Campfires seen across the lake

Speaking to each other in fiery debate

Embers popped with every rebuke

Exclamations in every flake

A basket of sound; pop and crackle

Spew and sizzle, even a little

Was enough to singe my flesh

And choke my untempered breath

Into dust I sink, bereft of belief

Against the flames, perhaps underneath

That familiar shriek of knotted beech

Drowned the sound of gnashing teeth

Chomp, chomp, chomp at the bit

The space between fire and pit

I found myself in the romp

Between space and air and heat

I get it.

I would contemplate doing the same.

Living in that bubble of protection; the original brick in the wall that had been torn down and rebuilt- a memoir stuck in a library that the romans threatened to burn down if you stepped outside.

What we had, how we loved, it is an ode to the past. How dare anyone suggest the future when we can live comfortably in the past. So pass up this moment and relive the recording.

This is a recording.

As I tripped, I fell into

Her hysterical, unbound moue

Mimicking her frenetic gaze

I could not look away

Mesmerized by her ocular disc

A sunset hidden behind an eclipse

The big hand ticked

I was late for my tryst

Oval turned into obelisk

Scratching, clawing for the hatch

Was I swimming or crawling?

Of all the sins, this vacuous space

Would be my final estate

No reprieve, just a pit

Looking up from where I sit

I see my face, I can’t undo

The frozen, fractus moue

Amarillo moon, sliver of hope

Exhausted Jazz Club with my folks

Fried lightning, cover the covers

What could it mean, without the gleam

Of your face

You are the seam

Ripping from my skin

Now I’m undone

And I blame the stars

For I have no means

To accept the seams

On your face

You are the stitch

Ripping out my sin

I marveled at the Sundance;

The flames on the car

Far away from the battles

Bloodshed and stains

On your face

From the paint

Of the boundary

A memory

If anything

From the shower drain

I pulled your hair with my toes

Once entangled, now separated

Your dirty blonde waves, straightened

Sopping, leech-like tentacles

Reaching out for ringlets

Departed from my fallow scalp

Reminded me of when

Our skulls touched

Laying in the meadow

Under the shadowed mountain

Jet engines

Masked the scream of your stare

15 minute parking

Shrieks in the air

The dogs are coming

Stampede in the lot

Shrill as the steam

From the boiling pot

Automatic sliding doors

Corporate deity whores

Mill around the compound

Looking for department stores

While my words in wells

Exhale and howl

Echo, yet never escape

From deep within my jowel

I felt fear before the growl

As she clutched my nape

Fingers flexed from the fireside

Holding me hostage to her spiraled eyes

The paralyzed

Willow eyed

Temptress aura

Amplified

There she was

There she went

Walking, writhing

On cement

My head in the clouds

Don’t stop me now

Colorado low

Etched on my brow

I’ll never find

The words to say

So I’ll just shriek

The hurt away

Sitting here

Drop off lane

I’ll never see

My love again

I’m sorry I could never strum a guitar

The sticks were all I ever needed

My shortcomings

I lay out with sweat on the snare

I’m pouring my heart out

In the background

Steady and heavy

With a touch of finesse

Ohhh, this will never publish

At my publicist’s wish

All these perceived shortcomings

And I came up with this

In the moonlight

I bite the cherry

I find a berry

That’s too ripe

In this moonlight

I grind an apple

A damsel

Of a tulip

The fool’s flight

Ideas fright

It’s too bright

In the moonlight

For me

You are the next level

Beyond sanctity; I revere you

I peer through the glass;

Brass Steed steer me through

Lead me to

Grizzled rampancy

Bleed me through

This hedge maze

Steer these routes

Following bloody footsteps

Impede my tomb

Intervene on my unholy funeral