lbstowe

Weltschmerz

Some break free to edges budge.
Most stay mired in bubbling sludge.

No more pulled by skyward glance.
Thoughts beyond, a happenstance.

Solemn sweet to think of past.
Ties that broke when life pulled fast.

Occupied with this life’s work.
Pressure held by tombstone’s cork.

Thoughts waft by of those released.
Lost by time, survived, deceased.

Augur

Radiant pools of light on the floor.
Warm the skin with a promise of more.

In that shaft is a truth & a lie.
Spring is here; but winter’s not gone by.

Like orange & yellow daffodils;
Blooming thru frost with their sunny frills.

A draft dispels this sun craft charm.
There’s still danger of frostbitten harm. 

Yet, slowly light’s fraud becomes the truth…
The world will warm & all will be couth.

Roam

It’s harder these days to plead naïve.
Now cresting my own midsummer’s eve.

Looking for chances to change my tune.
No bounty of options past youth’s boon.

Still, I scan where the boundary’s thin…
For modest paths missed amid youth’s din.

Maybe one trodden by thoughtful feet?
One fine to walk alone, or discreet?

Maybe in dusky twilight boredom;
I’ll find his tracks & sprint toward him.

Hides

Fear is the fire that burns my mind.
Gold is the evil that pays in kind.

Need is a hunger rarely sated.
Love is that for which we’ve all waited.

Birth is an act that all growth repeats.
Life is a fight that always defeats.

Hope’s unseen but it’s precious as air.
Desires are bones that each hope wears.

We pant, we heave & we calm our breaths.
While wearing these skins unto our deaths.

Viral Nero

Our high parody burns while super-heroes play fiddle.
The hopeful rich wail with privilege, “This can’t be the middle!”.

As tensions between classes become ever more molten…
The proletariat seek safe spaces to revolt in.

Each siloed caste level’s armed & strapped with their safeties off.
While the bubbled entitled read through hard facts with a scoff.

Truth & perspective, conflated or switched into true lies.
Not knowing the difference is how democracy dies.

I pen this not to judge or to our divisions speak down.
Just trying to make sense of the senseless hate going round.

Scenesaw

Many swords you handle in life cut with both their edges.
Some for life, some for death & some for trimming the hedges.

Most would use as plow shears; if neighbors weren’t armed to the teeth.
Whilst the world seems afire, peace is desired beneath.

Still, while we think in black & white, ignorant of spectrum…
We’ll be lost in hubris vain; without a single breadcrumb.

Seen from either side, a blade seems the ficklest of things.
It has no view or voice, its user’s wail is all it sings.

Yet, humans seek out edges; blind to the blood included.
In the name of new frontiers, we choose to be deluded.

Space Shanty

The Gossamer Filament 
of a Space-Age militant; 
is a burden physically borne.

The galactic regiment’s 
murderous impenitent; 
are to mastery of mankind sworn.
-
The lie of freedom woven, 
at star map’s edges cloven; 
the truth of freedom’s what is owned.

Earth was colonized, then Mars…
sped ahead & mined the stars; 
absorbing everything we’ve known.
-
Hid by dark in blackest sea,
the augmented poor are free; 
still stamped with tech, but off the grids.

Moors where matter has no rules…
free to be villains or mules; 
just microns past where flags plant bids.
-
Atoms wild, like our old west, 
shorten life & shrink the best; 
but life yet lived where charts short out.

Defiant from birth to death,
radiation coats each breath;
though they’re drawn free without a doubt.
-
Killed by time or their equal,
not part of Earth: the sequel;
living’s rough & ruddy & cold.

They’ve no concept of aging,
nor military staging;
only sparks…brilliant, brief & bold.

Totum

I’m lost without you & I’m lost with you…maybe I’m just lost.
That’s the bravery of truth & maybe “lost” is what life costs.

Every person you love in the world is a ticking bomb.
Perpetually detonating each single chance of calm.

Sure as I am of the sum I feel, whenever I see you…
I’m equally aware, you & I will never add to two.

I see your life unfold in snaps like chapters in a book.
I’ve long since stopped submitting film for consideration’s look.

What I’ve lost, earned & made’s too precious to splay for the masses.
Words are all I’ll share with thee; writ upon digital glasses.

Sun-Kiss

I can feel it again through the window pane…
The heat of your rays lost in winter & rain.

You’re burning the side of my face’s pale hide…
As, towards the surface, you fight freezing tide.

Surge past the gray palls as the final flake falls…
End my sentinel watch over live screen walls.

Get your rainbow of oils & golden foils.
Paint brilliant anew upon blank canvas soils.

Tease out warm beauty, your ultimate duty…
Maddeningly fecund, rotten & fruity.

Yes, weeks yet still cold as the season grows old;
But I can feel spring ride in on rays of gold.

Paradox

I am contradiction incarnate.
Sapphire’s cold blue & hot blood garnet.

Conceived in fire & hewn from ice.
Frothed with anger & soulfully nice.

I bend to kiss every new forehead.
Poised for a gut kick for what is said.

Demanding of all, honesty-wise.
Yet, dare not steal my day-to-day lies.

Surely, I’m glad that I’m what you read.
Still, I’d write; so, I wouldn’t say “need”.