Cherries in the snow

Cherries in the snow     2/27/2018

Cherries in the snow

Secrets buried

Silent in sleep

The last four digits

Equal seventeen. 

Long dead

Are the memories

Prepositioned

And predetermined. 

One falls down

As the other sits up

The mirrored image

Both dead and alive. 

Clear as day

The cutting crew

Hidden in plain sight

And walking away. 

The guilty free

Dripping with blood

While the good

Are scrutinized

Over nothing at all. 

They scratched out

My name

And put in their own

The liar and the fraud

Hidden in the trees. 

A man without a soul

Has nothing to search

An empty vacuum

Of unfillable greed.

Making assertions

And issuing opinions

Baseless, disgusting

Useless and vile. 

See them now

The vile abominations

Flaunting their power

Both liars and haters.

There is no way out

But through

And no survival

Without risk. 

Sooner than you think

We all make the choice

At first a trickle

And then a flood.   

 

Everything

Everything   2/21/2019

There can be no victory

Without loss

And there can be no true joy

Without heartache. 

Fools wade in the shallows

And pretend they are alive

But those who live

Must also risk

And tread water.

I lost many things

And I sunk into the mire

Deep down a dry well

With no one to call.     

Abandoned to die

In the blackest of shadows

Ashamed to show my face

Contorted in pain. 

Less than nothing

And less than dirt

Death in my eyes

And blood on my shirt.

But God breaks

The proud

And corrects the foolish

Shattering our complacency

And uprooting our plans. 

So that we might see

And we might learn

With a humble heart

And a broken spirit. 

Free to be anything

And conquer the world

A new man

And a new heart.  

Thankful for everything

Undefeated and indomitable

More than enough

To take it all.

The return

Undefeated                                    2/7/2018

I had me a house

And I had me a family

In a ghost world

Long ago

And far away. 

She was my everything

Far more than I knew

My brown eyed girl

Who gave me everything.

Many are the memories

And many are the reminders

All that was

And is no more. 

Young and dumb

Fresh and sweet

An unblemished lamb

Perfect for slaughter.

Awakened by the knife

Far too late to change

Deeply wounded

And bleeding to death. 

Still in the snow

Red, dead and white

Sacrificed for nothing

And sold for a song. 

That was me

And that was then

Long long ago

And far far way. 

A mirrored image

Both dead and alive

Just like here

And just like now. 

Here I am

The same and also different

An unacknowledged ghost

Up and down the halls. 

Seen through

And spoken over

An unwelcome reminder

Easily ignored. 

Others knew

And gambled

With my life

Empty people

Shallow and cruel. 

Trusting in themselves

And testing the odds

Probing every day

For something to steal. 

Hands under the table

They who have no shame

Anything to win

One life for another. 

They flattened my tire

And they cut me in half

Cut off

And cut short

Dead in the water.

Calling me up

Just to see

Where I was

False friends

And true enemies.

In a world of lies

Many have died

One man’s life

For another mans

Pride.