Whispers From the Pastures

Mine. And Mine alone. She knows. I walk alone. In a place where the sun sets early and the dawn comes late. And all that lies between is ghostly grey. And all that lies between is red as Hell. Here there exists not the blue of day nor the black of night. Here there exists neither the purity of shadow nor the spectrum of light. Here old newspapers huddle in the corners, the printing on their pages blurred. Unreadable. I walk alone. Where the banshees scream- and never stop screaming. I pass the abandoned library whose lions seem to have been carved by an uneducated man. Their sculpted forms are sloppy caricatures of the wild brethren they were meant to represent. They laugh at me. Like circus lions. Because my path is all smoke and hidden mirrors. And nothing else.

One day I'm in. One day I'm out. Everyday I'm in between. Seen through the cracks. But unreachable.

I stopped hearing your voice. I can't remember when.
You stopped listening.

Lady Galaxy

There were dark marks under her eyes
From where we got lost in the meadow
She scooped up the shadows under the birches
And left a blood stain

There was a deep bruise on the moon
So ripe the stars licked their lips
And fell down upon her

She walks sometimes on cold nights
And hopes just to freeze

There were lions waiting on the edge
Of black rivers where we used to swim
She threw back her head in a crackle of laughter
And let the blade fall

There was a question hanging on Pluto
So blue blooded the others fled
And shivered in the darkness

She sings sometimes to herself
And chokes on the notes

There were shepards hovering at her side
From when she fell down out of the sky
She screamed for the clouds to take her back
And regrow the dead feathers

There was a wide gash on Jupiter
So red the sun looked away
And hid behind a blackhole

She sleeps sometimes in the morning
And never wakes up

I bought me a racehorse

He was second from his mother
Trampled from the start
Cut off from a lover
Hidden in the dark

Eager just to please her
The deceiver hits his mark
Footprints in the instance
The call came from the start

He was broken from a leather
Spurred 'til end of day
Pushed in stormy weather
Buried in the hay

Glowing just from showing
The deck stacked up this way
Warning for the morning
The snap took it away

He was mine a day in August
Punched out on a card
Stood the crowd in unrest
Kissed the one they marred

Fleeing from ever seeing
Sirens screaching from afar
Last words from pastures
Marked by brand new scar

Blackbird Memory Letters 8

It wasn't what I expected. Walking through your elephant graveyard. It wasn't what I had dreamed. I was calm. The bones curled up high around me. A last embrace. You walk across the shore as if the path were predetermined. Keep going deep into the bottom of the ocean.

On the Back of a Crumpled Up Piece of Paper

My wife was a wanderer
I tamed her with my hand
That froze like lightning
When struck upon the sand

My old man was a pauper
Who dressed up like a prince
He walked off with the dog one night
I haven't seen him since

My cousin was a gypsy
We lost her once at dawn
Her mother woke up with a chill
Her child forever gone

My best friend was a streaker
And in dark corridors stood
With an audience of echoes
I never understood

Saul, Saul

He broke like belts of gold
Melted down to be resold
He bit the frog out of my neck
And then gave my voice away

We burned down the house that night
Saul, Saul
I held you until the sky grew light
Saul, Saul
You ran off when the sirens came
Saul, Saul
Left me screaming out your name
Saul, Saul

The fire caught beneath his feet
Into the distance heard them beat
Sparks were biting at my chest
Lit up scarlet with the hay

The starlings came up to my door
Saul, Saul
To bring the bones I knew no more
Saul, Saul
I put the roof back on myself
Saul, Saul
Put your bones up on a shelf
Saul, Saul

Far Fetched

A chill ran up my spine
Prancing across the nerve endings
It's fine, I said, all fine
I had only crossed a line

I didn't recognize that face
The moving form they said was mine
It was gone, I said, erased
Through the dawn I would pace

They were pulled around my sides
The blankets there as a last embrace
I lied, I said, I lied
I came back here to hide

The cottonwoods were bending
Bracing against the forest's tides
They will break, I said, no mending
Dispell the wind you're sending