SS Daniel J Morrell

All that metal was more than steel beams,
born of dreams with sturdier seams,
a name whose history foretold of terrible things,
here too, here too.

A ship built of such namesake
could live eternal on silver wakes
but it’s moniker took no part, long since dead
he had no hand, no hand.

So when the ship was old and brash,
it breached tyrannic waters headlong into a clash,
abandoning the ideals of its progenitor
for shame, for shame.

As if possessed by more than storm,
the ship rose high and like rags was torn,
sending its crew scattered to the cold,
alone together, alone together,

their desperate hearts searched the sea of night,
dancing with terrible fury, they saw absurd lights,
a ship as brazen as they and cried out,
“rescue, we are rescued”

But that ghoul did not slow to greet them as a friend,
rather surged forward with rage against them;
twas the stern of their own ship come to finish the job
drag them down, drag them down.

And so it did, tossing raft to sky
and pulling them into the cold undertow
nameless faces for the fish below;
but Dennis survived, Dennis survived.

Reverie

I am content in the sunlight
a thousand blank pages waiting
but without any cause to fight,
for my attention. Not needing;
necessity is self-defeating;
but there- available all the same.
The time left us is only wanting,
this life having finally been tamed.

The day drifts away but it is still bright,
a lifetime of mournful shadows fading
behind a long legacy of delight;
decades of fruitful creating,
the love of those that are liberating,
curiosity like an open flame
from fire to fire, always leaping.
Never quiet is my soul’s refrain.

Overtime

With the coffee that they like,
shaved off the bean like chocolate moose;
a foggy night of swirls rolling off the spoon.
That kind of early.

I need to be there.

People will remember if I’m not,
hold it against me, resent me.

How do I barricade my home office?
It’s a bedroom, no need to barricade.
                                  Supposedly.

Just need food and drink for two,
so when they come for me,
            [They will come – are coming]
                    we’ll live!

          Better than we did when we had to work
all the time,
                  coming in early.

Is a locked door enough to hold them off;
    the door between the day and night,
                      between dreams and reality,
                                  between consciousnesses?

                      I hope so.
                      I hope so.
                I don’t want to die like this,
          early.

Everything

Be done for the day,
unanswered.
The sleepless nights of the nation
bringing to heel those movements transposed,
when the walls can no longer protect you from the elements.
I felt love,
feeding us and making us strong,
to become violence on the leeches
only a few feet away,
who will not bend by force.
There can be no companions here.
Our identities,
something that burrowed into the background,
but we’ve known that;
reduced we are to subtle heat obscured.
Hanging from the wires,
no one to prune the eccentricities
between this place and another.
So eager to find themselves fit amongst the stars,
all the insides set to fire;
It can’t go on like this.

I can taste the years;
every moment respected and cherished,
severed from the world around us,
on the other end of the beginning;
silent and still,
dripping.
Once we had it all together,
tumbling like a clod of dirt down a hill,
that will collapse under pressure;
restrained only by old roots.
Let that comfort you in your time of need.
The smell of ancient minerals,
oil, grease,
that languish lecherously
against all the dreams of fate.

The end is nigh,
though no one is there to hear
the autumn leaves laughing beneath tranquil steps;
like water toiling away,
tossing up all the horrors we had forgotten.
Those truths that hide in the present, revealed,
but brighter,
                      leave nothing that was.
Echoes,
captured by some concern that is not me,
a stroke of color
pressed hard against a blank paper,
the sound tumbling up a long hollow
until pleasantness is nullified,
from years of giving more than expected,
dying in avarice.
I’m not sure now why it didn’t break
while we fought against it,
the long wait and effort vindicated
before that final curtain drops.
The systole and diastole
cannot survive to the end.

Where the wires, pipes and tubes retire,
quiet hidden movements
with shrouded secrets even the skin conspires on,
stabbing at the ceiling in six different places,
until, at last, broken.
Like orphaned laughter so briefly sustained,
to become part of a greater whole,
the salt laden water water rising to the throat;
a sense of belonging,
lapping at what warmth drips down,
in the brighter corners of that vacant place.
I can’t remember why I enjoyed it so much.

Eager to grow into something beautiful,
and quietly resign to darkness;
I would fashion some reverence from the stale stone slate.
It’s not trash, but it should be,
to open eyes questing;
awkward, ungainly,
bruises, cuts, and wounds.
Overwhelming,
wondering,
yet no less worthy of what alms we offer.
And that is enough.
We are bleached sidewalks in the sun.
I don’t know.
Some part of that old life,
forcing itself through too small a gap,
crumpled like crash test dummies;
Belies what was beneath our feet.

I want it all – and quickly,
while the state of my mind,
cannot reconcile what is real.
I must feed it,
before it gets away from us.
Para llamar a casa,
in violent protest.

Hours are indiscernible from minutes.
I regret thinking time was like the sea,
that primal tugging beyond the veil;
but truth does not move through time as we do.
Collecting like lightning in a bottle,
settled like stew in a dim lit room.
This is the world,
all our troubles overflowing,
like so much sand over the desert dunes.
Exhaust what you can, the endings don’t stop.

Naked,
I fear that life,
though it is dependent on the past.
A heavy hand may have cast it out,
as a thresher to an arm amongst the wheat;
a cloud of chaos still warm from the womb,
confident there is plenty more
(if you’ve got the coin to spend).
It’s not like it thirsts for blood,
it will find empathy
excavating what innocence is left,
in the darkness.The leaves are gone.
Lives are short,
taint us with histories,
known, expected, overpowering,
everything.

Angelarium

Where death is natural,
the infection settles,
overwhelming the end,
echoing in the veins,
                  “again,
                                again.”
It spreads, revitalizing
to keep peace at bay, another day.

The mystery beyond the threshold,
pungent like a punchline.
Known, expected, overpowering;
withheld painfully.
Ignorance as sharp as a sword,
the vendetta cutting on all sides.

Life is meant to be overcome,
not given.
not taken lightly.
Fought against,
              bested,
                          subdued.
In death;
to beg for its persistence: blasphemy.
Lance the errant tongues.

Play the Odds

If you’ve got the coin to spend,
and you’re looking to retire,
the smart money is on the end.

Of course, it is your life my friend,
and there is plenty out there to acquire,
if you’ve got the coin to spend.

But, I say buck the trend,
forget all the stuff people desire,
the smart money is on the end.

Too many out there want to contend
offering admission to some place higher,
if you’ve got the coin to spend;

you can do all that, you can make amends,
but listen, we’re all going to expire.
The smart money is on the end.

The world as it is, I can only recommend,
find someone to admire- and prepare for fire.
If you’ve got the coin to spend,
the smart money is on the end.