The golden tremor that your
Prepossessing smile imbues
Strikes a chord in my veins,
Delivering a robust vibration
Throughout my body as if I
Were being played like a viola.

The exuberance renders a
Gentle melody from within
The chambers of my heart,
Amplified by the alluring
Flutter of your eyelashes and
Your mellifluous laughter.

Conducted by love’s affluent stroke,
The starstruck symphony within me
Plays on in diligent unity,
Basking in the shadow of your beauty,
Hoping that its tender song
Might delight your pristine ears.

In the midst of a moonlit avenue,
You and I stumbled jovially across the pavement,
Giggling at each other’s absurd motions
Only to both tumble backwards.

With the evening’s beer still fresh on my lips,
I took a reckless dive at a kiss
But to my surprise you reacted with oblivious indifference,
As if my gesture was forgettable as an irksome breeze.

Instead, you reclined comfortably on the cement,
Letting your rippling hair flow in the caressing starlight,
And marveled at the celestial luminescence above us;
A million petite crystals dancing over our heads.

“One day you will find me waltzing with the stars,”
You said, rocking your head back and forth as if
Mystical ballroom music were playing in your mind.
“And I’ll shine like a lantern in the night sky.”

Perhaps it was a alcohol conjured vision,
But I could have sworn the pearls of your eyes
Glowed as the words glided off of your lips,
Ascending into the midnight sky.

I may have never known your name,
Or from where you came,
But I know your final destination.

When a shooting star streaks through space
Dabbing the night in a silvery melody,
I’d like to think that it is you,
Waltzing in ecstasy across the moonlit sky.

Oh how difficult it is
To find beauty in the black.

Loneliness, a carping vulture,
Hovers domineeringly over my shoulder
Like a judge presiding over a defendant,
Pecking at my skull ardently as if to call
The sleeping phantasms of my mind to order.  
What I am guilty of I cannot say,
Yet I am encapsulated by a dungeon
Where darkness engulfs me like a clammy sleep,
Rendering me senseless and numb.

In presence of my agony, the cynical bird
Assumes the role of conqueror,
Flapping its wings forcefully, walloping the gelid air
Right and left throughout the cell,  
Beleaguering my skin
And rattling my bones.

Oh how I long to extinguish this perpetual anguish.

Though on a rare occurrence,
A ribbon of sunshine stealthy slides
Through a crevice in the
Blistered board suffocating my window.
I rejoice,
Coddling it’s mellow benevolence.
But the light is retrieved by the bird’s
Watchful eyes.
It spreads its wings,
Swoops before my eyes,
And extinguishes the light,
Fueling the frigid, black
Night.

Oh how difficult it is
To find beauty in the black.

Bellowing trumpets call the palace to order and servants,
Dressed from head to toe in exquisite lace,
Promptly wave their lush palmetto leaves while the Pharaoh
Ambles domineeringly down the marble corridor.

Though the floor rattles at the cries of enemy soldiers
Penetrating the once impregnable palace walls,
The mighty Cleopatra, exuberant in both beauty and intelligence,
Maintains a powerful, dignified forbearance.

Immune to cowardly apprehension petrifying those surrounding her,
The Pharaoh relies on only her brooding heart to guide her.
Though her once opulent eyes scorch in melancholy,
They look onward toward the cynosure of her existence.

Clad in dense armor, Mark Antony clasps his sword resiliently,
Pacing nervously back and forth throughout his room
At the thought of the danger soon to overtake him.
His breath hangs heavy on the seaside air.

Antony’s complexion brightens at the sight of alluring lover,
And he releases his guard, opening his arms as she approaches.
Shouting erupts from the neighboring corridor
Though neither he nor Cleopatra discern the enveloping chaos.

As Roman soldiers zealously round the corner and overtake the lovers,
Waving their weapons high in hopes of slaughter,
The couple’s lips merge together as one,
Producing an everlasting bond that no sword could sever.

Laboratory lights sizzle
In the presence of the
Midnight scientist.
Irate tinsels of electricity
Strike his apparatus,
And coerce the limp,
naked corpse outstretched
On his table
Back to life.

Contrary to the scientist’s
Great expectations,
The corpse wails at the
Discovery of his renaissance.
In a vehement tantrum,
He thrusts test tubes and beakers
Left and right,
Each shattering and leaving
Chromatic, flammable residues
On the sensitive floor.

“You FOOL. Do you not understand
That you have deprived me of HEAVEN
And its splendorous elation?
Do you not realize that you have wrestled me
From the benevolence of the angels
Only to reacquaint me with the
Wickedness of the earth?
No crime is greater than this cursed
Life you have bestowed upon me.”

“But Charles, I loved you like a brother!”

The laboratory lights sizzle
In the presence of
Smoke and inferno.
The walls recede into powder,
And blanket the deceased.
Both mangled corpses,
Reduced to smoldering bones,
Lie solidified with arms reaching
Toward Heaven
With jarring smiles on their faces.

Someday you’ll find me
Where the sunlight meets the sea,
Waiting patiently for you.
My spirit will be scattered across the surface,
Riding bobbing, bellicose waves,
And gasping for a nostalgic whiff of
Honeyed oxygen.

Know that my soul will be
Immanent in the rising of the tide.
While my wide liquidity hands
Slither across the sand,
Fervently longing
To catch a memory,
I will reach out to you.

Lastly,
When you hear the roar of the waves
Beleaguering brawny rocks on the shore
Know that it is me
Crying out for you,
Yearning to relive
The serene moment when
We watched sunlight kiss ripples
Effusing through tender waters.

For you, I’ll be content to
Languor in transit,
Bound between Heaven and Earth,
Engulfed by sunlight and sea,
Until we may ascend together,
Limitlessly.