Merely a Conquered Life

 
I am the faint pulse
Lurking in the depths
Of scarred
And tattered flesh

Past downcast eyes
Burdened with fear
I cleave for the open
With a bounty of anguish

I fade into
The day to day patchwork
Where the fortunate beckon
And the timid weave
Unseen

I am
Merely a conquered life
That quietly wanes
Far away
From the turning world

Rationed Words

His silent simmering 
Was a beacon 
For those adrift 

For those who swayed
Upon the currents of dreams 
For the far-away travelers
Engulfed, by silent peril 

He rationed his words 
Through a labyrinth of verse 
Through the treacherous bends
Of careless chatter 

Inward he dove
Unfazed and quiet  
As the watchful hordes 
Simmered 
In desperate longing

The Fortune of Slow Erosion

Life has its way 
Molding and sculpting
My fragile form 

I shape-shift 
In the passage 
Of great calamity 

In the joyous swell 
Of victory’s
Fleeting refrain

Shall I bask
In the fortune 
Of slow erosion 
Or be swallowed whole 
By a surf of certain decay

Quiet Grief

Cries of boyhood angst
Are free 
From my bitten tongue 

Yet no truth prevails
No heartache can crawl 
From the ruins 
Of my war-torn conscience 

The toll
Of harbored sorrow 
Shall beckon forever more 

Never daring to clamor 
For the waiting arms 
Of the crude and heinous world

Never to draw 
The care of roving eyes 
That have seen 
All of the same

Reverie of Apocalypse

 
A sudden flash
Tore away at the homely dark
Flooding the hollow void
With a clashing array
Of fire and hues

The canopy of night
Fluttered away
Carried, by a traveling wisp

Revealing
The eternal glimmer
Of ghostly
Constellations

I remained
Far from terrified
As I sailed for the care
Of faultless panorama

The life I knew
Was fully undone
Sinking at peace
Full, with quiet reverence

And I was
To regain my balance
For the tolling fowls
Were at their prime

I was
To gather
My scattered composure

And breathe
At ease
For the day
Was finally drawn

The Plundering Tide

 
Freight cars rain
Scattering plumes
Rich, with lives well-squandered

As nightfall dwindles
Beneath their endless
Arching cries

There are no sirens
Only a great span of silence
And the plundering tide
Brought forth, by eager hands

Havoc ascends
In murderous clouds
Heaven-bent
For their heinous jobs well-done

As tattered lives
Cleave to vengeance
Simmering with the hatred
Of legions, floundering
Within the waves of grief  

For a Torturous Memory

 
I labor from below
Tunneling
Overwhelmed by night

Where the lights cannot pry
And the silent linger
In the firm clutches of sleep

Dig out!
Is the refrain I hold
The harbored scream
Which fuels my effort

Dig out!
Claims my blistered hands
As they toil in spite
Bloodied and maimed

Home
Is a cherished beacon
Wafting through the ruins
Of a once prosperous mind

A ceaseless memory
That soothes and torments
Never leaving me to waver
Never falling
Out of favor with my thoughts

Ghostly Regrets

 
Orphaned deeds
Now flood
The hull of my conscience

Storming the gash
As I topple over
Full with remorse
Hopelessly, Overrun

I reclaim the sorrows
I've spun and left for dead
In the bountiful silence
Where turmoil, hails supreme

Quietly listing
The dark is to loom
As a vise, crushing
From all around

Father Knows

 
I cave
A hopeless wretch
As bravery nears
Having conquered
The falling, fading day

Father
He spares few words
As his eyes trace my fear
Disheartened
And burdened with worry

My nerves draw chaos
In the rising fumes of despair
At the swell
Of the morrow’s hatred
Foreseen within, his tired eyes

Father knows
What awaits his feeble son
Fully aware of the carnage
That lingers, quietly simmering

But all questions fade
In the aft of my mind
Dispersed by the fear
He once carried, long ago

“I am afraid”
Would come to pass
In a sudden surge of valor

A Crime of Apathy

Wallowing
Within placid
Half-hearted stanzas

The unsparing void
Where I’ve stranded my thoughts
To marinade in squalor
Callous, ragged, and unkempt

Time draws breath
Desperately
Tussling with panic
In its slow, horrid demise

It withers at the hands
Of titanic reveries
Coiling the windpipe
And awaiting its final tremor

When all is motionless
Frayed and silent
By my heinous crimes of apathy

The earth will turn
In prosperous hands
As I trail unheeded
Through their proud
Diverging ranks

Fire-Bred Travelers

 
The days choked
Upon the great plumes of savagery
Cast out
By the furious and frightful

Lionhearts withered
In the shrill cries of ordinance
Scattering, impaling
All brazen, fire bred travelers

With sharp eyes
Forever swallowed
Beneath the leagues
Of unsparing silence

The careless thrash
Of brother and foe
Is buried deep
In the soils of home

Beyond the waves
True chaos thrives well
Nestled, beneath the skin

As the cruel ravager
Of a quiet
Blissful slumber

Keeping Misery at Bay

 
Our time
Is cruel, to hastily wither
In a peaceful
Steady decline

As we converse
Unaware of the age
The bedlam
We know as home

In our roving
All turmoil wanes
Fearful
Of the aimless chatter

In the casual fall
Of idle words
Spent
To keep misery at bay

Beneath My Feral Hide

 
The windowpanes caught fire
And scorched slow
As I labored awake

I strained and heaved
To be clear and conscious
To coast through the morn
Unburdened, by days long lost

