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Phantom Pain

2011-10-25T20:54:00.000+02:00

You said something
and something somehow
broke.

Words bruised me weak
and so I stepped
aside.

I fold into myself
abandoning you
softly.

And yet, you remain.

Fazed

2011-09-27T20:59:00.002+02:00

I am sorry,
I am slipping

Do not take my silence
Correction: Do not take my silence amiss
Do not take anything for granted

Do not mind me

as your eyes fuse
with the desert sun
far away.

Winter has come
with a vengeance,
freezing my laughter.

The blizzard has turned me brittle
and I write myself out
till I go blank
beneath the black sky.

Husk

2011-09-26T20:26:00.002+02:00

A mouth
twisted by pain
curls around its lies,
cut lips bleed
reassurance.

Experience
shutters the iris
with wit,
keeping in
the shadows.

Chitinous propriety
holds the frame.
Inner flame sunk
onto itself,
growing cold.

Realistically...

2011-09-18T22:17:00.003+02:00

Masked
vulnerability
lightly dances
round the truth
and grimly closed
minds and eyes
laugh at romance
as cowardly pragmatism
hides behind
impracticalities.

Only now and then
a cruel spasm.

Inside

2011-09-17T19:57:00.002+02:00

Hot tears stab
paper eyelids
and slash them
into tatters -
acrid avantgarde
heralding
the conflagration
in her ribcage prison.

An inmate torn
by unheard screams
breaks open
in agony
beneath her own smiles.
Hopes congeal
in the blue depths
of glacier shadows.

London NW2

2011-03-17T11:53:00.000+01:00

Multiple cracks
in the suburban pavement
cross my path
with forlorn irregularity.

Hidden behind
bland facades
hunkers the reality
of jumbled lives.

Exotic fish caught
in a common bowl,
living in castles
marked by ruin.

Like The Sun

2011-03-16T01:13:00.000+01:00

Words hit my ear
like sunlight
on a forest path -
a smattering
of warmth
that dances
with the wind.

I listen quietly,
still as a
basking snake -
coiled warily
under the heat
of a yellow,
indifferent sun.

I turn toward you
like a sunflower
to the sun -
the movement
thoughtless,
instinctive,
helpless.

You are like
sunlight and
I am the earth -
it takes but
a cloud to
hold off
your warmth.

Like This Post

Persuasion

2011-03-15T11:50:00.000+01:00

Striking camp
I fold myself
into a lump.

Letting you spin
your silver web
I follow numbly
at your heels.

Walking home
I strip away
your tangled
principles.

I stretch a line
and rebuild
myself.

The Town I Love So Well

2011-03-13T21:36:00.000+01:00

We walk
underneath
ragged rainshowers,
the sun
gold
in the window panes.

Knitted shamrocks
on rugby scarves
carry
the smell
of the black stuff
and excitement.

A cabbage leaf
tumbles
across the pavement,
and meets
the Irish Times
in the gutter.

Acid

2011-03-12T21:48:00.002+01:00

I watch
your lips curl
with bitter commitment
and he makes
my toes curl
with impulsive joy.

Torn with
impractical ties
I twist my heartstrings
with acidic
impossibilities.

Your words
are velvet
in my brittle silences
and his touch
is musical
on my silent skin.

Wishes

2010-09-28T23:46:00.000+02:00

Trinity oscillates into a question
that regresses - ephemeral, traceless.
Confused voices lament the treason
seeking nurture from the faceless.
They gave it licence to hear them hope and ask,
but the perfume soon dissolved from the broken flask.

(Dis)illusioned

2010-09-09T00:32:00.000+02:00

Delinquent visionary's
charisma reverberates.
Flat awareness jolts
to the petulant clink
of imagined quarrel.

Fraud erases each
trauma with oration.
Watch them waddle
starry-eyed
towards the moon.

Will You?

2010-08-14T14:32:00.001+02:00

Will you stay around forever

And let me love you all that time?

Will you gladly love me back

Even though you know my faults?

Will you listen when I tell you

What my boring day was like?

Will you come to me each evening

Glad that I am there for you?

Will you trace my skin with longing

Kiss me slow with heated want?

Will you press against my fingers

When I answer you caress?

Will you dare to charm and tease me

When I start to snap and snarl?

Will you make me smile in spite of

All the stuff you messed up bad?

Will you wake the child within me

When the adult grows too strong?

Will you never try to hurt me,

Even though you know you can?

Will you let me be your future,

Just the one you wished to see?

Will you help me make this perfect,

Even if it takes some time.

And will you leave me once you know

That I won’t do this by halves?

The Sun is Sick this Morning

2010-08-11T09:21:00.000+02:00

Earth and sky part in
a thin grey line. The pale sun
crawls into the gap.

Rapture

2010-07-29T18:31:00.000+02:00

I wait for rapture, as I lie tightly folded in the dark,
guarded by my goddess whose joy is rapid flight.
Pulling me to the fore, her touch sends a spark
into my weave that ends my dull and lifeless night.

For me, there is no being when she holds me apart.
Yet how does she losen magic that's so closely knit?
Is it the song of her breath? The beat of her heart?
The warmth of her blood? The strength of her spirit?

