Three Poems

Until Death Do You Part

The ever-constant in life:
Death, all concede,
till they are shy but one
final step before they kneel before me.
But there is no heart to clench, nor breath to thieve,
none, but without my final blessing.
And thus, you will part.

I am judge, I am jury, I am plaintiff and witness too.
I will sing the woes upon which you have fallen
and build the mountain to help you rise,
I will time the pain until you stand,
but be the fence that stands you from the drop.
Time and time again, I will, because I am constant.

But I am no executioner,
I am no God.
I bow not to the world of Man.
I distinguish not between thy sinner and thy saint.
Mistake not, I am.

Bow child.
You are but a cog in an unforgiving world,
yet you will set yourself the center of the universe.
Learn your place child,
and you will earn a place in the world.

Stand, Love.
You are but a cog in an unforgiving world,
yet you will set yourself the center of the universe.
Stand your place,
and you will earn your place in the world.

And I, I will stripe the tavern of your heart,
write the lines and curves of mine.
With gluttonous joy, you will ride this ride,
confused, unaware,
certainly bleary-eyed.

I will send you soaring the heights,
I will send you to your knees.
You will come to learn
I am never not there.
Tell me, am I not fair?

Two constants:
life, unto death.
An ever-present cycle.
Life and Death.

When Your Time Has Gone

When your time has all but gone,
when your well has run you by,
when I linger on your doorstep,
and reach for your hand,
will you still scorn me so?

Long years I spent dredging the battlefields.
Centuries I felt coursed by
as I waited in the shadows,
fighting my simple nature
that you may lay stake to mine.

I have claimed the souls of the innocent;
by and by, none are innocent.
I have ferried the bodies of the mighty;
cradled their frail tombs to the gates.

I have led the way for the faithful;
their bodies laden with hope.
I have delivered to the crime sight
and they will send back ‘hangman’.

But you, you have taught me I am danger.
You have branded my tongue deception.
You have wielded me a weapon.
And still, you say I bear the fruit of evil.

Weary traveler, fear not.
I am not as I appear.
You are so tainted with doubt.
Will your heart close and mind languish
to all the possibilities I may still bear?
Weary traveler, answer not,
if you may still scorn me so.
Oh, but when your time has gone
and your mind has dried its thought.



In Another Life, Another Time

Glassy eyes cloud the sky
of stormy wind and thought.
Stubborn will cedes the way for
Salty tears to slide
A rustle of pages, another wave
and the memories crystallize.

In one, a lazy figure halts their step
at the glass that never lies.
They primp and prod and lose themselves
to a mind forever unsatisfied.
In another life, another time,
Could they wear their beauty with pride?

Another, who obeys the signs,
yields faithfully the right-of-way.
Favor exhausted to the hearts of all
and none to own come break of day.
In another life, another time,
Could they shoulder their worth in stride?

On a busy street, a corner away
their frenzied lives collide.
Their hearts abide to come alive
but their minds are of deceit.

See, I give myself and give again,
The spools of time unravel.
They grab and take and put to waste,
entitled to the present.
When they lose their grasp and time runs out,
they despair to haggle.

The one who gave and gave and gave
fell for the one who couldn’t take.
But they never learned to prize their hearts
and their minds showed days gone to waste.

A book comes down, weighed with grief
and my hands click the moments away.
In another Life, another Time,
They would know not to waste their days.