Still
I labored onward
Shroud
In nightmarish agony

I remained watchful
With prowling eyes
True to their search
For the cause
Of each mindless
Daily breath

The hunger
Never fully fades
For it remains within
Beneath my feral hide  

The Fruitless Binge

 
No glass was left unscathed
For the night retained
Its juvenile sway

For chaos ruled
Our trembling days
So we burdened the eves
With our harbored dismay

As the night
Teetered, unhinged
And the meek hearts yearned
For a fruitless binge

They cleaved
Each virgin craft
Through rivers brewed gold
On their fever-driven rafts

From Bloodshot Eyes

 
Like the passionate stream
Of walled in anguish
Through the fractures
Of bloodshot eyes

My words fall cold
Upon deathly pavement
Callous, dreary, and mute

These endless roads
Of solemn grey
Shall court my soul to ruin

To be swallowed whole
By a storm drain’s thirst
And leveled
Beneath the might of seclusion

The grief I hold
Falls unworthy
Of the hopeful eyes
They yearn for

The Treachery of Half-Sleep

My eyes
Remained razor sharp
Despite the fog
The treachery of half-sleep

Among roaming shadows
I scoured with vigilance
Aware, of the restless world
My limbs fully, prepared for flight

My pulse climbed
At predawn’s haunting loom
Festering
Stout with memory
Swarmed by forgotten ghosts

They yearn
Mournfully
To dwell
In the arms of my present

Yet these eyes shall not dull
They cannot waver
Nor recede
Into a nightmare’s
Sweltering furnace

War Raged in Short Bursts

 
I plunged
Into a murderous sleep
With concrete limbs
Obeying, the quicksand’s pull

Among the tombstones
Proud, grey and stern
They scaled higher and higher
In the gradual wane of the surface

Thunder and rain
Were a natural send off
Like mournful, pattering snares
With Mauser’s raised
For their unified salute

Once tame reveries
Lunged forth
With a primal hunger
As the world softly droned
In comfortable monotone

War raged inside
In short harrowing bursts
Unraveling my fabric
In every mile conquered

I recovered with haste
Through white, luminous halls
My nerves
Stewing in agony
Fearful, of the nights to come

A Traitor's Thoughts

 
I bear traitorous thoughts
In the sneering eyes
Of swift passersby

One glance
One quick swill
Is all
That is truly required

To retain the entire narrative
Of a turncoat’s cowardice
Yearning, to revise skin

I hold traitorous thoughts
Earlobes that quake
To mankind’s
Every tune

My words blossom
True to their own flair
Instilled, with their own customs
That singe away, at timid hearts

I hold treacherous thoughts
That lead frail minds
Through a maze
Of unending distress

Truth-Bearing Romance

 
They embarked gleefully
For the hopeless void
Yearning to elope
To be free of scalding glances

Beyond all voices
The shrill cries of guardians
A truth-bearing romance
Was swallowed whole
By a charitable
Merciful distance

Hidden away
Their affections flourished
As they traveled carelessly
Along the curves and contours
They conjured as one

Carnivorous huntsmen
Remained in savage want
For young romance
To be undone
Torn asunder by strife

Yet defiance bound
The eternal pair
As they voyaged onward
True to themselves alone

For the Greater Fable

 
They are black lines
Lumbering
Toward certain oblivion

Unaware of their purpose
Of the truth they bear
Within their every morsel

They march onward
Driven
By the edge
Of a madman’s quill

Sewing shut
The greater fable
Laboring, for the close
Of worlds carefully spun

Black lines
Cannot waver
If steady hands
Lead them on

The Dormant Soul

 
Nothing stirs within
In the hours I depart
Thoughtlessly roving

Among
Patches of green
Cradling
Their newborn
Springtime shades

I am boxed in
Bound to eternal grey
Trudging through
Its lifeless and hollow refrain

How I yearn to be winded
Truly, devoid of words
To be fully engulfed
By the agony of raw emotion

I must
Reclaim exhilaration
Or wither
Starved, frail, and forgotten

Ironclad Fighters

 
Falling salvos
Pummeled me with bare fists
And the earth danced wildly
Colors mingling
As I caved with haste

Forward I tumbled
Coursing with peril and shock
My bones still thundering
Ringing
As the curtains were drawn

Nightfall was brief
As I struggled to ascend
Reclaiming my resolve
To seize the faltering day

Like deafening howitzers
My arms slaved onward
Blazing with vigor
Toiling, upon mangled flesh

We were the ironclads
Consigned to our time
Boiling over
With primal hatred

We were the ironclads
Hopelessly marooned
To an isle
Preserved, only in mind

Far from Triumph

 
How easily
I become hollow
Far from the mountains
I’ve sculpted with care

So swiftly
I become derailed
A tower of ruin
Overrun by despair

Exhaustion clings
Forcefully
And the earth grows silent
Withering, unclaimed

How I’ve thoughtlessly
Disbanded
Succumbed to a fear
I've coddled deep within