I cloak her essence, my fabric soaking up her fire,
then, we morph, grow beak and feathered wings,
taking off, the rapture of soaring high and higher,
leaving behind intrigues, lies and weak mortal kings.

Back in the dark casket, neatly folded, I lie.
My regret and longing mirrorred in Freya's sigh.

A/N: This is about the cloak belonging to the Norse goddess Freya with which she could turn into a falcon and fly.

Crumbs

2010-07-26T10:08:00.000+02:00

Putting down
the rules:

Just for fun
no strings attached,
you say.

Trapped,
caught in the headlights,
I nod.

I'll take
what I can get.

Previously published in: Wilderness House Literary Review http://www.whlreview.com/

Phantom

2010-07-26T08:51:00.002+02:00

I have seduced you
a thousand times
in my mind, pulled you
out of your calm.

But how can I hope
to reach you
when you are not here?

I have said
just the right things
time and time again
till you smiled.

But to what avail,
when you are not there
to hear them?

I have dreamed
you into my presence
and carressed you
as is right.

But you are too far
to feel the truth
of my touch.

Downfall

2010-07-25T17:18:00.000+02:00

I fell down
the cold, dark well
of your smile -

prepared for
impact.

You fell down
the bottomless pit
of my passion -

totally
unprepared.

In the end
I hit the ground
running -

your crash
was fatal.

Squandered

2010-07-23T20:05:00.000+02:00

Sorrow paints a picture
Of grey splashed on grey,
drowning all the reds,
yellows and greens
that scream of blatant hope.

A twinkle of memory,
casts a comforting glow –
a potent, uplifting mirage
that turns into the
leaden weight of penance.

The past flatters me,
the fragrant smell of future
and the silver ring of love.
Back then, euphoria held me,
I floated lightly as a feather.

Up and up I soared,
happily investing hopes,
dreaming of walks in the park
and the sweet smell of roses –
ignoring the grim portents.

No use to plead for time,
time flies despite my wishes
and reality carts my dreams away
in exchange for bitter bile,
mocking my timidity.

Yet, if I must name a culprit,
I can blame no one but myself.
The dreary certainty haunts me
that it was I who foolishly
squandered my opportunities.

Dragon's Choice

2010-07-19T20:30:00.000+02:00

When she roars, the world shakes,
the air trembles and the earth breaks.
When she screams, the sky wavers,
the sea foams, fire quavers.
When she glares, the mountains bend,
the storm recoils, time wants to end,
and when she flies beneath the stars,
they start to sing of beauty from afar.

She is power, her grip is death,
her tears are blood, fire her breath,
and when she comes, you cannot go,
you can't break from her red eye's glow.
Gleeming teeth adorn her jaws,
she bares them, grinning at your awe,
wanting to live, you desperatly grope,
for something to hold. It's a forlorn hope.

For what is hope in the face of death?
When you are struck by a dragon's breath?
There is no escape, you cannot run.
The beast has chosen. Ït shall be done.

Framed

2010-07-18T23:22:00.000+02:00

The bitter song
of parting
pierces
our smiles.

Might-have-beens
lurk in every corner,
snatching
tears from our eyes.

We fought
our hearts;
a silent struggle
for distance.

We lost -
our forfeit
these precious seconds
slipping

away.

Hazard

2010-07-17T08:38:00.002+02:00

Due to past
experience
I expect
the blow:
I can take it.

That doesn't make the hurt in the throat less painful
nor does it keep misery from clawing at my insides.
A broken heart is not beautiful: it is convulsive sobs,
a runny nose and tears charting a crumpled face.

Optimists are
the worst
gamblers
and life is a
one-armed bandit.

Danny Glover

2010-07-16T09:51:00.003+02:00

Felicity justifying the intrusion
of your presence,
I settle for a blissful evening
cuddling up to you.
The warmth of your arm
blazing my back,
we munch popcorn to the sight
of Danny Glover
scolding a young Mel Gibson.

I would have watched
Something else
if left to my own devices -
but your intrusion
elicits blissful contenment,
and Danny Glover
is justified by the felicity
of your presence
because my heart beats for you.

A/N: Includes part of a quote by Robert Chapman:
A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion.

Siblings

2010-07-16T00:15:00.001+02:00

Brother -
never chose you
(nor you me..) but blood is
thick, the rumour tells. - Sometimes it
even shows: Sibling solidarity
breeding short spells of unity.
Neither of us chose this;
Our common ground,
brother.

Liar

2010-07-15T18:28:00.004+02:00

It was fine,
we had denied all claims
and this night
- months later -
was just a goodbye.

The long red hair
stuck in the brush
shouldn't have hurt.
Your denial
should not have been welcome.

I know you
did it to shield me
from reality.
I am glad
you told the lie.

Supernova

2010-07-15T14:24:00.004+02:00

What was a sun is now
a white dwarf,
all that’s left after the
supernova.

Emptiness surrounds the
dying star,
the vacuum of loneliness
unbreached.

A soul implodes slowly -
unattached
it falls away from the world,
into itself.

Previously published in: Wilderness House Literary Review http://www.whlreview.com/