Sitting on the sofa
the silence separates them
like ripples in a pond
ever spreading wider
never reaching the end
she's heard all his jokes
he knows all her ways
there's nothing to be done
as they've no more left to say
damned if they do damned if they don't
can't live together won't live apart
they've outlived their love
it's enough to break your heart
The slain damned sister
Look at me while you sleep,
Look deep into my eyes.
Sink into a slumber,
Where you’ll never see the rise.
I’ll wash your face with falling tears,
That drown the sight in yours.
While every ounce of pain you gave,
Settles in our pores.
You’ll slowly fade to nothing,
A ghost of what was well.
Sleep tight, my love, forever
And find your rest in hell.
I rise from the rubble like Lazarus wearing a noose of night.
The gutter whispers my name through the teeth of tombstones.
Rain baptizes me backward, burying me in yesterday's dirt.
Every prayer I utter comes crawling back begging for mercy.
My soul stinks of survival-perfume for the punished.
Heaven spits when I shine in the slime.
Hope limps behind me, bleeding blessings in the bog.
This hard earth hugs me hard, jealous of my fall.
Under redemption's heel I was born-the gutter remembers my name
the Zionists people
sure they are damned people
their actual doings
in fact, Israel does not worth a damn without the "others" supports
Silt collects at the outreaches of an ancient, murky marsh.
Twisted tendrils of white oleander form archaic symbols.
Deviant rituals, cocooned and lost eons ago, lie awash—
Taken to the surface, unleashed by a cacophony of demonic cymbals.
Now, time suddenly stops by this grotesque swash.
War is waged, and humanity becomes a mere memento, just a collection of broken trinkets in otherworldly drawers, like lost thimbles.
i am double rainbows.
i am the streaks of silver in the old man's hair, i am spiny and bug-eyed.
i am the rainbow around the moon on misty nights. i am cactus eyes with a center of molten gold, i am almond crafted ones that pierce.
i am the smell after it rains. i am the earthworm on the sidewalk, i am the snail on the tall blade of grass, i am the
storm and the sky's tears.
i am the tablespoon of honey you take when you're ill. i am the spiderweb in the corner of your bedroom, i am the
comfort after the chaos of my sickness.
i am silver studded, i am the glowing omniscience of the moon's rays.
i am frightening.
i am the teeth and i am the blood and i am the bone,
i am the jaws that rip through soft skin
i am sharp teeth gnashing at any sign of emotion
and i will never take what i dish out for
my word is law.
a strange man comes with
stranger impulses after all;
i just hope you think i am beautiful.
EVE DAMNED EDEN, MAD EVE
Madam, I’m Adam, to which Eve then replied
You’re just a mere man, not to be deified
I am not born from any bird rib
Evil, a sin, is alive - no fib
Ignore dogma: I am God, the serpent lied
God, so angry with Adam and Eve, felt raw
Said, No, it is opposition to my law
Eve’s face got redder and she knew why
The sagas will say I did, did I?
Live not on evil, it’s a tenet for sure
That autumn morning, when I first saw you
Tall and handsome, draped in a suit,
I felt life, throbbing within
Never to leave me.
Shorn of love and feeling for days
Burnt screams of emptiness
Had resonated in my heart’s crevices.
Without a name.
You brought me relief and rescued me
from bearing the burden of historical anchorage.
Swept me off my feet, resonating
Ceremonial celebrations.
Your careful maneuvers, knowledge and style,
in structure, orchestrated a symphony of dreams .
in the rooms, in every corner and breath
Culture resonated.
.
Disconnected, yet with a regard
You shaped me in your taste.
I felt my being rapture, with a sweetness
Unspoken of.
No longer empty, I felt myself glow.
Chandeliers, banisters whispered gratitude.
I felt life ripple through meetings over dinners.
Anniversaries over years.
Then one day you left.
A change. Catastrophic.
Knocks or footsteps no longer sound.
Nor curtains or candles lightened
The gloom of emptiness
Dark and deep.
A mass of broken brick and mortar now,
Shorn of cemented hopes in my crevices---
I feel shattered, ashamed of being
damned. Dilapidated.
I never asked to be born,
so these sins leave me torn,
between living and dying.
I'm laughing, but begin crying,
because I've lost all affection
for my mirror's reflection.
You think... I'm just a psychopath,
as you don't understand my wrath.
Such judgement, leads me on a warpath,
as voices tell me to start a bloodbath!
These pills offer no remedy,
so my heart's not beating steadily.
so, I stab the world and let it bleed.
Hey death, increase your speed,
avenging angels have been freed,
and I'm not one who's gonna plead.
Damning demons provoke my mind,
to behave in ways that aren't kind.
Revenge will turn one blind,
when fate has been sealed and signed.
I can't leave retribution behind,
as forgiveness has been declined.
Destiny calls my name loudly,
Satan claims I've sinned madly,
hounds of hell devour me badly.
I'll give you my soul gladly,
keep on smiling sadly
and accept my fate proudly..
The headlines blared “COVID-19 vaccines kill people!”
“More vaccinated people die of COVID than non-vaccinated!”
“COVID vaccines are a government conspiracy!”
Wait a minute, though.
Let’s think about this for a moment.
For argument, assume that the vaccines
Have no impact at all
On your dying of COVID-19.
The recent census figures say
About eighty percent of the U.S. population is vaccinated.
If our assumption that the vaccines have no impact at all holds,
Then we’d expect four times the death rate for vaccinated people.
(Eighty percent is four times greater
Than the twenty percent unvaccinated population.)
What even those who call the COVID-19 vaccines a killer admit
Is that the rate of deaths between vaccinated and not
Is far, far less than four-to-one in the United States.
It’s less than two-to-one by even the most extreme sampling.
What we must conclude, then, is that COVID-19 vaccines save lives.
The conspiracy theorists’ own data proves it.
Aren’t statistics a wonderful tool?
Enter me
like a cathedral
Turn all my pillars
to salt
Love me like every last
pilgrim is watching
Empowering
—passions assault
(Dreamsleep: February, 2023)
I’m sick of wanderin’ o’er the page
In search of distant, mystic sage
muttered manta that confuse
stupefy my stoic muse
torment the silence of the keys
while in the distance Shakespeare flees
to curse his feather blotted ink
his red, red rose now turning pink
yet still I sit behind the veil
challenge him and always fail
there are those who disagree
some say he wasn’t one, but three
conspiring in mock defiance
of poetry’s inane compliance
counting syllables and rhymes
that challenged then, the present times
and yet I steal a line or two
in vain attempt to make it new
to think, somehow, it glorifies
the master when I plagiarize
John G. Lawless
©9/23/2022
I watched as the darkness bred in your eyes
You held every word I said with contempt
As your tongue unrolled a gold bill of lies
Pacification was your last attempt
You beheld the world with such lost despair
Destitute, life was just desolation
And every word you spoke told me beware
Romance with you was an aberration
Lost and damned in this lonely multiverse
This is the only universe I see
Where we could truly not be, what a curse
Drowning in a pool of your tears, a sea
Sometimes it's not meant to be for soul mates
When life is cruel and the wicked rule fates
I see no point in continuing
to put pen to paper
my words far too weighty
to float to the surface to be seen
from the depths
where I was damned to dwell
tossed into the abyss like rubbish
toes and thumbs tied together
proving my innocence
of any malfeasance
at the expense of my existence
gazing up helplessly
at the soles of shoes
affixed to the feet of those fortunate
to have been born with the ability
to walk across water quite easily
who never bother to look down
as I drown
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