The first Elizabeth

 a face of pale

the white washed cheeks

hidden from the jealous sun

that thought it was the center

lips of dripping red

the petals thrown before her feet

the pools and streams

and tides and seas of crimson flow

for her heart, her hand, her words

a collar lace

encasing great power

in blooming standard

a nation's rose who yields

both beauty and thorns

and is trimmed as so

each plant in its place 

in the monarch's garden

a heart forsaken

yet its chambers wise

which bled for her children

and was laid on the stone altar

for its own sacrifice of yore 

for time and time again

a woman must give up all

and truly be alone

to wield scepter, crown and throne 

Andromeda ears

 my cries would echo

to eternity 

if the vacuum of space

would allow it

but as my heart burned

when I discovered

you were who you were

my cries incinerate

in the upper atmosphere

never to reach your

distant Andromeda ears

only to collide 

in the next several

billion years

this gravity tore you apart

scattering your dust

among the stars

those dying lights

those lying celestial blips

that stole you away

to dim your eyes and close your lips

within the deep, cold chasm 

of silence

my cries try... try... try

Legatum draconis

steps on a precipice 

the ivory trumpets sound at night

under sickle moonlight

as the solar disc

is hurled out of the night sky

mountains

all we ever eat are mountains

not rivers that could quench

this thirst

not villages for us to bathe in blood

nor forests to burn

within our throats

but these piles of uprising stone

slabs and boulders and slides

so scratchy on the gullet

so heavy in the gut

to weigh our wings to the ground

these giants to tackle

that only time can topple

yet our roars pour out

into the night air

carried on the high winds

that usually carry us on our way

this shrilling thunder

throws them from their beds

pulls their courage from their spines

and curls them as a fern in reverse

this power pulls

it tears the weary from their heights

throwing them back

into the ovens within the Earth

with certainty all will succumb

to this gravity

but not yet, not tonight

Splattered drops

spewed view in the dying light

from tempest fane

the torrent sky subsides

to wiped lenses of the stars

singly standing in amber glow

your face illuminates 

from struck match's sulfur

reminiscent of your homeland

the smoke drifts from your face

into twilight shrugs

while your expression shines

from the shadow of your hat's brim

a grin as you look my way

for the growing dark can't keep

our appearances as strangers

you could single me out

from the pebbles on the beach

or the drops in the ocean if needed

you've always been that falcon

hovering in the air above my rabbit fur

have I always been so willing

to bend my neck to your sword

to succumb to the serpentine hypnosis

your grin still beckons with this eve

this night when the rain has passed

I thought the tears would too

to finally bid rid of you

the shadow that won't leave my tracks

no matter where or how fast I run

you are the breath on my neck

revving the accelerator of my pulse

choking my breath with your embrace

this embrace I sent for by invitation

unknowing the twist in my choice

mistaken glory from back alleys

and nirvana found in chemical release

tethering temptation with love

a love to never own or realize

for love is never owned or prized

but taken for granted and thrown...

