they lie there,
some scattered,
some stacked neatly
waiting and fading
from memory
the promises
and responsibilities
self inflicted and
imposed,
competing with
the more real ones.
they require courage
and demand attention,
a daedal mastery
of the hand, heart,
and brain.
they bare their teeth
in anger
and frustration
they demand to know,
in pre dawn hours,
why it is that they
are there, ignored.
and in response
to your unsatisfactory
answer, they break
your heart.

::: five postcards :::

this is
what i
become,
in this
space
as i fight
in the
insomniac
hour against
my shriveling
will

it radiates outward
from my center
something akin
to peace
that static droning
in my ears, my
mind. everything
in focus
the waves of
black light
crashing within
my chest and
i flow
with it

no longer do i
impede this
darkness,
i am the
darkness
i am the
world's broken
heart

as the light
goes out of
our eyes

we stare into
the bleak distance
and behold

the darkening
enormity of
our unfinished
dream

now the
winds
tear the
blossoms
from their
homes
out in this
wilderness
amidst the
wolves
and other
beasts

i've got birds
that soar
in my heart

that scream
into the
mountains

over the trees
and above
the festering
rivers

and all this,
i did
while you slept

i sheared the mountains
i ignited the oceans

i filled your soul
with sorrow

i did this
i did this all
i am

the broken
arrow shaft,
poisoned tipped,

in your heart

i can feel
it change
it's in
these shifting
seasons.

it's in
the orange glow
of the cities
beneath the
billowing
skies.

it's in
the trees
on fire,
in the
shrieking
of the night.

in the lonely
call of the
last birds
that refuse
to take
the sky.

the blades
are upon
our nape and
i can feel
the change.

out from the haze
of the blotted sun,
our transgressors
anointed in acids,
lay waste to
all our lands
our blood running
cold and thin
in the raining fires
death comes from above

descending in obdurate
hordes, the chill of
the dawning greets us
with hopes of death
and their blades
warm with blood,
their eyes hollow
with greed

seek refuge from the
vile swarms in
those ivory towers
built tall from
the friable bones
of our dead
on these,
the raptures
of our harrowed,
mournful days

witness the conflagrations
of these, the last days
when fire came from
the sky and the ash
looked like the first snow
of our last winter

in the distant baying
the cries of confusion,
chaos, pandemonium

yet you stood still on a hilltop
at peace, serene, easy
aglow in the fires' light
saying farewell to this
and that madness

acrid are the nights
in the days of this
extinction

bitter are the ropes
hanging from the
gallows

burdened with the
innocent

lights blaze on distant horizons in failed halos
circling like vultures
in the tumbling dawn light,
their eyes fall frozen through the mist and rain
i await the obscurities rising out of the fog
a man at the gallows
a man at the gates of the abyss

my heart is a burning silo
now the grains of these days
churn to
tar and
soot
clouds spill gasoline upon
the remains of
our cities
and from here it looks
like strange dinosaurs
on fire
bellowing
in the hissing heat

we brave the storms
while our lands fall
into the sea beneath
the pandemonium
of the sun
...and these nights
have brought us
something worse