Skull where is your brain,
where inside this abandoned cave is your mind?
Did God leave you like this
your jaw open in that crazy grin
the wind echoing under your cracked dome?
There are fields of skulls, walls made of skulls
catacombs just for skulls
and still nobody has found you.
DNA and carbon dating may tell us
when you were
but your teeth chatter no tales now.
I look upon the scattered scaffolding
and wonder if your house
is now built high in a boneless heaven,
and if that house has an occupant -
a skull of starlight?
Yet are we not made of stardust even now
and are we waiting with baited breath
to depart these double barreled eye sockets
like bullets from a smoking bone-handled gun?
And will we enter the light
naked as hermit crabs into another shell
or must we lay here
slack-jawed and grimacing
blind even to the sky within us?
My elusive Valentine didn’t visit once again
Day in and day out, heart wide open, taking strain
Candles, hearts, chocolates, poetry and prose
Another year, alone, forlorn, the absence of a rose
Messages of love and admiration stream to my phone
Waiting with baited breath, I need his heart, his alone
Smiling, hiding, masking the tears
It’s just an ordinary day, I say, it quells my fears
Red, red, the colour of love
It bombards me, in my face, like an aggressive shove
Eyes tightly shut, memories flood
Consistency is key, presence and love I need as much as the body needs blood
Elusive Valentine, you have another chance to appear
Same time, same date, next and every year
A cacophony of mockingbirds
Waiting with baited breath
Pacing each other,
In this candy apple sky and
Chasing this morning glory