your grin says it all tonight

lays out all the regrets and crimes

you know my heart too well my friend

I've entertained my guilt too long

The Court of Crows

 the King of Crows yawns

the sun to sleep at dusk

for the world to gaze upon

the scattered lights of the dead

hidden deep within the king's throat

the Queen of Crows shows

the world her husband's throat

by hanging a lantern on a rod

and slowly passes it by his mouth

from when it opens to when it shuts

the Knave of Crows forgets

sometimes to fill the lantern up

his queen uses at the end of a rod

and so it dims slimmer and darker

until he's beaten and fills it once again

the Lord of Crows whispers

his list of names he beckons home

causing the lights of the dead to flicker

even knocking some of them over which

fall from the throat of the yawning king

In gardens

 in gardens

you're always aware

of the temporary

the constant waves

of changing blooms

that each have their

own days of splendor

in shining sun

and falling rain

each unfurling leaf

to display its glory

at peak of chlorophyll

only to intensify near

its finality and frailty

in gardens

you're always aware

there's never a lonely flower

its company is constant

in that it's never the same

from sipping bees and flies

to pecking beaks of birds

and snipping scissor blades

in gardens 

you're always aware

of the conversation

the sultry words of

sun baked helianthus

and cicada songs dripping

from the silky lily lips

the colored fruits sweetened

by the shortening days

when cold cabbage mornings

give way to crisp kale eves

and burning frost

blackens flora crowns

in the pale kiss of winter

which surrenders and melts

in the choir of crocus breath

and rays of daffodil suns  

August lamentation

the surrender to the mystery

is the end of ego

where swallowed up

is all the layers liken to self

where trees bend into metal spheres

that orbit around dragon tails

and wreaths of worn out souls

as flesh is a heavy burden

heavier still all to hold on to

beyond golden fortune, castles

and crowns, simply each other

the you I've known 

and the I you once knew

these glimpses fading in each sunset

consumed by constant rotation

and severed by sharp stylus playback

for the earth's song is made of

the screams of letting go 

the beating of wings

taking flight into the night

into the surrender of the mystery

The next

 he has breathed the land

the inhales his yesterdays

the exhales of what is next

where turbulence took him

on flights between pavement

and swirling sapphire he's lost in

the clouds hiding what is next

that is where he always aims

the mystery of the horizon

bearing all its promised new

in burning golden scarlet hue

lapping the burnt out candle lights

that wax and wane with the jealous moon

that only wishes to fly as fast as he

rushing to the just out of reach next

on a sea of land that ebbs in his soul

passing semis with cattle cargo

passing farmers going just a little farther

and families knowing not where they jaunt

for all of them tread on his wings

on his escape from mundane musings

he fears those might be the end of him

as it repeatedly and rapidly pounds on his chest

"What's next?"

Phlegm

 bound the chest

the pressure lays thick

on heart and lungs

deafening the inner drum

and whaling wind

so short the beat and breath

so shallow

so savored

so lined with regrets

inhaled in cigarettes

sipped in whiskey dreams

the elusive realizations 

that sail their ships strictly on inebriation

these demons twist their tails

around rib cage and spine

hissing the constrictor's song

in their all too known embrace

within the empty face

that looks up from soiled water

gasping for the words to say

and the heart to say them with

Promise of dandelion wine

 it's always around the corner

always was just right around the corner

what we want or wanted

what we feared or still keeps us up at night

always the two tangled together

coming across whichever just happens

to face us in rotation of the ropes

whichever is torn or tethered by fate

for doctors don't even know the answers

why memory and numbers are fleeting

why blips in the brain have to steal

weekends away from weary wills

why determination springs from such wills

to rise against the fearfully new and untraveled 

which makes all the effort worth it

the aged wine waiting at the end of the path

Transient

 I dreamt I was a transient last night

just someone, anyone, maybe everyone

that set off on this path 

in the woods, hanging onto the trees

as I passed by their sculpted trunks

I wasn't alone, for there were others

on the very same path

though it was wide and varied

with everyone walking at their own pace

and suddenly the path ended

came to a halt in the middle of a store

where the clerk looked at me

from behind the counter, puzzled

asking if he could help me

I told him I was on this trail

and just wondered where it began, again

but he looked again at me, puzzled

then left through a door behind him

I looked at the shelves, at the food

acting as though I was anyone else

and then the clerk was at my side

asking if he could help, as if I needed it

as if I had nothing and served no purpose

in the store he tended to

but it was the store that had no purpose

I needed nothing there, no food, no help

I just needed my trail, the one I had been on

the one everyone else was on

going at their own pace

that clerk acted as though I was just a transient

with nothing to my name

just a transient traveling through

and then I woke up 

and realized it was true

Afib

someone pushed on the accelerator

and I was just going for the ride

a thief had come to steal my heart

and suddenly take my breath away

but I was only along for the ride

we rushed to slow it all down

waiting for the old woman before

yet I was just going for the ride

there were too many beats to count

just needing to take the edge off

just something to slow it all down

but I was only along for the ride

in drifting in and out of beat

I had to catch a wink or two

for though I laid in waiting

I had been too long on this ride

and I got to keep it this time

and I know what to watch for next

but I'm still constantly reminded

I'm only along for the ride of my life

Corpse

 rest easy in the dismissal of all things

rest easy in the earthen bowl

in the hollow husk

that once burdened the soul

the calcified halls dressed

in yesterday's tapestries

as sconces overflow with spilling wax

of lights extinguished 

somber silent wicks watch

numb carpets and drapes of flesh curl

still the crimson fountains where

dries the sanguine pools of arterial aspirations

where vampires and leeches now starve

the windows close shut

the mirrors now shattered 

that glimmered in this existence

once shared, now severed by the veil

that keeps its shadows to itself

and the bitter wind of death wails 

as the last breath exhales

and echoes through the halls of my tomb

Deciduous soul

 your shattered skin

leaves fallen, lightly waltzing 

tickled by the wind

as goosebumps form on your arms

hairs risen, breath halted

this moment to the next

when your deciduous soul fell

the nights spent without 

rougher than oak bark

time uses to tan my heart

a leather pouch, a faint drum

that lost the beat

when your deciduous soul fell

my song drifts through deafness

my lips move in silence

noticing limb silhouettes 

in street lamp light, frozen night

the days grayer than this

the taste of that last kiss

before your deciduous soul fell