Gestation

The sense
               decensed
gnarled roots twisted lethargic
   grasping at the ground
digging deep for a heart planted
               beating against the darkness
the thrashing rhythm of a thing dying

What seeds can find in this discarded world
     will be made a tall and imposing thing
nurtured by the memory of a time
     when the need for them
was but the sound of wind blowing through playful leaves
               falling.

A World on the Spectrum

Brown is a stale companion as it turns
yet the foundation for complexity
by which all eyes have in time grown to yearn.
Brown embraces those who fight desperately
to find the cosmos in this entropy
encouraging them to rise up and bloom
to take ownership of their destiny
all endings are beginnings when exhumed.

Red is a passionate lover that burns
with a terrifying ferocity
however with patience one will soon learn
the chaos of love is no enemy
what it takes it returns in ecstasy
find a place for the heart and give it room
let it find refuge in the revelry
all endings are beginnings when exhumed.

Green is the friend never given but earned
a destination built on empathy
divined from the expression of concern
and emboldened by generosity.
Green will break walls with its tenacity
upturning even the most concealed tomb
tragedies reduced in this necropsy;
all endings are beginnings when exhumed.

Colors come together in melody
the bouquet of life becoming perfume
our experiences in harmony
all endings are beginnings when exhumed.

The Machine

Where do the words go
  when I stop writing?
Surely they are somewhere
  beyond my reach.

Do they mourn my loss
  as I do theirs
or are they resigned
  beneath the shade of patience
celebrating this moment of peace?

Is peace so important to the mind
  that it can end the purpose I’ve given it
find its own and leave us both tortured
  or has the mind instead
found itself lost and the words with it?

There is horror in silence
lament the empty page
but forget the mind,
that was lost long ago.

Peasants

Deceived into concessions
for a world that was broken
the fractured found aggression
beyond what could be spoken

Fruit cannot be harvested
when salt has been sewn within
no water was invested
no chance for seeds to begin

To gain the growth required
they rose against the farmer
amongst themselves conspired
without arms, without armor

Thus the world was disrupted
and much needed change achieved
the people once corrupted
would no longer be deceived

Lights Out

The canvas is bright with lights
there lies the future – burning
the dark sutured around it like a wound
slowly cauterized

Violence
strikes in the night
expressed as darkness in geometry
the light extinguished
               in triangles
                              squares
                                             rectangles.

The world disappears
panic is hidden amongst the shadows
the future is mourned

The past ignites in old fires
rising high into the clouds
the corpse pyres of dying dreams
wake something primal.

Dancing flames tell stories
our eyes would not otherwise hear
hearts are warmed while minds break
the end is bright.

Reduced

Consciousness and form pulled from all directions
screaming out against the cosmos in a vacuum
                                                                           silent
there is no place for us amongst the stars
they burn for dreams that end in death
                                                                           rebirth
not fire or embers or kindling
we are invisible heat lifted to the night
                                                                           rising
when the wind catches us in its tantrums
it carries us away until we are nothing
                                                                           dissolved
We are places all around – moving
until cooled – and naught but the movement remains
                                                                           sifting

The New World

Maps were drawn
to keep the world at bay
when the world seemed so vast.
Lines were used to convey
a sense of place
restraint,
else how would we face
the endless geography
untamed?

When we could not find words
we used our words instead
reducing the new and strange
to memories alive or dead,
a part of ourselves at play
in labels
for all that is touched by night or day.

Colors

Blue is the place beyond our reach
blue is the speech made to subdue
red words they preach of violence to renew our fear
the dawn is near

Yellow slices through the night sky
yellow the dye the river pulls
Green now from cries of full hearts grieving in the stream
to wake from not a dream

Orange is what they left to us
orange the rust that aches for end
purple the lust that will bend truth around morning
a fair warning

Fire

Burns
the air around you
rising
               swelling
                              crashing again
the ground stirs

Burns
those lips
apart and broken
               set against me
                              closing in
the bite.

Burns
these bonds
that hold us together
               and keep us apart
the rope

burns