No road

Sitting in the darkness

Waiting for the moon

Because the sun refuses

to grant this boon

Mind like a dusty road

Questions racing full throttle

Dark skies groaning with watery load

Dripping from dashed bottle

The compass spins wildly

Wind roaring in the yards

The seaspray hisses sourly

and bursts in briny shards

Drifting without rudder

Sails tattered, ropes frayed

Prays the sailor

All hope allayed.

Friendship Fornever

You don't lose friends, they say

Only find who your real friends are

Perhaps it's when everyone goes away

Yourself you may discover

For friends too are human

and their needs must be met

from consolation to encouragement

"It's gonna be alright," "You're not fat."

Sometimes you're so caught up with others' burdens

You forget your inner twin

while you liberate them from torments

Your own house falls into ruin

masks we wear even with soulmates

walls of steel around our hearts

frustrations, duels of the fates

secrets and desires and whiplash smarts

the storms of the soul that havoc wreak

no one can comprehend, not the closest friend

not the briny blasts upon the cheek

nor the scythes that rip and rend

Collection of short poems #2

when daybreak shatters over skies of grey
and death lurks amidst troubled slumbers
the wild silence howls along the thorny way
casting crimson blood upon frozen embers

--------------------------

the ocean's on fire
melting the sky to stone
and we against the wire
fighting our war alone

--------------------------

Yes I'm running on empty
But when my tank goes dry
Who cares
I'll run on air instead

I am a leaf on the wind
Watch me soar

This exhaustion will pass
And only I shall remain

A greater me

--------------------------

loneliness is a journey in strength
failure a journey in perseverance
the dark night is a journey in faith
people are a journey in patience

if I go down, I'm going down fists swinging wildly, blood racing, and kicking arse

--------------------------

Troubles, troubles, come my way
You'll pass, but I'm here to stay

--------------------------

The sable sky hearkens
to the cock's crow and pales
the horizon's water glistens
and hushes the night gales

--------------------------

Dreams fading in the distance
Through clouded eyes of tears
Dusty mirages and windwashed visions
and whispers in my ears
The path falters
Staggers, falls
As death dashes its waters
Against the dead-end wall.

--------------------------

treasure heart

somewhere inside of me
there is a chest of fears
somewhere inside of me
there is a bottle of tears

here is a wellspring of hope
there a stream of joy
mountains of care
and depths of despair

I am a cluttered treasure map
X marks my heart
maybe someone someday
will find the way
without falling to each and every trap
scattered unmarked on this bloodstained chart

Collection of short poems

wake up to soft strains of dancing water
to the rain-glazed window my heart leaps
opening to a dying storm's last throes
on my face dawn's musky breeze

--------------------------

raindrops dancing in the cool night air
glittering in streetlights' gentle glare
eagerly they knock at my windowpane
"come out and play with us in the rain"

--------------------------

summer rain, so short, so fast
like a passing train in a windy breeze
furious and loud, too brief to last
no more strength than a maiden's sneeze 

--------------------------

phantom limbs refuse to go away
keenly felt, though unseen
like painful memories of yesterday
through heartstrings merrily ripping

--------------------------

Let the heavens' weight on my shoulders lie
Standing tall, my sapphire load a-bearing high
That man may yet give hope to those who would try
"Go for your dreams, reach for the sky!"

--------------------------

the rainbow's brilliant colours mourn
and sorrowful rain-tears stream
for why from each other
they ask, are we asunder torn
from the sunbeam
we once were?

--------------------------

Autumn leaf on the forest floor
Bent, broken, betrodden
The cold wind holds ajar the door
Through which dancing snowflakes beckon

Unyielding

Springing as a salmon up the narrows

of the unforgiving hourglass' neck

Straining against's time's cruel harrows

and surrender's tempting beck

How swiftly does the darkness fall

Shadows fill the night-lit hall

Spirits crushed, passions flee

The lonely candle's flame is choked

By garrottes bloodsoaked - 

hearest thou their scornful glee?

The battle is far from over

Hold fast! 'midst fears adamant 

Lift high the standard, soldier

Look to your arms, ye valiant!

Keep the blazing torches burning

The flame of will must not die

The wheels of time are turning

Our time of glory is but nigh

Troubles and trials, come at me!

Who shall triumph? we have yet to see

For an inch of ground I will not yield

Passion my sword and grit my shield

My heart is steeled and burning bright

Once-smouldering embers have been revived

I fear not the chilling night

For my doughty companions stand at my side

Let it not be said that in terror we fell

with our backs to a pursuing foe

Let it be proclaimed by our funeral knell

That we live on still, in heart, mind, and soul

We only live - and die - but once

Seize the present, give wiles no chance

Endure, my beloved, and gallantly your race run

For golden dreams and desires await to be won

~ Josiah ~

Inner demons

the unforgiving sands of time
pour en masse
a raging flood through the narrow neck
of the hourglass

the past stifles
constricting like a noose
the old skin of a moulting cicada
struggling its old self to lose

with eager notes of merriment
the reaper's scythe hums and sings
severing past from present
sundering heartstrings

and torn a gossamer veil falls
coloured dull with dark memories
but few bright spots of happier times
windborne it drifts into unending eddies

within the gaping maw
of my personal cupboard
to clothe a massive host
of skeletons unnumbered

one day no doubt the trumpet call
shall lash out terrible and fierce
and out shall march my darkest secrets
armed with my deepest fears

Death Race

Phantom lilies in a murky pond
Memories distant of bygone
Days of a darker year
Far from near

The worsted clouds burst
From behind the sun
Forbidding and defiant
Smotheringly silent

The wild wind shrieks
Raging seeks
Lifelines to foul
Souls to devour

Traveller on a lonely road
Weak and barely clothed
Lies gasping by the wayside
With nowhere to hide

If life is a race to be run
If there's a prize to be won
For the horrors we must face
I call it 'Death Race'.

Imprisoned

Secrets guarded

A battle of wills

Kept by thirty two white knights

On two red hills

Secrets hidden

Frozen on a summer’s day

Gone with the wind

Exiled far away

Secrets six feet under

Like a dog’s buried bone

Place forgotten

A dream unknown

Secrets like a treasure

Precious unsaid

Astonishing revealed

Then for the world displayed

Secrets painful

Blood-oath bound

Pangs only inward

With thorns crowned

Secrets surrendered

Like a glass of teardrops dashed on a noontime sidewalk

Vanished, trodden into dusty trails

Sorrow’s empty void

Secrets sealed

With a thousand kisses

Bubbling as a mountain spring

Sallyport of a thousand blisses

Secrets seared on the heart

With memory’s branding iron

Under agonising lock and key

Damned to oblivion

Wanderlust

The skies are my mantle
My bed the earth's embrace
Music I hear from the thunder
Dewdrops uplift my face

Not for me the life of kings
Their burdens, cares and pains
Let them who riches crave
Be bound by their golden chains

Content a wanderer to be
A carefree soul
Whithersoever I wish
Thither I go