Again my unquiet mind asks

Is there anything

Here worth saving?

Off-script

Overwhelmed by the

Terrifying potential,

Hope tramples my fear

No troubadour

Photographs and memories

Things I look upon to see

How damaged I've become

But will I always be?

Phantom limb pain

The part of me that died

The glow behind your eyes

The warmth I used to feel

The worth I hoped was real

The love that burned within

This aching phantom limb.

Lost

So much to say,

My words still churn 

But there’s no way

To ease this burn

For you can’t know

About my pain

To see you clear

And feel the stain

Our history’s shade

And lover’s crime

I’d burn it down

To make you mine

Instead I pine

And deign to play

My lesson learned

I fade away.

prophetic

My silence offended

My words saddened

And my touch hurt

How else could it end

But with tears and pain?

Evermore

Some hurts do not heal

Some wounds never seal,

Some blood will not dry

Some loves refuse to die,

When we start we cannot know

When we fail then time will show.

The Grim

No happy ending
Nor any ever after,
Just pain and failure.

Grief

Drowning pain in laughter
Dwindle to a roar
Fear of what comes after
Less is ever more

Half-life

This longing in my heart
Disquiet in my soul,
I am beside myself
Even in my decay

Echoes

Absent from my life
But dwelling deep in my heart;
This love will not die

Catch and Release

Little fish swims away
Lonely fish wonders why
Loveless fish musters out
But never learns to say goodbye,

Tired fish continues on
Tranquil fish accepts his loss
Tarnished fish will slowly heal
Although he feels like so much dross,

Cautious fish will swim alone
Canny fish can learn from pain
Careworn fish has lost its luster
With the lessons he will gain.

Caveat

Was it me that broke us down

And dragged our future in the dust?

Was it me with all my faults

That could never win your trust?

Was it me so sad and blind

That I could not see us apart?

Was it me in all my hubris

Thinking I could hold your heart?

Immolation

Who is the moth 

And who is the flame?

The wounded are walking

While loving in vain,

Am I the scorpion 

Or maybe the frog?

Failures still haunt me 

And I hold the flog,

I slip and I stumble

I cannot keep pace

In dreams I still carry

Some semblance of grace.

Circa

Finding you

Loving you

Losing you

Lamenting you 

Cause & effect

When masochism

Is matched by insight,

Despair is the only outcome.

Bound

In love until you love again
Yet unable to love anew:
The quandary of the lovelorn.

The fool

My last thought every night

My first wish upon the dawn;

A tarnished heart still hopes

Red

Love is like a red, red rose
Held by tender hands,
Blood runs down upturned stem
And drips upon the sands,

Love is like a red, red rose
Slowly turning black,
The petals like the pages
Of a bleak almanac

Love is like a red, red rose
Spilled upon the stone,
The only message held therein
You're going to die alone.

Terminus

I worry at this pain
Like a dog with a bone:
These two gaping holes in my heart
Will not heal.