Face to Face

Face to Face  12/19/2019

I must have walked

A thousand miles

Up and down

Streets of gray. 

Circuitous wanderings

Threading the city  

Stuck in a rut

Of concrete and steel.

Glass monuments

Rise up around me

Full of people

And pointless

Ambitions. 

I used to walk

With her

Side by side

11 to noon.  

But now I am alone

And I am changed

No longer normal

And no longer

Asleep.

Forever altered

Where normalcy is fake

The weak sauce

Of liars

And posers. 

They smile

And they pretend

Unaware of death

And sudden horror.

Closer than they think

It lurks a step behind

Always ready

And always scheming. 

Evil men

Magnify themselves

Soulless vessels

That can never be filled.

Always boasting

And always promising

Anything to win

And anything to steal. 

But someday

They will stumble

And someday 

They will fall

Into the very trap

That they have set. 

And there will be

No one to help

And no one

To swindle.

Dead level guilty

For every lie

And every theft

At last accountable

Face to face

With God. 

Knock Knock

Knock Knock            12/18/2019

Unaware

And asleep

In my day dreams

I never realized

The intimacy of evil. 

Soft, mild

Jagged and deadly

The sudden thrust

Deep in the back. 

Shocked awake

And gushing blood

We look for help

When it’s already

Too late

Blood and roses

Loneliness and loss

The treachery of liars

And the deceit of friends. 

In a house full of ghosts

I listened to the voice mail

Over and over again

That I was called

And I was loved.

Standing in the court room

Without help or voice

Alone and ashamed

In a deep

Dark winter. 

Shoved aside

When I needed

Help the most

The days I remember

And can never

Forget. 

I did not know

How to ask

And I did not believe

I was worthy. 

Nervous in my skin

And afraid to try

Nothing but a worm

Crawling over glass.

The world

Will bring you down

Crushing your spirit

Every chance

It gets. 

Everything I ever wanted

Gone in an hour

Betrayed from behind

And cut clean into. 

The liars

And the frauds

They love to mock

And injure. 

Kicking the injured

And torturing the innocent

They love to show

All  that they have won. 

As if people can be owned

And as if treachery was noble

The shameless thieves

Hiding in the shadows.

All of it a fraud

And all of it a lie

The first step of many

Greed, deception, and envy. 

Accused in whispers

And bribed with gifts

The evil of men

Who only give

To get. 

It is now

That I know it

What it is

That I want.

In all humility

I ask the Lord

That I want it all

Everything back

Plus everything more. 

Crossings

Crossings  12/18/2019

Sooner or later

Comes unbidden

Sunrise or noonday

Sudden and sharp. 

Cut off

Or cut down

The decisive moment

Of happenstance. 

I was born asleep

Cut open

And pulled out

Warm to cold

Dark to light. 

Day dreaming through

A world long gone by

A fleeting glimpse

That flourished

And died. 

The faces

And sometimes

Even the names

All frozen

And flattened. 

Suspended in memory

Far away from here

Persisting images

Numb but poignant.

I think

And I pray

For all of the living

And all

The departed. 

Each and every

Connection

In their family

And friends

Scrolling backwards

Time and space.

Looping backwards

To circle the whole

Al cycles completed

Together at last. 

Where time

Has no meaning

No longer

Will we remember

Living in the shadows. 

The light

And the glory

The truth

And the heart.