The first death takes the life
And deprives us a simple touch
And a familiar laugh
To fill the spaces around us.
The second death suffers time
To create a widening rift -
Leaving one weeks - months behind
As in abandonment.
The third death is our memory -
What elements - what remnants
Hover almost perceptibly
But the mind fails to focus.
The final death is the loss of things -
A favorite - a souvenir
Broken into haphazard pieces
By a careless hand - forever.
Some feel that Bible verse conclusively
Describes all life explained through liturgy.
Some feel that evolution holds the key
With science leading forth explicitly.
Positions juxtaposed perceptibly:
A purist view of Life's conformaties -
A prescient view of Life's complexities -
Could one more view assuage disparities?
What do papyrus texts in fact convey?
And, what does nature's yield expressly say?
Somewhere between these two compelling sides
The letter and the spirit both reside.
We take from texts enough to salve our minds,
And then from nature context-laden signs,
With each constrained by factors of its lot.
Questions for both - what is and what is not?
Yet, could these sides assemble what should be -
A pair of constancies through which we see
Two halves converging as to form the whole
Reach toward a common line that's not a goal?
This dictum for another day, but now
Enough for both conjointly to endow
A symbiotic sense of harmony
And hope - if our thoughts are inclined to be.
The body ages perceptibly
~ the mind flexes receptively
The majesty of a magenta sky
fades perceptibly before my eyes
Can it not be bottled before it dies
Sigh ~ back to catching fireflies
She has the hair and smile
And your eyes oh so blue
but the person I see
She has ceased to be you
The flickers of memory
cause my mind to bend
I wish you were here
so I play at pretend
The essence of you
slowly slipped from my grasp
It happened perceptibly
with barely a gasp
One moment I held you
I could feel your embrace
When I uttered your name
you knew you were Grace
Then in an instant
recognition disappeared
We knew this would happen
the dreaded moment we feared
So when I now visit
this shell that remains
I can still feel your pleasure
flowing through my veins
Thankfully we’ve both said
all the words that matter
I know you’ve already traveled
to your happily ever after.
We were vibrant once
but it seems the sun has taken it's toll
Slowly wrinkles and cracks have appeared
Our once glowing skin has perceptibly faded
I am now a fan of the moon
It allows us to maintain the illusion of youth
I prefer it's more subtle glow
as it washes over our bodies
Passion is our elixir
For our spirits have not faded
Our desire is the fountain of youth
You my forever bride
make this man thankful
for each and every time
you leave me breathless
Ideas begin to percolate
They pop out of me in bubbles
Floating out the window
Stopping traffic
One hesitates
Apparently feels badly.
Changes directions and floats back.
I pop it and reptile, banana, and Grand Canyon fall out.
A blue banana riding a pink reptile
At the Grand Canyon float into my dendrite field.
The banana whips out an I-phone and begins taking selfies.
In the tiniest voice she says “You won’t believe where I am”.
“Where?”
“In someone’s head.”
Rhymes begin floating out of another part of my brain.
The rhyming part. I have a phrenologist bust.
I look at it but do not see any area labelled rhyming
So what good is it?
The rhymes are singing now, in a lilting sing-song way.
“I will get them!” the blue banana yells.
She begins chasing the rhymes.
She brought two back.
Scramble and Bramble.
I snatch up verdant, perceptibly and goose as they float by
Or maybe these are just my floaties.
I am unclear now. Is this real or another dream? I shut my eyes.
The cat eyed the dog, warily
The dog licked his lips, hungrily
The cat backed away, tremulously
The dog edged forward, intimidatingly
The cat retreated faster, alarmedly
The dog zeroed in on her, aggressively
The cat let out a screech, panic-strickenly
The dog leaped for her throat, murderously
Let's pause this video clip, momentarily
And ask a couple questions, inquisitively
Why did the dog want to kill the cat, instinctively
And why didn't the cat beat a hastier retreat, curiously...
(Please click to restart the clip)
The dog paused in mid-air, hesitatingly
The cat sighed a little sigh, relievedly
The dog smiled a faint smile, sheepishly
The cat me-owed once, tentatively
The dog's smiled widened, perceptibly
The cat shed a tear, joyously
The dog hugged the cat, lovingly
The cat basked in his embrace, snuggly
Finis
May 09, 2019
The smile vanished from the yellow orb, angry clouds swoop in
Gentle waters drift to shore no more, as white-capped waves storm in
Birds flee south; animals take cover; my will perceptibly weakens
Soft breezes carry knives inside; fence-gates ajar and creaking
Cabanas shuttered, boarded up; hardy anglers sense defeat
Autumnal gales blow full force... Summer's shamed, full-fledged retreat
Februry 17, 2019
Entry in "Reflect that Emotion" Contest
Sponsor: Nina Parmenter
Looking outside, I see fresh fallen snow,
everything wears a light dusting of white,
and time itself runs perceptibly slow.
