Hallway to Nowhere

Category: poetry

  • We’ve Done This To Ourselves (Poem)

    This is what happens when we tell the truth.

    From our mouths fly gobs of flesh and splinters of bone.

    We flay ourselves from the inside out

    To stand before others without our skin.

    The cuts inflicted by words used with intent

    Drip with definitional ichor.

    Are you a deity in your own regard,

    To leak divine fluid that flows with gifts?

    Are you a mortal among the rest,

    To discharge weak liquid that drains away life?

    However you are, you bleed.

    We all see this but choose not to know

    That our eyes are open yet blindly opaque

    That our hands are dripping with shared gore

    That our feet are standing on infinite decay.

    And even our quietest voices

    Scream with a deafening destructive howl.

    Time runs on, but our time is running out.

  • Agamemnon Sails Home (Poem)

    Agamemnon is returning to Mycenae,

    Cassandra by his side.

    The sails billow and tauten,

    the hastening winds driving the ship onwards.

    When he leans from the bow,

    Does he taste the salt tears of Iphigenia?

    When a sudden trough shakes the vessel,

    Does he remember her terror?

    Cassandra does, but her cries go unheeded,

    Stifled by Apollo’s cruel regard.

    The Erinyes murmur with the waves,

    The curse of the gods on this family woven indelibly.

    Whether he is blinded by arrogance or ignorance,

    Small matter either, for his fate remains fixed.

    Clytemnestra is waiting with her axe

    And a mother’s implacable fury,

    While on her is fixed Electra’s pitiless gaze.

    O Atreides, each of you is born on a funeral pyre

    With the cold laughter of the gods your chorus.

    Good will not prevail here,

    Only sorrow and sorrow and sorrow.

  • That Scented Candle Burns Down The World (Poem)

    What do you expect?

    Niceties and pretty words

    Tied round into a neat bouquet,

    Bound with sweet sentiment?

    Look elsewhere then.

    You can find this with ease

    On shop placards and inspirational clothing.

    I do not provide that facile comfort

    Or join my voice to the specious clamor.

    Only seek my work if you care to find

    The hidden barb that wakes us in the night,

    The grinning skull that lives within our mirror,

    The sharp dagger we carry behind our backs.

    Kindness, beauty, and truth dance around us,

    Held in the cries of dying children,

    The perfumed stench of garbage mounds,

    And the glint of light off the barrel of a gun.

    We turn back to our familiar dramas, our distracting entertainments,

    our serious gardening, our daily concerns.

    We forget, forget, and forget again.

    Of course we do, in our commonplace struggles.

    Still this knowledge remains.

    I won’t write it away.

    Not even for your smile.

  • Anomie (Poem)

    This is what happened.

    I went to cross the street.

    I took one step off the curb.

    I was in a different country.

    I did not know the people.

    I could not understand them.

    I read their kindness in their eyes.

    I hope they saw the same in mine.

    I wandered lost on empty streets.

    I listened to hear familiar birdsong.

    No avail, no avail.

    I turned to see a passing train.

    I crossed the tracks.

    I stumbled on the uneven road.

    I was once again on familiar ground.

    Nothing had changed.

    Except me.

    I am a stranger now.

    Unseen, unheard.

    My footprints disappear in the grass.

  • The Slave Laughs At The King’s Jewels (Poem)

    and in your time of glory,

    be it a public triumph with roaring crowds

    or a small glance at a crafted ring,

    where do you go?

    dip deeply into life’s pleasures and sorrows,

    seeking to outrun the whisper of mortality?

    memento mori, so live to the limits?

    measure your days with careful judgement and thoughtful speech,

    the better to hold lightly to this life?

    gam zeh yaavor, so consider consequences?

    either way, you die.

    /

  • Cart (Poem)

    I come now to the end.

    The harness that binds me fast to the cart

    Of this changing world has loosened.

    I glance backwards once

    To glimpse the detritus of my life lived:

    The tattered loves, shopworn dreams, and bitter hopes.

    Turning, I shrug off the fraying bonds

    And step away from all I’ve held, such a dear heavy burden.

    Lighter and with an easier breath,

    I laugh, snap my fingers, and disappear.

  • Asphalt and Agamemnon (Poem)

    Again I walk the loneliest streets,

    Stumbling over the rough pavement

    Or perhaps my own grief.

    I listen to the clangor

    Of the railroad being rebuilt

    And wonder if I could do that

    With the worn out structure of my heart.

    I shake my head at this and say no.

    Now I’m drinking black coffee in a bare room,

    Reading the savage words of Aeschylus

    And occasionally pausing to look out the window

    At the vast indifferent city night.

    This is where I’ve always lived.

    This is where I’ll die.

  • The Bones Of The Earth Are The Waters Of The Sea (Poem)

    When I was a child, I lived by the sea.

    I swam in its waters and played on its shores.

    Grey-bearded cypress trees and ancient oaks

    Were my beloved friends,

    And sea serpents taught me the beginnings of wisdom.

    Now I live in the mountains far from any ocean.

    I walk on their trails and gaze at their peaks.

    Brightly garbed maples and hickory trees

    Are my present companions,

    And the bones of the earth counsel me on patience.

    On a walk I picked up a stone and held it to my ear.

    I did not hear the roar of vast waves.

    But I did hear faint echoes of half-forgotten susurrations

    Reminding me that I am loved.

    The past is with us always.

  • What I’ve Found (Poem)

    When I was a child, I lived by the sea.

    I swam in its waters and played on its shores.

    Sometimes I would visit the sea serpents

    Who lived hidden in the deep.

    They told me many tales,

    For they were griots, wise and fierce and ancient indeed.

    Much of what they whispered

    Has given me aid and comfort through the years.

    But I have also learned this:

    Even sea serpents can lead one astray.

    Like all beings,

    Sometimes they just make things up.

  • What Do I Say To Your Broken Heart (Poem)

    What do I say to your broken heart?

    Just this: You are not alone.

    We all wander the same terrain.

    We awaken to cerulean skies with a dazzling sun,

    Only to find that rain-laden clouds can drench the earth.

    When we walk, seemingly sturdy roads crumble,

    Thus we lose our footing and often fall.

    Loved ones prove prey to different ills,

    While we ourselves become halt and gray.

    So in your grief and confusion, give not way to despair.

    Here, take my hand. Lean on my shoulder.

    We will carry our burdens together.

    Eventually we lay them down,

    Our memories becoming someone else’s treasure.