When Souls Depart

A woman wands bubbles

Down the Spring Garden Road

An old man plays accordion

With a face like a toad

The Autumn air is warm

For this time of year

As I wander the streets

Of my Halifax dear

A stroll through faded blossoms

That in the Public Garden grow

My thoughts, as sit

At Robbie Burns’ toe,

Are wrapping my noggin

In nostalgia and grief

As I contemplate time,

That fucking old thief

My childhood spent

In this city so fair

My mother lies dying now

Hearts sunk in despair

Her’s can’t keep going

Mine, no more can take

The sun makes of pyre

Sat alone for her wake

The roads which I’ve rambled

And places I’ve seen

Will never rival

This place where I was weened

The flag shows the lion

That resides in my heart

And though I know I must leave soon

Like a soul must depart

Farewell to Nova Scotia

My lamenting refrain

As I know I may not

See this fair land again

Its ocean and valleys

And glacial till

Its water washed beaches

And Atlantic air chill

I am an orphan now,

With no true place my home

But I carry this place

Wherever I roam

Through fields of Heaven

And the hot winds of hell

I shall never forget this city

That I love so well

GJM

The last lonely leaf 

Upon the tree with branches broke, cracked and knarled 

Shifts from green to red with yellow flashes

For the tegument of earth she’s bound

To mix again with her native soil

Where my seed grew so well

Through winter’s barrens brash, spring’s fragrant renewal,

And summer’s burning hell

The Autumn is the time of year

When the reaper is at his height

Shaving down the tawny Fields

With sharp and mighty scythe 

My branches own, with rough bark grey and brown

Is too nearing its trembling Fall

Though my seed is sewed and she so beautifully grows

I too shall meet the ground

But from rot in decay and tears of dismay,

Is born birth and life

My my branches yield and never break

Despite our worldly strife

And those who rest and rejoin the soul give birth once again

And it is there that our solace bares

It’s light and misty glow

May they all sleep tight when the curtain of night

Shades our memories and all we know,

Mother mo chroí may your soul be free

And stand with your roots, beneath dwindling tree.

Pretended

Who thought the act of being kind

Would tear my heart asunder

Tumultuous turns, whirl in my mind

Pouring sweat, heart beat like thunder

You can see it in my eyes with each one of your lies

And no matter how I try, my face holds no disguise 

I do for you things that no one else

Would even care to ponder

I have given it my all, I gave my self

You left me drained, you left me somber

I know it now, I know my place, and it's never where I thought I'd be

You can't even read my face because  you never cared for me

My world seems so empty now

And I feel dead inside me

I did all that I knew how

You broke my wing, I can't be free

Karma is a thing that I dismiss, and there is no ass I'll kiss

You don't even say hello, but I just can't let you go

With my mind you'd always screw, but that's what you'd always do

Cos' our world it was pretended

Yes, our world it was pretended 

I was just a character in a book that you never gave a look

You just left me sat there on your shelf

And slipped away with so much stealth

Like the player in a role, and I'm left left broke but you left whole 

I sat there high and dry, where a tear had stung my eye

Can't believe none of it was real, and can't control how I feel

Because our world it was pretended 

(No, I know I don't want to know that)

What we had was just pretended 

(No, I know I don't want to know that)

 Our world was just pretended

(My heart and mind were blind to the stage)

Cos our world it was pretended

( now I'm here all alone)

Because our world it was pretended 

Smitten Online

I've savoured her words upon the screen,

And her image in photos, only seen

I know that nothing in this life is sure

But a connection I sense in her green eyed lure

Imagining of what could be,

Should I love her and she, love me

To feel the warmth of her silky flesh 

And the heat when passions mesh

Gould her an mine heart be true

And begin a a life at mid-life anew

Time will tell of what will be

If she is the one to set my love free

Aspire, do I, at this thought

Of her wanting and passions brought

The flame fanned fierce of sweet desire

And dance with me in embraces fire

Betrayal on the Mountain 

Nighttime is the worst, for during the day

One is distracted by animations

In your grit infested periphery,

Steel shank sole

Compressing chest while heel 

Pivots crushing out the last of the light.

The boot which hiked beside you,

A soul that seemed concordant with your entire essence of being

Through a small and winding

But intimate journey

Of promises and pledges

To meet you on the mountain top

Where you would

Build that fortress of forever, only 

To kick you into the crevasse's gutter

As the peak's summit loomed and 

Neared, haloed in heavenly hue.

Standing upon you

Waiting for that last breath to escape-

Death rattle, mind destitute,

Delirious from depleted atmosphere

Air thinning, as again and again the scorpion

Stings the frog's back

Because that what was in it's nature,

Enveloping the mantra of trust no one infects 

Each wrinkle in your screaming brain where the amygdaloid process screams like a creature cornered in the steel shell of a cage from which it can not flee, nor from where it could fight- not wanting to freeze ;

The boot rolls from heel to toe, stepping off, walking away, leaving its tread

Left for dead 

Staring at the summit with dead man's eyes

Still seeing , wide dilated pupils like black holes- making everything existential except the heinous hurt of rubber stinging twists of skin-

Abandonment of the summit as

You can never trust another to belay,

Not anymore, knowing that free climbing 

Is now the only option, if you so dare

But experiencing such heights is empty solo.