While icicles, sparkling in the sunlight,
have morphed into a splendiferous sight.
My breath frosts, for the air is freezing cold,
and the trees are glazed in layers of ice;
creating a wonderland to behold.
Blizzards levy an exorbitant price,
Winter's weather is anything but nice.
Autumn colors have vanished, all looks bland,
and there are no more sweet songbirds to sing:
for they've migrated to a warmer land.
And Winter's firm grip continues to cling,
while my heart pines for the coming of Spring.
I miss the leafy canopies of green,
as well as fragrant wildflowers in bloom,
and babbling brooks, picturesque and serene.
I prefer Spring's warmth over Winter's gloom,
but that's just me: I don't mean to presume.
Dreamscape.
Soft mottled mists thickly swirl in the night,
Blanketed dreamscape composed in my mind,
Drifting unknowing towards some veiled site,
Through perceptibly thinning ethereal blind,
A tableau appearing by unconscious design,
As silvery grey wisps dissipate to reveal,
You, wreathed in light and moonshine,
Each detailed rendition so perfectly real,
My heart almost bursts with the love that I feel,
Reposed as in sleep, your silky blonde hair,
Flows over your face, memories warm with appeal,
Aglow my soul misses your beauty so fair.
Hand trembling, breath stilled, heart beats a pace,
As I part your soft hair to a skeletons face.
12/09/2016
None knows when the wind will blow
Toward which direction, - fair protection or foul destruction
Ushering the dove or an owl, no premonition
Every step in life is toward a cake or a knife
Very seldom both together and rife
Wherever there is pressure on the equator I am warm and then hot
Gather upward vigour in full rigour, higher and higher
You are at poles, bulky and cold
Acquire rush and perceptibly occurs the brush
Out of the crush the storm arose disintegrating the rose
You are quenched, no more clenched,
Balance brought back begin to be bored
The trigger is never much behind for eternally restless is wind
Now at high and then low
Sometime you harvest sometime sow
There life goes off, here they glow
Wind moves on to and fro
From your poles to my equator
The rhyme creator
Also the terminator
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 22, 2016
Dredging up scuttled dreams you'd once let go;
stirs up muddy waters laced with regret.
And at times, time seems perceptibly slow,
pausing on the things you want to forget.
Memories, lacking both substance and weight,
can't control the emotions they release.
And when deceit sets the course of your fate
tears of loneliness: will only increase.
As Fate pays no attention to your cries,
anxieties increase: that much is plain.
And so, you look for ways to compromise,
while crying eyes spill the tears they contain.
You accept defeat with an angry heart,
for love's a miracle gleaned from the soul.
And though trust's foundation was torn apart,
hope gathers the pieces and makes them whole.
Initiating change is always hard,
and you hesitate to trust love again.
Yet forsaking your dreams without regard;
will inevitably fuel more pain.
Author Note: A poem in memory of the dreaded ACT, FCAT, SAT, and other Academic Testing
Standards.
Wrapped in a web of preconceived deceit,
cornered by the sound of their retreat
that echo’s throughout the halls
as they silently scream
in the throes of their defeat,
lost in hopelessness,
perceptibly stressed,
feeling the heat,
intensity visible in tightly clenched teeth,
they would never admit they were beat
determined to accomplish this hated feat,
their ebb of lifeblood bittersweet,
as slowly,
then rapidly,
panic spreads into the street,
to dissipate quickly as they form and debate,
the standardized test that will decide their fate
In epic self-loathing
I let the phone ring, knowing
how you interpret silence
but hope for a psychic storm to send
respect from a thoughtless martyr across
30 miles of invisible space.
This contradiction believes
in hope but bears none;
thought doing right by you was
as simple as words (spoken,
perhaps, in haste but not insincerity)
when every step forward was
impulsive, marred by guilt
for a twice-lost picture of a life
I never really lived.
Flawed, perceptibly,
and unable to believe that
there is grace in weakness
when it stays my feet in time
as you move...
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