The best of what was done last year. A couple of these were done pre-2006 but they only found appreciation last year.

Missing

I don't miss you because you cheated on me with him

Then he fucked the girl next door

And I don't miss you because you wanted me to be someone else

But I wouldn’t change for you and you left

 

I won't miss you because you took your brother's word over mine

So you lost me and your only claim to cool

And I won't miss you because your work always came first

But I won't be just a second place

 

I don't miss you or the way we were meant to be

Because you told the next guy the same thing

And I don't miss you because you found out who I am

And you didn't like what you found

 

I don't miss any of you or what we used to do for each other

Or the powerless obedience I had to endure

I won't miss the way in which you thought you were better

And I couldn't care less what you’re doing now

 

I do miss the morning chats and the evening meals

And the way bonds were formed

I don't miss you and I don’t think that I ever will

All I miss is me, being us

 

********************************************************

Superficial (for Sarah)

I watch you do your makeup in front of yourself

Gazing grudgingly at gilded cheek bones that are invisibly blemished

Ruined only by your other perfections

Eyes like tar as they pull me under magical sheets

Now lined with pollution in the guise of grace

Your mouth rolls out words and swills syllables like fine wines

Now surrounded by red and pink cages

As you sit there, collapsing the beautiful facade

I know that tomorrow nature's beauty will return

I will have your angelic curls in my fingers

And your body's brilliance between my arms

 

*******************************************************

Ultimate

Stand still

Take a deep breath and believe

Wait

Keep waiting

Breathe out and believe some more

Find the target and see the goal

Aim for the board and locate the hole

Create the time to win

In your mind

Find the ultimate

 

Step forward and feel the wind

Another step

Keep going to reach the edge

Teach yourself the limit

Be the one the others mimic

Don’t be the gimmick

Be the man

Be king of the pride

Stride forward

Be the ultimate

 

Take a chance

Go for glory and push it harder

Keep pushing

Leap and reach the line

Be first and take the gold

Hold on and go one more

A record breaking is in store

The crown is yours

In your grasp

Last gasp

Create the ultimate

 

Warm down and feel the burn

Turn and stare

See the field in your wake

More breath to take

The flash bulbs burn and fade

Blink blink

Drape the colours 'cross your back

Turn back to face the front

Triumph is earned

Heads Turned

Stand still again

Live the ultimate

 

Now from cracked leather seat

In years to be lived in shadow

See those breaths again

Feel the burn, the blinks and the gasp

Hear it

See it

In mind begin those steps again

Never let it end

Feel it

And remember the ultimate

 

*****************************************************

Drama on the Green

Green lines flicker across the "not-so" common

The rarity of the luscious lung encircled by dowdy grays

A large black shape stalks among the quivering tails

Seeking out the airborn, monotonic thieves that sing and dance

His claws are tense, his eyes pin points and his tail straight and low

This world is a stage and from behind my blinds I await the curtain

Creeping, pulling his streamlined self towards his goal

Can those two innocents not see the killer?

Lost in their world of song and shine, how can they miss him?

He edges along a lower path and then begins ascending

Towards his chattering victims to be

Like a demon from the pit with the grace of angels

The wind rustles the green stage some more

He holds himself

One of Natures' finest killers, all black silk and knives knows how to wait

The gusts of the heavens calm themselves again

Those two still dance

That one still waits

And for a moment I look away, then quickly I turn back

As if Mr Wood is telling Bella where to stand

Directing the killer to his prey becomes too enthralling to turn away

There stand the players still

Among the green the drama builds

The pounce is on

Or first the chase

Those knives unfurl

The ears pin back

Here it comes

It must be NOW!

 

******************************************************

I hear the owl.

Athena's pet, he pesters me

His happy driving over the trees

Wake me from my midnight slumber

His sights are set on all degrees.

 

The professor of the darkness

Crashes through the lack of light

His enormous span wakes nothing

But his calls give me a fright.

 

I have him in my aural scope

To wit he calls to me

"Come in to the jet black air

And see the things I see..."

 

The covers pulled up over me

To ward of Poe's bird's better

I hear him calling out to me

"Come and pay your debtor..."

 

His mouth a thousand lives has ended

His dead assassin's eyes

He wails for the moon to die

And woos it with his lies

 

"Come meet me in the lunar rays,

Come see me in the dusk,

Come talk the talk of woodland folk,

Come too and leave your husk..."

 

I ignore and turn away

Shivering in the throws of fear

Still he sits and watches me

Into my soul he leers

 

His haunting eyes, as black as death

Dance inside my head

He opens up his glinting beak

And screams to bring the dread

 

Then he jumps! And flies away!

Beating air with feathers old

Gone to find another victim

To make them in their terror cold.

 

***************************************** 

TV

Chitter-chatter plastic box and employ a melting mind

Glowing window gives the world

My optic globes in synchronicity held by famous faces

Navy, crimson and slimy green

Mould on screen

Mould on mind

Fill me with your artificial feelings

 

Click, click, click, click

Find the emotion to occupy

Fry the nerves in electric light and sound

 

Laugh and cry

The narrative winds on and on

It never ends from view to view

Too few chances to drop the wand and turn away

Sleep is the only chance to run

Laugh and cry again

The end

Until next week

 

*********************************************************

Liquid Lights

Cascading colours dance across sticky, dirty seats

The sounds of sin and sensation burst and drown the electric noise

I sit and survey the dead wastes alive with darkness

What hope have they of life?

Excitement confined to nights without responsibilities

No love of existence

No love of being loved

Rotten minds awash with chemical conundrums

Falling under liquid lights in harmony and horror

They twist and coil in revolutions

Rebelling in a tiring time that’s all been done before

Thrashing in the boiled air

On and on they go into the eternity of pitch and jet

The lustrous waters ripple

They splash

They still

But the spinning liquid lights keep on

The dancers drop and lift in tides of faux passionate embraces

I'll just keep drinking

 

****************************************************

The Garden King

The Garden King, he fights and bites and watches his domain

His spiky crown and translucent wings bring vicious jaws of pain

No rival prince can hover by without the feeling of his bane

This dragonfly with maidens May is ruler of this relative plain

 

From conifer to royal oak and over to sculptured privet lines

Gossamer blades slice air and wind with power cased so fine

The vicious beast, born of water now in colours so divine

He needs no sun, nor garden lamp to glisten and to shine

 

But as the sun begins to die and fall beyond the distant stars

He sits on reed and flattened leaf and tenders to his scars

All wars fought, all matings made, he rests to Crickets' odd guitars

His life seems done and over now, his prison made of aged bars

 

So with the moon he floats away with the coming autumn gust

To sit on grass in a new strange land before he turns to dust

While Owl screams and Bat hums to the winds he now must trust

For Garden King is gone away into the night and past the dusk


***

Il Mio Amore Siciliano

La ho persa sulla notte dell'estate
Come i venti fortissimi hanno scorso veloce sopra gli straights di Messina
Ho tenuto la sua mano per l'ultima volta
Ed ho visto le rotture cadere da lei occhi

La ho tenuta nel morire, luce dorata
Come i mari azzurrati si sono increspati lontano sotto i nostri piedi
Posso ancora assagiare l'aria croccante
Ed il sole ha riflesso in suoi capelli

Ho desiderato un minuto all'ultimo un l'anno
Come suo battimento del cuore ha trovato il miei propri ed ha saltato
Ascolto i venti nella notte fredda
Sentire la sua voce è ancora tutto che desideri