So you try to breath and claw your way down,

Crushed and fearing to be crushed again

By unstable boulders cast down

From the craggy cliff you attempted to ascend.

Weary, wary to ever attempt another trek up

The scarred  and scree strewn walls of debris and wild flowers, no matter their alluring majesty and mist enveloped peak.

She Knows Who She Is

Her pale cherry hair

From sun's perpetual glow

Berry smell with a hint of smokey swirl, frames the face which holds me in 

Oceans eyes blue

Deep, so deep

The Siren calls me to

Immerse in her endless fathoms

Salty wet, enticing warmth

I want to swim in her gentle gaze

And abandon the shackles of earth

Which impede me from

The pleasures or weightless floating.

To fixate upon these indigo

Beacons of light

Lending their beam,

Keeping me safe within their gaze,

Is only the surface of her embrace.

Within lies my world - the one

For which every soul longs 

And dreams

Where water magnifies the beauty

Of coral reefs laden with colour

The balance of fragile ecosystems, 

Made perfect by time.

No ugliness dwells in this place-

Where I feel I belong.

The surf surges with strength and

Adventure; ruled by

Lemon moon and embering rays

Buoyant but consenting

To dive free

Exploration and discovery 

Of a magical world.

I long to swim.

To plunge naked in a nature

So free

To lie upon the sands so fine

For reprieve, repose and lingering

How can a man not love such an ocean?

Where water replaces air?

What joy this sacred privilege affords

No predators nor those who would destroy

Such a wondrous home!

I wish for a forever within these fathoms

Of liquid embrace

And to hold her with want

And needs fulfilled 

From the sea I came

With harbour scents and humid breeze

The envelopment of mysterious fog,

And to this body, so gentle and fair,

I wish to return

To be free,

Untethered from anchor's

Unforgiving tug

In these blue beacons and holding unrestricted.

I love her, and forever shall

With her pale cherry hair

And swirling smoke smell.

CH

There is a lady fair with light ginger hair

And my heart is hers alone

Here sea blue eyes over long lashes lie

And free me from despair

Of life's messes and ample stresses

Her smile gives me a rope

To climb up and away from all my dismay

Giving life and love much hope

Her bright smiling face and tender embrace 

Secure me in with the endearments she's said

And it's by her side that I can face the tides

Tumultuous churning and ebb

This soulmate of mine until the end of time

Of passion, pleasure and more

Gives me my rock, absorbing life's shocks

And keeps me safe upon the shore

Night Sky Magic

Night
The stars
Below, below
Wish that I could paint them
The universe that wraps us
In the question of how it all began
Fucking marvelous, that
How can we piss away
In pettiness
Such an amazing thing
As this life?
That which consumes us:
Hate, petulance and war
Summoning sardonic
Attitudes and taking
For granted
Light traveling light years
From stars perhaps extinct
Our own mortality
Linked to these lights,
Indefinite, finite
We shine for only
So long.

Bourbon Fueled Introspective

Self loathing 
Bourbon to my brain
Never could I be a violent man,
Despite my transgressions into that world
The call of duty
The duty to serve
Fuck duty and the guns
I wish I could
With fist raised in anger
Strike those bastards
With knuckled fury
And the hate that they tried to make me feel
I'm tired of this camillion life
We are forced to observe
Where we extinguish our selves
To serve another's purposes
Hating that which it forces us to become.
I want to be a marauder who
Is self sufficient in being and act
I'm weary of belonging when
It makes us deny our being
I don't give a fuck about acceptance
In a world so vain and entitled
Yet I am choking in their hands
Wrapped noose like around my throat
The Cosby Show was all a lie
And fairytale happiness
I fell upon the pickets
Of their white suburban fences
Trying to be a model
Cast from their mould
But I am no one- a cast off
Resigned to dreams never to be real
The family man with no role model
Hated by his young
Alone, abandoned to his fate
I abhor everything-
The greed and myths and lies
My consciousness streams into a river
Consumed by the ocean
Chaffed by salient brine
The salt in my wounds
That says "settle down son,
You're rocking the boat".
I want to smash the boat with my hands,
But never could I be a violent man
Though I crave drowning into another world
In the silke's arms
I long to caress
I long to embrace a forever
Where I am loved and accepted
For who and what I am
I crave the fringe which I skirt
I don't need to belong
All that I am wanting
Is the one
The one who knows me
And expects nothing
Who doesn't judge
Or make me feign a niche
In this ridiculous game
I want to breathe the night
And inhale the stars
Lost in the natural world
Where balance is the monarch
And things that shall be will be
Neither do I seek
To be chicken or egg
But, rather,
Simply be
Mindful and present
In a nonviolent place
For never could I have violent man