Sometimes, they smell awfully sweet,
but upon closer inspection,
angry stench of unborn life
swelters in the depths thereof.
O, capricious youth, you who
cavort with unassuming men;
beguiling with soft faces, and growths
that do not sustain you.
Oh, but you will use your gift
to tempt him; and when you are
brought back to a realization of
how close he comes to taking
what you wanted to...

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Two poems this time.  "Discordant Melody" was written years ago.  "Jazz" was written just now after finishing "La La Land."  Enjoy!

Discordant Melody

I started with a triad,
Then you added a seventh.
What were you thinking?
You ruined my chord.
I'd rather have a thirteenth,
Or even a dropped fifth,
But your discordant seventh
Is straining my peace.
I have no problems with sus fours,
...

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When the final day comes
And I am caught in my
Dirty underwear, I pray
That the angels will look away.

When I find the time is short,
And there is nothing more to say,
When I see the Savior's face,
And feel my sins around me,

When the Light of Life
Is snuffing out, and I am left
To linger but a moment, I pray
That the angels will look away.

I am so far from perfect,
I have defec...

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Stop it! she cried
   Through faltering breath;
You're killing me, love,
   Just stop!

Cheeks and nose red
   With too much blood;
Tears in her eyes
   From the strain.

She held her side
   With her hand
To keep the pain
   From escaping.

It was too warm,
   The stretching pain;
It was too full,
   The tears of her mirth.

Just stop! she cried
  Each time she laughed.

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Unrelated Side Note: I've started a Vlog on YouTube called "A Year of Poetry."  I will be posting a new video weekly of a poem I write/ have written.  Please come check it out and subscribe!  I'd love to get as much exposure as possible, and comments are deeply appreciated.  https://youtu.be/Xbu1yytGBRg

Gyroscopes

Gyroscopes of passion,
Magnetic interaction,
Feeling the vibrations
Of your...

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She asked me if I knew,
And I had to say, "No."
So she told me.
The truth was painful,
It scraped my throat
As I swallowed it down.
In my eyes
She saw the tears,
And in my words
Our pain was mingled.
Light purple venom
Coursed in my veins
When I asked her
If she would leave.
But when she didn't,
The venom turned to blood.

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I’ve been better.  Seen clearer skies.
Hounded out by many for reasons
I’m too ashamed to say.  I tried
Staying far away, and leaving them,
But they crowd around like flies
On butter.  They cry: Reply Requested.

Pages and pages of heartache amassed
On the once-empty surfaces at home.
Months and years came and passed,
I hardly recognized them at all.
My wish was to be left alone at last...

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Life is a jolly watermelon
With seeds and juice galore;
Should I need someone to share it,
I know you are only next door.
Some might say the rind
Is so thick, who can prevail,
But I think of the soft center
Impacted by every detail.

How often do you bite right down
To the edge of any other fruit?
These watermelons hold the prize
Of filling you up tongue and tooth.
Let's share this wo...

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For the purpose of context: I was born with congenital heart disease, so I've long ago come to terms with my own mortality.  Death does not scare me, and I'm forever grateful for each day I have.  This piece is art considering the ache that comes after a break-up, it is not a suicide note, or an intention.  :-)

I have no fear of death;
The welcome arms of darkness
Will be a reprieve from the
...

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Layers and layers
spread thin,
like the stratification
of a hogback jutting up
from my plate.

I am the erosion,
cutting down
with each thrust,
lifting out the sediment,
licking each runnel.

Here is the Pleistocene,
the late Cretaceous
Back to the middle Jurassic,
See early Triassic there;
Triassic is getting cold.

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And it was time again.
Moments had passed,
and passed again.
The grains of sand
running through the hourglass,
each one proclaiming itself
soundlessly
to the cosmos that cared not.

But it was time again.
Time for the rebirth,
time for the dying.
Time to awaken.
Time for the carrying off
of the old,
and the rapture of the
new.

So long ago
the old had sown
the fertile fields,
...

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Put on your red dress
And your party shoes.
Set your hair and make-up,
I've got plans for you.
Somewhere south of forever,
And east of do or die
I have harnessed the four winds
And told them by and by
 
I'd have you coming round
For a bit of give and take;
So get your good self ready,
Because tonight the dead will wake.
Perfect your perfect curtsy,
And with no undue aplomb
Measure y...

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Quiet as the beach can be
Upon the night as it falls:
Birds flown home, and
Life sounds stilled until
The only interruption
Is the rhythmic lapping
Of the low-tide waves.

Lap, ------------- lap,
The slow drumbeat dance
Of the ocean in the mist,
Dark with the new moon,
And stars obscured in
The low-hanging fog
And chilled air crackling.

