Lash of Flames

The sunlight fills my room

With gold and oranges;

It's like fire is beating at my door,

Not so unheard of in this country

That floods like the Nile and burns like the sun.

That people live here is at first a wonder,

Then a joy.

This country falsely sunburnt in broken visions,

Living radiant in every breath of hurricane

And ever lash of flame.

Murmurs

Drift away on the wings of silence

And carry the murmurs in the palm of your hand

Like memories that you will never forget.

Wake with the morning

And dream of the sunshine in the water

And carry the murmurs in the back of your mind

Like shivers of silver and glass.

Walk with the night in the darkness

That flows around you in eddies and reflections

And carry the murmurs in the core of your soul

So that you may always remember

Who you were before.

Explosive Love

So I thought I saw you today,

We may even have talked!

Conversed is too strong a word

For worded meanderings

Between empty lovers.

Having dinner and a movie

Is just to get us through the motions:

Let’s pretend, play house.

At least we can say

That Spielberg’s done it again.

‘God I wish our sex had that

Many Explosions.’

The latter sentiment left

Unspoken.

Because we’re not ready

To suggest it.

You drove me home.

The same CD as years before,

The same words.

‘…in a brave new world…’

The same words,

Both bridge and barrier

Between empty lovers.

It’s strange though the sky blue

In the middle of night

That you love

That I’m wearing.

Or that you turn

And give me that smile

That brought me

Into Chaos.

That’s no illusion.

No explosion!

There’s still something here.

We’ve just become more careful.

I know you won’t make

The first move so

I move.

You pretend to think.

I lean in and whisper in your mind.

So you chuckle and park the car.

Lead me on.

And before long we’re trying

Our own movie stunts

The kind that’d make us blush.

Like explosions.

It gives us something to talk about,

Made happy by re-igniting the hidden flame.

Us empty lovers

Full

And once more

Content.

The Final Line

Great Muses in your golden realm,

Will not you hear my plea?

And sound a bell to end my torture

And tell me what you see?

Great Ladies you who number nine,

Can not you give me thought?

To tell me how to write and sing

And tell me tales to wrought?

Great Ones in the skies above,

Hear my cry and answer!

End this barren drought of mine,

Send to me your words and sounds

That I may write this final line!

Tributes to Roxanne

With Apologies to Sting

Roxanne,

Don't wear that bright red dress tonight.

You wandered down the street again

You fixed up your hair and make-up again

Don't wear that bright red dress again.

You don't have to walk that street, my dear,

You know where it goes and where it leads

Last week you came back with a black eye,

I know you did it cos you thought you had to,

But think about it some more tonight.

You wandered down the street again

You fixed up your hair and make-up again

Don't wear that bright red dress again.

Roxanne,

Don't wear that bright red dress tonight.

There's always anger in your eyes and fear

You don't think you know what's coming to you,

But you stand there in rain or stars every night,

I know you don't think you can let it go,

But think about it at least some tonight.

Roxanne,

Don't wear that bright red dress tonight.

Roxanne,

Don't wear that bright red dress again tonight,

You've worn it out worn it enough for the week,

There's got to be another way another day,

Why not tonight to think things through?

You wandered down the street again

You fixed up your hair and make-up again

Don't wear that bright red dress again.

Roxanne,

Don't wear that bright red dress tonight.

Roxanne,

Why do you look at me like that?

Through the Enemy's Garden

We walked without direction

Through the enemy's garden,

Hand in hand through darkness.

A waking dream of endlessness;

A field of stars and flowers.

Lifted in a world of colored light

All through the enemy's garden.

Not a word nor whisper

For here no murmur may pass

To disturb the eternal sleeper

So walk without direction

Through the enemy's garden

And wander forever and on and on

Hand in hand and beyond.

An Angel's Prayer

You seek to wrong me

To take from me

That which You did freely grant me.

You wish to extinguish

This light of Heaven

This Morning Star!

I am the one that guides all others,

To light and leave the glowing sky!

And now for something petty: choice!

You would cast me out to die.

Know then, Father,

Once upon the barren stone,

I did love only Thee alone.

Where They Walk

Take me past the rivers and lakes

Of this land I know all too well,

Carry me through the sky and light

To the world beyond those stars there.

Glide through the night and through the day

Hold me in the darkness and in the light,

But do not let me fall without you.

Take me to the realm in which time

No longer matters to anyone.

Take me from these echoed whispers

That goad me and taunt me

And carry me with you always.

Take me to where the willows sing,

Take me to where the moonlight shines,

Take me to the worlds I've never seen before,

Take me to where the unicorns run,

Take me to where the dragons and angels vie

For the ruling of the bright open sky,

Take me to where they walk...

Take me to where they walk.

The Virgin's Never

Broken daylight like sand against my skin;
Rubbed raw at missing you.
'Never' seems so final,
Like Macbeth's bells of heralded death,
And while I know the bells will ring just this once,
The thought of 'never'
Is no imagined dagger but reality,
Here driven into my heart;
My virginal blood then on our sheets.