what if

beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and what if this beauty never beholds you?

sigh

i have a really bad headache. i guess it's just sympathy pains from the other parts of my body for my heart. we never know what path lies before us. as weary as our feet may feel, the path will be walked and it will go somewhere. it's harder to see what that will look like when you were just holding someone else's hand for the past few miles. you get up from your rest at the side of the road or when you turn at a fork, and suddenly it's just you. maybe you can even see them still walking off into the distance. you hope wherever they're going that they'll walk a happy path.

but, tonight i'm walking no further. i'm standing still, watching her walk another path until her yellow hair dips over the horizon like the setting sun. good night.

half a ticket

it's not unconventional, if it's all been done before,
but denial leaves belief cold shut outside the theater door.
blame's blanket cloaks warmly like your mother taught
to keep a lonely heart on revue with distracted thought.
fear keeps poor company with empty seats of the past
and squanders the spot light of both audience and cast.
angry applause remembered like roses thrown on stage
waited for an encore before erupting in disgust and rage.

present with no past

The pages are all past tense;

etched in sketched permanence

were the reprehensible sensible

to the conscious mind

instead of luridly lurking

for a midnight subconscious find.

Burnt books stoke prurient interest

in flailing fires of flame’s incest

because if the last past

is no longer written,

then there’s no need

for the coals to cool as if never smitten.

death creates death

morbid insight into our susceptibility to psychological suggestion. after mass homicidal or suicide articles are published, incidents of imitation or multiple deaths will be over 1000% as likely to occur within the areas that read these stories within 2-3 days of being published. its effects continue in decremental amounts over 2 weeks before returning to normal. further morbid irony, this applies to car and airplane crashes. yes, there is a 1000% increase of a fatal airplane crash over the next 2 weeks. that includes passengers. this phenomenon has been researched and validated over decades of data analysis.

phase ii

the smiles disappear beneath
my graying beard that itches:
the will to scratch my malaise
remains elusive as it switches.
my faint reflection keeps watch
in the backyard window at dark:
ghostly floating capturing a picture
that is more tangible than its mark.
no hands can stroke the weariness
that has settled on my shoulder:
blackbird doesn't show in the glass,
but, pecks and turns me colder.
heady beginnings consummate with sallow
finally yielding birth to dust in earthly fallow.

boom

tick