woe
Wreaking of wretchedness and misery
I am, at once, repulsed
Yet…
Compelled to assist
Could I ease their suffering?
As such, a boon is offered
And then… accepted
Met not with gratefulness
But rather, the unfortunate and horrific subtext
Of ravenous and unsettling eagerness
Yet, compassion undeterred
By glorious purpose or barbaric sincerity
As doubts start to fester
When will it be enough?
Even as needs are met
Spiders of fingers, grasp
Refusing withdrawal
Angering as they’re lingering
Bitter pills, this shame
Choked down painfully, willfully
Leaving jagged scars of contempt, resentment
And as such,
In nightmarish turn
What began as giving
Goes over to taking,
Each hand filled
Each service rendered
Met only with further ask
More
Their wordless cry
More and more
Driven by callous, insatiable greed
Building to full and frenetic crescendo
Cold-eyed sharks, starting to frenzy
Scenting blood in the water
Winter dances down my spine
Sobering, the realization comes
This can only end one way
There will be no victory here
There’s no hope that will be given
There’s no hope that can be found
Just a bottomless cauldron
Of wanton, endless, need
Insight, admittedly, arriven
Perhaps a moment too late
For they begin to pull
Down
That they may climb
Rats on a sinking ship
Amorphic and anonymous
Twisting and seething
A garish collective of chaos
Furthering its own fury
Gasping and grasping
The shock, overcome
I reach out for stable footing
An action, I determine doomed immediately
Impotent in the face of such unpliable fanaticism
Fatefully swallowed by it’s tremendous wake
Revealing only the unsettling ease,
With which empathy abandons the hearts of men
Impulse conquers thought
Claws tear flesh
Teeth render bone
A taste of tears and blood
That I know to be my own
And suddenly, they’ve gone
I’m falling all alone
Down and down
Into a stark nothingness
Hope lingers, flickers and fades
Marshalling what purpose remains
I reach out for help
For salvation
For forgiveness
But there’s no answer
No one is coming
I gaze out into the silence
But the only thing left to see
Is the darkness ahead
And above
And behind

Endure the tears

But remember the smiles

For you are the only you

That ever is or ever was

And I’m so glad you’re here

When the days begin to ring hollow

And you feel you’re all alone

Tis likely there is someone near

Who’s feeling the same way

And though that offers cold comfort

Hopefully we can share a wry smile

At the irony

My love, I am no longer there
If someday you choose to look
Though my heart would linger still
And all my days on Earth forsook
But stubbornness dilutes goodwill
And limits further twists of fate
Somewhere we’re together still
But in this realm, I cannot wait…
Although our future prospects dim
As ‘we’ and ‘us’ become the past
The stars have shared our lover’s kiss
Our souls they bind until the last