WINTER’S BREATH IS A LAW OF CONSTANT PROPORTIONS
Dead the winter colors bland, non-conforming;
Winters colors bleak yet told brown, tan, and gold,
Deaden blanks the washed out colors alluring!
All things prominence dull passion so miss scold;
Marking the times dead comes and goes maturing;
O’ sleep nature’s vision winters pictures mold;
Forming still, presents of picture quest portions!
Death life seasons law of constant proportions!
2/3/25
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2025©
Will he be visiting you with more than a lump of coal?
(A dark voice whispers)
Love and loneliness
Unspoken dreams of romance and broken hearts
Shall have no reunion
But instead
Like fettered beasts to the slaughterhouse
They will stare foolishly into the distance
As they are abandoned,
Pleading for hope and a new companion
For deaden souls deserve no salvation
Such is my curse of the Dammed
Running or walking throughout
Every living nation
Men or women
Especially at Christmas
Swimming naked in pools of hate and judgement
Shall become as one
As they hear my approaching bells
Under the gaze of my cosmic gun
Love and loneliness
Sadness and pain
Will be their everlasting daylight
In their souls window panes
My silver mistress,
Mother Moon
Will seal their fate
On the twenty-fifth
When presents are received
For the spiteful and jealous
The hateful and cruel
Who loves to deceive
You better pray to change your ways
Before Christmas Eve
Or you might get a visit from me
Even if in me,
You do not believe
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
Cling not, to currents of kleptocracy.
Seek not, slithering shortcuts.
Like molding wood in molten guts -
Revolutionary, make that your story.
Slanderous slogans of snakes
dull deep, deaden desires.
Drudging dogma deludes the mind,
souls shattered, silenced in stupidity.
No magic mantras maketh life,
metal mentality striking strife.
The wills of wills travel far
above belligerence and bars.
Embrace death, you do not, before time.
Embrace death, you do not, for crime.
Beyond cataclysm, behold chances.
Seek forth wisdom and esperances.
I am deeply sadden
That I couldn’t have more time
Oh! How the roles have switched!
Deaden the grip
On what’s within
Now it’s ready to soar
Nothing to hold it back
The clamp has been
Loosened & fallen away
There are no more rainy days
Just sadness of what was
& why it had to be that way?
My mind has gone numb
From the swirling thoughts
Crashing against my skull
Only if my soul could
Understand the turmoil
It’s been through
Is there any sense
To what has been?
Why couldn’t this
Life come sooner
Always playing out in
My head without any end
Always stuck in her
Own little world they said
But it’s no longer my
Own little world
It’s OUR little world
That we are constantly
Building living & breathing
Ebbing & flowing through
Each & every day
Right next to you
meet my muse Trixie.
I want to draw.
she wants to play in the Thesaurus.
Trixie is a freebooter, marauder, pirate, she plans to win.
I sketch a monkey, elephant and acrobat.
I am in circus mode.
Trixie slams her green eyes over the big book.
she is persnickety, determined, and forceful.
fat blue Thesaurus is a harpy; she flips open.
I stare at these words - deaden, anesthetized, stupefy.
write them down! Trixie demands.
she is more trouble than a gewgaw, trinket or knickknack.
I avert my eyes, not wanting to play with words
now drawing a circus tent, and a popcorn box.
red and white striped popcorn box has arms and legs.
he sticks out his tongue in maniacal cartoon laughter.
Trixie flips some pages of this dreaded book.
gleaming, sparkling, glistening stand out.
magnify, enlarge and amplify bite me on the left arm.
I am not writing right now! I tell her.
she sticks out her tongue.
eager to work on a magnum opus, creative masterpiece.
I can hardly work on the giraffe.
curious I am to read words where she is pointing
lionize, glorify, elevate
vanish, disappear, dissolve
I begin drawing a lion, trying to break my muse's spell.
She came from where earth looks up farthest to the heaven
But the bright flame of hope in her heart did not deaden
Like a wiry sparrow trying to brave a hurricane
She was taught to brave the sunlight and the rain
Like a pilgrim that headed to an unknown destination
She's not sure if she could make it on path to salvation
But the fire in her soul was just like a burning star
Her deep faith was inscribed on the face of her scar
The road to victory was thorny and winding
Like a hail of storm that had no ending
But the beat of her heart was just like a soft breeze
In gust of autumn and winter, she did not freeze
Against the tough storm, the brave rose casted her thorn
In the birth of new morn, a fair legend was born
The bright beauty that dared the strength of mighty men
Was extolled on a shrine to be praised now and then
A Graham used to wealth lavish
And to easy fun The slavish:
In the two had not seen blemish
"Let those who wish it be squeamish!"
Now, it is Graham's white wedding;
He knows where the thing is heading:
Skin to Excesses just deaden
Or wife's face might, sometimes, redden...
"Means I'll have to my belt tighten;
That way all my problems lighten:
What man does, his future brightens
And the blackest of scenes whitens!"
A married spendthrift readjusts
Or faces dragging in the dusts...
meet my muse Trixie.
I want to draw.
she wants to play in the Thesaurus.
Trixie is a freebooter, marauder, pirate, she plans to win.
I sketch a monkey, elephant and acrobat.
I am in circus mode.
