Pray for the Day

You’re more a ghost to me than a memory,

More an almost-was than a could-have-been.

I know you knew me when I cuddled you.

I wish I’d fought hard, maybe muddled through.

Where are you now, Jake? I miss you so bad.

Your mom ripped us apart. She must be mad.

Someday you’ll smile again at my silly faces

We’ll play together, we’ll go lots of places.

You might forgive me for not being there,

Just know it wasn’t cos I did not care.

I love you Jakey, you are my heart and soul.

Without your little hugs my life is empty, cold.

I never loved you more than when you looked at me.

I’ll never love you less if you don’t love me.

To all the elements and gods I pray

We’ll be together again, forever and ever, someday.

I’m standing at my pc,

well slouched, feeling empty.

There’s a bald guy calling out a name

He’s a junkie and they’re all the same.

Scabs line his head like a brown and black map

I wonder what happened? Of course. I’m a sap.

He’s just another victim of our need to get away

From the pain and confusion that comes with every day.

He gave in to needful things instead of living his life

And now our taxes and our time are spent on his self-made strife.

Why don’t we have the courage to see things just as they are?

Do we fear the epiphanies that come with lighting up the dark?

Our own reflections make us flinch when we see through the fake masks.

That’s why we fear what put us here, that’s why we just won’t ask.

See in the end we’re all just days away from eating dirt.

So when we see our comrades curled up wailing, clearly hurt

We shove them all off to one side and label them as lower class

When we know deep in our gut that we’re talking out of our a$$.

I feel disgust as wafts of alcohol and methadone slide slowly by

But even more so cos I know that it could be you or I.

On the drug of snobbery that comes from being born privileged

Which puts them constantly on edge.

Turbulent Path

Forever I walk in twilight

gently warmed by the teasing fingers of a breaking dawn

whilst fighting the chills of rigid cold black fear

Rippling through my heart and mind.

Wait! I find before me: a path strewn with...

Corpses: forgotten and forsaken.

I wonder what actions can be taken

to avoid a similar, solitary death?

Sometimes, a flash of light bursts out from the dim

and a roll of thunder breaks through the din.

I think, “That’s it. I’m in.”

But no. Echoes and facades:

All unearthy promises break early hopes.

Somehow, I’ve learned to cope.

Forever I walk in twilight.

Rue What's True

Like a ghost you haunt my dreams,

my waking life, my sleepless nights.

I try my best to beat the guilt,

forget the pain, forgive the fights.

Your mom and me, we just can’t see

eye-to-eye on life for you.

She thinks it’s right to steal you off

to home unknown, reasons untrue.

A Day Adrift

Drunken fools unspool from pools of watered-

Down, stagnant, dredged-up, long-forgotten genes.

Who weans these petty, prettied-up, unkind whores

Who bore the rest with tales that test

Even the strongest man of manners?

They wear like banners

Their God-given rights to stab their neighbour’s

Backs. Oh what great cracks, oh what great craic, these vile units of hate.

Meality

There you are, frowning

Thinking, Who the feck is he?

Here I am, drowning

In a sea of pity

BitterSweet

I watch your lips twist and tremble in fury and

Rage, but all I hear

Is the sound of featherlight waves kissing a golden shore

Under skies blue and clear.

Birds sway to and fro

With the gentle flow of a soft summer breeze

And I smile and think on what might have

Dragged me down to your sombre world

And thank the heavens for raising me past this prison

Of glass and numbered paper, war and unfelt smiles.

Your words whisper but do not penetrate.

I feel your sadness and hate,

But only vaguely, and with little care.

I bask in the sun while you bring yourself down.

RaWaR

Once a treasured perfect diamond,

Pressure comes down hard upon it,

Splits explode across its pure skin,

Sweating out spinning flakes and bits.

Deep inside the core still holds strong

Darkening from silver to black.

In new and almost gorgeous ways

Growing light trickles through its cracks.

Its scars trophies of endurance,

Shameful damage brings it glory;

Its remnants hard times’ evidence

Of its battle and victory.

My Fear

White teeth bared, thick fists clenched

I’m so scared its thirst won’t quench.

It chews through heart and spine.

It rips apart my soul and mind.