Stillicide

apologies to Ms Christie

Father's having disappeared of his own will and snapshots
when your life's flashing before you I had told her

She took the matter in hand: it's -
and it's not for the base hunger of unqualified
knaves - ridiculous anymore.

Where was everybody when selecting - of course,
those whom he thought would, proud and disdainful,
would say, he can have his eyes on him at once.

'Well?'
he said sharply. O' a gentleman, to haud his tongue. I canna
bide.   

Winter Writer

I tried to be a winter writer but the ink just froze in my pen.
I tried to be a winter lover but the blood just froze in my veins.
I talk to you but all you can do is complain.

I tried to carve my words in the winter scenes.
I tried to kiss the world but my lips got stuck to a tree.
I try to win you but you lose me all the same.

So walk out to the woodpile
Lift the axe on high
Chop that wood to splinters
Spit and walk back in.

I tried to be a winter writer.

Askew

Me and reality meet at right angles
Perpendicular lines through time but now
It feels like they're going askew (how 'bout you?)

Lines that should never cross, cross
And I'm getting sparks down my spine
I'm moving through time (not in a straight line)

My world has gone askew. How 'bout you?

Bittersweet and frail, each happy second
Each moment's pleasure fades in the next
It's so hard to hold on (nothing to stand on)

My world has gone askew. How 'bout you?
There's nothing you can do.

Face

You've got the face of a failure and your mistakes
run through the cracks around your eyes
and play in the valleys of your forehead.

The chimney runs up through the center of the house.
In an earlier day it was how we had heat.
A fire below, a pillar of heat rising up
and the whole family could keep warm.

The foundation is settling. You feel saggy
in all the wrong places. Those
people you've surrounded yourself with-

They can't do a thing to help you and God
knows you can't help yourself.
The chimney runs up through the center and
you've got failure written all over your face.