Trixie slams her green eyes over the big book.
she is persnickety, determined, and forceful.
fat blue Thesaurus is a harpy; she flips open.
I stare at these words - deaden, anesthetized, stupefy.
write them down! Trixie demands.
she is more trouble than a gewgaw, trinket or knickknack.
I avert my eyes, not wanting to play with words
now drawing a circus tent, and a popcorn box.
red and white striped popcorn box has arms and legs.
he sticks out his tongue in maniacal cartoon laughter.
Trixie flips some pages of this dreaded book.
gleaming, sparkling, glistening stand out.
magnify, enlarge and amplify bite me on the left arm.
I am not writing right now! I tell her.
she sticks out her tongue.
eager to work on a magnum opus, creative masterpiece.
I can hardly work on the giraffe.
curious I am to read words where she is pointing
lionize, glorify, elevate
vanish, disappear, dissolve
I begin drawing a lion, trying to break my muse's spell.
But in the fact that it was barking
trees
The wind moving the tree branches in the night
trees
I felt compelled to sniff the summer lawn
Compelled so to remembering my late nightly gatherings
Where are the dandelions I want them greened
night
So that I may eat them
It's that overnight I muttered fallen into winter colors
But in the fact that it was murmuring
night
That those leafs, brown in grey fallen falls colors socializing
While I pondered, gathering parts of shrubs
I threw my eyes upon the floor covered vision with evergreens
dead
It threw its ghost against the introductions
Dead blossom no longer blooms
That communal meeting
That communal meeting
Fallen autumn winter trees dormant
dead
There stood a social flower deaden bub
While yet still pondering gathered parts of deaden shrubs
And the party never clocking
splendid socialization sleeping
Fallen autumn winter trees dormant
Birds sneaking back building nest
dormant
2/10/2023
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2023©
i was searching for survivors
in all the right places, finding none
my deepest wishes dissipating
probably for the best i always tell myself
watching it come apart
was half the pleasure
as well as half the pain
never needing a rhyme, nor a clue
and will leave none here
it is best these parts are played
upon non-existent fields
where the scores are left to the wind
turning in the snow, heel to toe
the season is leaving
soon the angels where we laid
will fill the gutters
from there to stream and river
flowing into a vast and nameless sea
in depths where light never graces
the seasons have no meaning
and time gives an illusion
of just another corner
one more step into yet another direction
prime numbers and infinity
seeking some perfection
in depths that only darken memory
the shadows within reality
where chemical reactions replace the light
the warm human touch
and deaden the senses
when the winds whisper a name
and the integers fill the day
no different than the insanity you bring
to a table set for one
Fergus Falls 2000
After midnight
the pendulum stalls
Chimes to deaden
as darkness calls
A clanking chain
the haunt begins
Till daylight threatens
—the shadows dim
(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)
Jungles scream at night.
The air is liquid lead dipped
in green fur.
The village has a lamp on a pole,
when the dark rushes in
that one light
makes a yellow circle of light
that we would run to
if danger pounced out of nowhere.
Insects are thickest
around 2 in the morning
they blanket ears and minds
deaden the soul.
Our savior arrives early,
dawn struggles up
from the reek and mire
to clear our heads.
Now it is the howling time,
a monkey chorus
proclaiming victory
over the snakes and panthers.
The village stirs,
they go for water,
feed the skinny chickens
and the hairy pigs.
The make-shift clinic opens
its straw eyes,
they come.
I pass by wispy meadows
That have always lined these roads
I've got a dollar in my pocket
And a dog who will follow me,
Almost anywhere
I let the sunshine deaden me
With solar Novocain
And my tear ducts that dried up
A long, long time ago
Don't despair if I'm not there
You're better off without me
and the burden I've become
'Cause if I stay this thing remains
I'm sure you'd do the same
I've worked the same job for a decade
With nothing much to show
Just a pension and some wisdom
And a handful of bad memories
So, forgive me if i leave you
Without so much as a goodbye
Your time is worth more than The dollar
That I waisted
For some cigarettes
It seems unfair that you're still there
While I'm leaving,
This place that never wanted us
For anything
In my travels I have wandered
Much more than two and fro
And though I’m tired
I regret that I am leaving here
Just as I wandered home
Shadows of unfulfilled fate
On the wall of my mind
Hugely drawn, awaken my spirit
On foamy bed, wild and soft
Lost in hush soliloquize, I lay
Stomach plastered to the earth,
As I watch the crave for breathe
Of mummies living in the home
Build six feet below earth surface
With no response to their thunderous scream
And my ears deaden
By the whispers of whisht
Breaking the border of gloom
While in vain struggle for rebirth.
Despite the dread encompassing every step,
I stroll down the quiet dark street
Of my thought without second thought.
It’s a quiet place,
Like a yard of graves
Filled with a thousand tenants
In horrible camouflage, all but dumb.
One somber summer night
darkness descended
to destroy and deaden
a dappled candle on the table.
A soulless silver smile
turned gray and tarnished
and your eyes that once aglow
lost its luster and life
for it was destined
to falter and fade forever.
Now, a child within me weeps~
as sepulchral silence spawns silhouettes
of abysmal labyrinth~
in bloody snowy pavement.
The candle dies...my hope soon will...
so in blood-stained feet, I run and run~
until the shadows from the woods
swallow my insidious fear.
November 5,2020
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