Ah, Peace! that desolation proved

The better path to trod.

Not now a friend to any man

As war spreads abroad.

We are! we cry to opened skies

And answer to our prayers

The death of man!

The swallowing grave full and full again

full and full again

The bold sunlight scars my face

Furrows for future tears to run

Yet turn to its surface I’m wont to do

For darkness cares not for wrinkled time

Caresses the fallen fruit of youth

Night out to celebrate Tom

Who killed himself on July 4

To little worldly fanfare

But aflutter still in the hearts

Of all those who loved him

Writing without a title proves tedious

Definition without a word

Feeling around for the truth

A tongue probing the wound where once was a tooth

And here we stand

Pulled tight in our reason our understanding our knowing

Invested in two little palms we will never press to our lips

She says

I roll my eyes when the mourning comes

How thick they lay it on

How heavy and sparkling they make it seem

But we know

As we stand

That is how it comes

Stars wink in the soup

I, too, rest my eyes

A chaotic emptying

Of years

In each blink

A dance of ash gray hair

And he, gone,

Flares to remembrance

Discarded matchsticks litter my bedside table

Until, struck, a spark

Curves into existence

And all you’ve been

Dies again

Smoke’s murmuration

I sweep the memory aside

As the stranger untangles into the nothingness

A refrain of repentance

Thick as prayer on my lips

A time when you could be easily forgotten

Dismissed when you came to mind

A time pre-suicide

When nights turned with you small and unnoticed

The fireplace flames dancing in the tiniest corner of my eye

On the coldest of winter nights

Hands unsteady

I think them silent

But there-

Chattering and bickering with a ghost

I fold the loudest palm under its mate

And pray the spirits have not seen

Reach me starlight

In your twinkling language

tell me where you’ve been

When the sky goes milky bright

And you are lost to me

She casts off her caterpillar skin

Flows into the veins of wings

Comforts mourners with her soft song

Daylight fades

Night grows bright

Still there is a little light