These ancient guttered streets,
Worn signs and pot holes,
Hard to follow with childish feet
Dangerous to patrol,

Spread out into the great unknown
A mission, a compulsion
Tangled with sticks and stones,
Each step its own propulsion.

Running once, and fleeing,
I’ve learned these roads now.
Enemies near and seething
Fall back silenced, disavowed.

Sometimes I still stumble
These roads have deep ruts,
But the nature of the humble
Admits falling, gets up,

Keeps walking.

Time
Finger furled miser,
Stealing, drinking years
Leaving them no wiser.
Ruthless crime.

Time
You promised humanity
You would heal all wounds.
Instead you feed vanity
Then undermine.

Time
Ruler of ruins,
But you will end.
What will you do then,
Be reassigned?
Begin again
Open-handed.

Open your eyes and gaze
The world is your ancestor.
You regain in essays
What you lost in vespers.

Open your throat and scream.
A hundred voices echo back.
Stand upon your reams,
Scream until it cracks.

Take this thought and live
Alone and wildly free.
Eat through your missives,
Become the escapee

You were born to be.

Violent Migraine
Intrusive aggressor
Fever of brain,
Sadistic oppressor.

Home invader,
Layer of waste
Vision violator
Body debased.

Fragmenting brow-beater,
And stomach sourer
Voracious Life-eater
Today devourer.

Leave me tomorrow.

My children smell of grass
And garden hoses-
All knees and elbows,
And sunburnt noses.

So eager for the comfort
Of shade and clean clothes,
They curl up in my arms,
My gift of repose.

And I can’t wash this off,
Not with years of soap.
My children smell of grass,
And laughter, and hope.

My God, my King,
I can’t sing a forgotten tune.
Come soon, show me the weak,
Speak purpose to my shallow frame,
Let me speak Your holy name to feed
The hungry, the needy, as Your breath fed
What was dead in me. You led me then, from
The valley of death. Don’t let me hoard the wealth
Of sweet salvation- let me run the duration with joy,
Spreading joy where there was sorrow. Give me tomorrow,
So I can render it to You again. Forgive my sin, and bless my faith.

Water flowing from black seas,
Nightly flee, nightly flee,
From the wasteland to free,
Set me free.

Because I’ve worn these chains,
They’re the same, they’re the same,
Through the years that leave me, they remain,
They remain.

Skies crack open, clouds break,
Take it, take it,
And don’t look back, forsake this,
Save me and forsake this.

My highest dreams, my sole relief,
Drink the grief, drink the grief,
These waves that pull it underneath,
They roll it underneath.

Dark and beautiful rolling waves,
Find the brave, oh the brave,
Find the broken and enslaved,
Break the bonds of the enslaved,

So justice can sleep unguarded,
Unthreatened, Unhardened,
So children can dance in the garden,
No serpents in the garden,

Water of gray and grace, day seas,
Flow through me, flow through me,
Bring the blues and hues of free
Set me free,

Set man free.

Electrical overload,
You sent an ill-timed jolt
Through cardiac nodes;
A well-intentioned assault.

The burn was scabbed,
And I thought mended,
But such tiny stabs
Have largely offended.

It’s murder still,
While life still beats,
To sear someone at will,
Even if you’re discreet,
Even if you’re not the first,
Or the last, or the worst.