The train huffs and bellows;
Screeching tracks sparking
Waves of rolling roaring
Like stretched thunder,
Booming in rapid motion.

Above, a plane traces an arc
Of breathy fury, compressed
And exploding voraciously.
It erupts in ignited screams
Across the moon-lit sky.

Always, too, the forever pops
And sliding-low gurgling of cars
And trucks and motorbikes, vague
Ticks of missing-beats, sparse
Rumbles of howling engines and

Flashing sirens piercing
Continuous above it all.
A cat (probably) somewhere
Screams nearby.

All returns to normal.

Cleric of nomads
Handle of Zeus
Laddle in compromise
Will you carry and spring?
Joyful blooms you hide
Sharing tempers brides

I spoke with two people at the party Saturday.
A young police officer, short-haired, fit,
chiseled face who had two young children.
He felt constrained by the law, without discretion
to question mopes (perps) aggressively
or to let go those who were obviously no threat.
Even at a family function he seemed straight-backed, correct,
devoted to his role as our protector (and his children’s)
yet I thought perhaps too deeply in debt, indentured
to the rules and laws of legislators and destined
to be disappointed (or worse). I thought his courage
and devotion (to whom or what?) would surely
be poorly repaid and that this lesson
was necessary to ready him with wisdom
for death or further living. I worried like a brother
about the unpredictable dangers, even terrors,
he must daily face, and the pleasure he takes in facing them.
How will he return to the fragility of family,
of the soul alone, after wielding the force
of the state, the blind, combined will of us all?

Next a business exec, retired from a well known
global investment firm. At first we talked about
the lush beauty of the northeast compared to the arid west
(although he loves every inch of the west, too).
Then somehow we got beyond light conversation
when he complained about the perceived decline in values
for instance how the Ten Commandments can’t be publicly
displayed. He said we can all agree on God
but I said I have a mechanistic view of the universe
(although the unknowable always sits just out of reach
of the known). I told him my dad’s theory of reincarnation,
a good man and a corporate seeker of God also, whose shoes
I could never fill unless I swore belief in a supreme being.
No hard feelings. Then he told me the story
of his dying friend, an atheist, not even a deist
like the founding fathers, who opened his eyes for the last time
to correct the exec’s misperception that now he’d meet his maker.
Having exceeded the bounds of acceptable conversation
I went looking for my children. Nothing more to question.

Roses are redoubt
Violets are a horn, blue
Sugar is sweat, in a dark pout
And hell is crying, and so are you...

Pain, the magic and the cruel
Forever, is a shoe...
Live by a creed, and you say hi, to a tool
Know a you, for a sweet tooth...

Done, to hunt a misery
Found in a gutter, no man's
Land, has a sick flower of mystery
Told to a child's shadow, a risen chance...

To become a family's cannibal?
Creation, is our view on rage
Though put to such, much is beauty
Tarry with us, to live without music to face...?

Treasure of the ******?
Hell to pay, a quiet dowry
Of dues and tomorrow, a question to hand
You, a seduction's voice, with hunger as its quarry...

you come in without a warrant
where’s your sense of respect ?
do you enjoy belittling me ?
because this isn’t ‘good cop, bad cop’.
you two are ‘bad cop, weak cop’.

stab through my heart then lay it before your eyes
reading every yearning thought
every meaningful emotion
every single desire i’ve ever had.
and you put it in a police file.

sit my witness in the uneasy room
it’s cold in here.
it’s december.
take your file, open it wide
display my mind, my fears that i’ve kept hidden for so long.

–

COP’S iNTERLUDE

i’M THE ONE
i KNOW WHAT’S BEST.
SURE, i HAVEN’T KNOWN YOU YOUR WHOLE LiFE
BUT i’VE DONE MY RESEARCH.

i’LL HAVE YOU BENT OVER MY CRUiSER
YOUR WRiSTS BOUND TOGETHER BY MY CUFFS
THE METAL iS COLD
i HOPE iT LEAVES A SCAR ON YOUR WHITE HEART

POSSESS YOU BEHiND BARS
i’VE PUBLiCLY EXECUTED YOU
RESiSTiNG ARREST iS SELFiSH, LiTTLE GiRL
YOU ARE LEGALLY CONDEMNED BY MY COMMAND.

DON’T UNDERESTiMATE WHAT i CAN DO.
POWER DRiPS OFF OF MY BODY
i MAY BE A COP
BUT MY LOVE iS A CRiME.

–

you say
you love me
like a father
as if i
was your own blood.

i don’t resist.
because there’s no one but you
! to ruin me
you build me up
then break me down.

i barely had a father,
who could love me.
you did much more than i could ask for,
but that’s the issue.
i didn’t ask for any of this..

i’ll always be your girl
even if i can’t be
disregard the feelings, the flames
the need coursing through your veins
what will you do if i resist ?

poverty
trash
boy
***
gay
******
homosexual
weak
ugly

only half irish

Edward Carnegie was once a normal man,
Steel monopolist extraordinaire.
Till a fateful dip in rail stock,
Lead to his discovery of time travel.
Confused, he landed just a few years from the modern day,
Where he was arrested by the Time Police.
"Edward, we'll set you free,
If you defeat public time enemy,
The Alien."
So off went Carnegie to the modern day,
To face off against fellow PTE.
But what was revealed,
Shocked even the Time Police.
His business partner, Henry Frick,
Was the real villain all along.
"Buckle up, we're going back in time!"
Back to the time of steel money,
Frick had almost bested Carnegie.
"The company is mine Edward, stand down!"
Though undenounced to Henry,
His advisory had pumped his veins full,
Of the Blood Of Steel.

Low-born, lowly,
lumbered, plebian
mushrooms, steal and
take, their final gasp.
 Before, a fastly approaching,
 Babylonian Avalanche. Where, lined up, thinly, ivoried-blue, are petulant
       pigs. That, usually; sniff out, lick, arr-
             est and lock up; black, brown and
               white truffles. The unguilty

              are apprehended. For false,
             treasonous reasons. So, who
            can blame the fungis, for wanting
       to seize, the cult of vulturous swines?
     By; the scruff of the system, and br-
   eak their snouts, until, their peccaried
      feathers are ruffled? The champignon,
     were; hewed and chewed, aplenty. By;

    hoggish, gnarled teeth, curled trotters
    and lavish appetites. But, those that  
   fell, to the Babylonian Avalanche, will,
  eventually, become a Mushroom Cloud.
 They'll float over, the 50, fuzzy, boarish
 corpses, to stellar, toadstool plateaus. When, their; final, pixie dust; they bite.

© poormansdreams

You held me close, yet lied to me,
A traitor's mask I could not see.
The warmth I crave, your arms I seek,
But truth has made my heart grow weak.

I know your truth, but I can't say,
The cost is one I dare not pay.
My silence screams, my heart decays,
Bound by the game we’re forced to play.

Still, I’m trapped in your embrace,  
Hating the love I can’t erase.