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

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

Single File

 
It was a crying shame
The smoldering remnants
Encaged in fiery ruin

Leaving friends to sway
As a single file homage
Teary eyed and staggering
For the final rose-laden altar

To recall is to drown
Clasped firmly
In the sure fall of dead weight

Overcome
By the depths of grief
Unable
Unwilling to resurface

It remains a horrid crime
A familiar fragrance
Never truly evaded

A Withering Sail

He hungers not
For what the ocean may yield
As his eternity winds down
Trudging slow toward its final hour

Home
Sways atop the bustling tide
Creaking and moaning
Her bones rusted and brittle
Tired from her long way
Courting generations shore to shore

The man
Holds steady at the helm
With only the lapping waves
To ease his battle hardened earlobes

White locks flutter
As the high noon star crumbles
Disintegrating, into a cool blistering purple

But the ages dragged on
With a glare of hopelessness
Weighted by the open, the vast and empty

Gem encrusted nights
No longer blanket the shuttering vagabond
With drained pupils fixed forward
And his frail chattering limbs, guiding the helm
But he does not levy an inch
Trudging westward, engulfed in nightfall