As the water caresses
The dark, hidden sand...

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Under the shadows of the day,
You reach up to touch me,
And I fall into the pits of
Illusion and delusion.

However many times
You have shrunk from me
In the swarted day,
I have crawled up for you.

Can I empty my heart of
The vicious poison
These shadows build in me?
Can you take that from me?

Hearts like this in constant
And disparate movement
Are treacherous at best, but
Thes...

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This poem is an original piece using established names.  The names of all characters are taken from the Aztec religion, and all of the characters act in sympathy with their attributed and established forms.  The exception is the titular actor: Acamapichtli.  While Acamapichtli was the first ruler of the Aztecs, in this poem, he is not the same person, but only carries the same name.

The pi...

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I've lived the times
Of the theater of my life
Dancing in the foyer:

Commedia dell'Arte
Comprised the entirety
Of my personal repetoire;

Dress rehearsals were
Never taken seriously:
The final play was just

A moments decision
Hurried through a huddle
Of half-written plots.

The masterful monologues
Of my long and intrepid career
Were carried off by the

Glib tongue of the cha...

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Brittle banks of ice
Against my taunting toe,
Cracking and seething
To be so uproariously
   trampled.

Against the yellow
Of the setting sun
Through a smog that
Lays thick across the
   horizon

Jets of black trees
Shoot dark into the sky,
Mimicking the wind
In their jostled, whipped
   frenzy.

The wind that churns
The bowing branches
Bites the lobes of
My ears, uncovered an...

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The empyrean art of philology
Replete with canker and halo
Touches the tips of consciousness
With etymylogical fervor.
Base and conniving innuendo
Coupled by oxymoronic fate
To celestial immolation proves
The ambivalence of langue.
Verse unyielding, rhythmic rhyme,
Sweltered pulsing downbeats;
The stretch and meter of poetic prose
Hold firm to a shifting parole.
In places where sagacit...

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I whispered the words I had come to say;
In humbleness I broke the deep silence,
Perfectly knowing the size and the weight
Of the questions, and of your prescience;
Having said what I came to say, I rose
With hardly a recalcitrant feeling,
Your wisdom is greater than mine I know,
Strictly righteous are all of your dealings.
How famed are your powers of cognizance,
They are sung all about,...

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The music begins again.
You wallflowers who came
with the dance in mind
and empty hands to hold—
skulking along the fringe,
afraid to join in,
but more afraid to leave.
She comes.

You wither at her gaze,
hoping, not hoping
she is looking at you;
Would it mean more?
A joke, a fluke, a trick,
or perhaps a friend—
If you don’t see
will she leave?

Wallflower dancer
shaking and jiv...

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Snowy night in
The early spring—
Winter heavy upon
My memories—
I see your figure
Approaching in the dark,
A silhouette in the snow
Against the lantern lights.
Inside, the house is warm,
Though I stand below the lintel
Watching your approach and
Feeling the chilly breeze.
The sight of you
After the long season
Of longing separation
Brings a smile to my heart.

You hesitate in the ...

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O, mermaid of the moonlight,
You sang so sweetly in the
Midst of the lake. I recall
The music of your voice,
The freedom of your chords.
Vision of delight, you sat
Silhouetted against the moon,
Your hair waving in the spray,
Your breasts dancing with

The motion of your arms
As you played the sea lute.
Such a fragrant night you
Must have felt the urge to
Rise up from the depths
Of t...

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Can starlight fathom the distance it has traveled?
Does it count the time in hours, parsecs, even knots?
If I turn on my DVD, will I thunder through the
Cosmos as another wave of noise until the hand
Of time comes to switch off the hearing-aid of God;
And then, even as the webs of interwoven disruption
Traverse the galactic heavens, the only ears to hear them
Will have been deafened by the ...

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Hair black as midnight,
Kimono sleeves whispering of plum;
Haiku she breathes to me
Beneath the yellow moon.

She says I need to see Tokyo,
And Kyoto in the rain.
I say, "I’ll go if you’re there—"
I’ll say anything.

She draws pictures of Mount Fuji
In charcoal, and puts them
All over the house,
Knowing I’ll see them

And remember the color of the mist,
And the smell of incense
Wh...

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King of the world for my time,
I ruled the world, and in my time
There was no death nor disease
(Except, of course, tooth disease
Which we will conveniently ignore).
My father was the sun, and I was
A simple farmer believing in the
Old ways before I met my destiny.
The creator of all things came to me,
And called me to be a prophet.
He asked me to spread his words,
To make his religion,...

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