Flame and Ashes

They thought their love was forever

Indestructible they told everyone

Complete devotion, trust, honesty

A love so deep there were no comparisons to be found

His love for her was to his distraction

What she felt for him couldn’t be put to words

Two people, two souls, one whole

To him there could never be another who could ever

Replace her

She built her life around him, never mind she’d

Lost her own identity

He kept her close to him, she was never far

From his sight

Her thoughts he dismissed

Yet she loved him still

The black and blue marks that soiled her skin

He said he owned her body and

Everything else she possessed

They thought their love was forever

His love for her was sick and her love

For him was out of fear and desperation

He knew she’d always be his to control

She finally took action and dashed his

Love in flame and ashes

A Breath of Heaven

Angles wings quiver above the clouds

Floating on the breath of heaven

Ascending higher and higher

Carried away weightless gliding with

The freeness of space and time

Lifting their voices harmonizing with

The wind

Embracing the beauty of life

Joining spirit and earth

Soul reborn in nature

The stars bow to their presence

Moon’s fullness rise cascading glow

Illuminating precious life

Angels ascend mixing in with the azure

Of sky soaring all the way up to heaven

Dancing in the billows

Slowing returning with

A breath of heaven

Enlighten

If this is the life we must live

Than let us live it to the fullest

If this is the life we've been dealt with

Than let us embrace it

Mistakes are made

But there's forgiveness

Learn from them

We grow

Wisdom is earned

Viewing our life

As if looking at it from

Someone else's perspective

Should help us see

The road we're on

Good or bad

Justice, injustice

Heartache, healing

Trusting, believing

If this is the life we must live

Than let us give our best

Tomorrow is just a guess

For the rest is a mystery

Shrouded in secrecy

If this is the life we've been dealt with,

Ask no questions

Answers are vague

Eludes us at every turn

Search your inner self

Mediate on the good in you

Let no one tell you

You are a failure

Believe in the gift

That is you

Tell the world to f***k off

If all they see is the negative

Blocking their vision to

See the positive

Live for no one

But live to be free

Keep the door to the cage

Always open

Throw away the key

It holds no love

Only wants to

Keep you from learning about yourself

If this is the life we are to live

If this is the life we're dealt

Make no excuses

Accept shortcomings

Own up to your mistakes

Learn and grow

Grow and become

Enlighten

Wondering

Misery seeps in between the

Coldness of my heart

Feeling the sting of bitterness

Wondering

Sowing loneliness, reaping aching needs

Adrift on the sea of vengeance

Suffering the what ifs

Living with the how comes

Wondering

Crying out in the distance

My voice echoes back

to deaf ears

Wondering

Vision distorted by tears

Clarity fogged in somewhere

Between the sound of thunder

And the howling of the wind

Wondering

Inside a broken vessel

Thrown away to live

A life filled with soft whispers of ghosts

That come to me in

Waken moments of

Wondering

Is this my heaven?

Or is this my hell

When will the sun glow?

Upon my face

Wondering

Darkness, my lover

 Protects me, keeps me safe

Wrapped in its arms

Shelters me from the pain

Wondering

 

Flawed

We’re both flawed diamonds in rough formation

Maybe that’s our connection

Without a microscope our imperfections are not Visible

Seen with the naked eye

Defects from birth created in the womb

Blemished DNA

Errors we’re afraid to acknowledge

Doing so might give validation to what others see

Our failings, we point fingers at one another

Shifting the blame

We’re flawed the damaged reflection of

Two individuals on a collision course to disaster

Enabler of addictions

Crippled by no intervention

The end of the road is death

A black rose lay to rest on cold concrete

All flaws seep back into the earth

She

She sat alone a drink in her hand thinking about all her failed relationships

She took a long sip leaning back in her seat

Laughter bubbled inside of her as She thought of one of her lovers

Good in bed, but couldn’t keep a job; damn She was missing his good lovin

Not his dead beat ass

Another memory floated through her mind of a man so beautiful but his soul

Was pure black; use to beat her for the sheer delight of hearing her beg and scream

She thanked god for letting her escape with her life intact still the scars remain

And the screams She still hears in her head, but She survived

Music played low in the background smoke filled the lounge and She added her own

Cigarette smoke to the mix

Waiter walked by She halted his steps ordering another Jack Daniels on the rocks

To many nights spent alone, to many sad songs played over in her mind

Why was She sitting here adding and subtracting mistakes and consequences?

One tear slid down her over made-up cheek to be chased by another and another

The song became louder inside her mind a song She heard too often

Rhythm of the sound surrounded her, the beat thumping making her temples

Pulse in and out

She tried to put the glass to her lips her hand shook with its attempt to connect

Liquor splashed over the rim running down her finger tips

She licked the drops mixed in with her now flowing tears

The looks and stares She received did nothing to combat the war that was going on

Inside her as She reflected all her failed relationships

Some She truly loved, there were a few just for sex, a couple for their outward

Beauty, they lacked beauty on the inside, one or two She could have married

Now the wrinkles were a threat to her beauty

Her body has lost that voluptuousness that drove men wild

She was tired and defeated in her own self pity

Letting life beat her as that man did touched her soul and robbed

Her of loving herself more than She could love any man

Cigarette burned to the end She reached down and put it

Out, took the last swig of her drink

She stood on wobbling legs and staggered to the door

Reached for the handle to let herself out

A hand reached from behind her stopping her before She

Could leave She turned to look at who prevented

 Her from disappearing into the night

The Beat Goes On....

The Beat Goes On……

See the world through the vacant eyes, concave expressions

 People from all walks of life but here there is no distinction

Ethnicity, culture, race; rich, poor, poor, rich

Some trying to find their way, others the way they’ve

Found have left them in this position

Some smiled, most didn’t

A few laughed, some joked to pass the time begging to retain some dignity

At the mercy of system that had no soul

Waiting to be helped; for someone to care for the plight they’re in

The beat goes on……

Voices drowned out loneliness, hopelessness, being forgotten

Time slowly crept on every now and then a glance at the clock

Revealed a second had past

The beat goes on…….

This is everyday life, soldiers wagging war to survive, just to live to tell the tale

In world full of plenty, but they are not getting any of the fruit

That’s ripen and ready for harvest

Instead their stomach growled reminding them why

They’re in this place of hell

The beat goes on…….

Robots going through the motion, no emotions

Numb to feelings eyes looked on seeing nothing focused on a

Number to be called, listening carefully for a name to be shouted

Out over a PA system that crackled and popped to be heard over the

Raised tones angered for the lack of respect

The beat goes on…….

I heard some praying, most were cussing their fate

A few “why me’s”, could be heard, an old woman sat in a corner

 Singing broken tunes to match broken hearts and displaced roots,

 Only music I heard in my head was a

 Song my momma used to sang, hoping the tune would keep me fed

And the demons in their bed

The beat goes on……..

A child looked up to his mother; she smiled down at him tears in her eyes

As she held onto the hand of her baby girl rubbing her swollen belly

Hunger rumbled in my soul, malnutrition ravaged my bones as I sat too

Becoming one of them

The beat goes on and on and on……..