this is a true story. i was there that cold november on the waterfront.


songstress

my dear, you could come drifting in here
like some seaside waif
who frequents the tavern at sunset
for her welcome and a friendly pat
sometimes a dollar for her song

fey hoyden who sits snugly by the fire
singing of familiar and haunting sadness
or, cheers the motley loners
with songs of wit and wonder
(on these days she pays her way)

and haven't you noticed
that i am the tavern company
nutritious denizen of dark truths
fashioning with love and cunning art
a key for you to fit your heart

daily here you bare your sadness
shine your forgetful joy
sip rare love from tender lips
here where a magic ether flows
from finger tips
to loose the knots of tangled woes

if this is what you wanted
why hold back?
surrender wholly
and if it must be
through choking tears, you find relief
so be it, there's an end to it.

an end to sparrowing a larks song
or squeaking out the nightingale
now, in the open, you may
grasp the sunlight
the sunlight
that turns the hay to gold

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limbo moon

a nymph stood laughing on the sands
and beckoned me. Her eyes
were irresistible commands,
I started slowly, then realizing...
a growing madness and began to run,
but with the smoother grace of summer breeze
she also ran
as if her pleasure were the race.
Pursuing her was vanity,
but lured from sense i chased her far....
there would have been more sanity
in seeking rainbows or a star.
At last i dropped, exhausted lay
to watch her stop and turn again
in petulance, as if to say
such games could ne'er be won by men.
Her golden hair thrown back, half wild,
she stood against the setting sun,
the form her mother venus styled
still breathing from the run.
her eyes, so sparkling in her pride,
grew tender in the evening glow,
and when the moon came forth, she sighed, drank deep of cold blue rays
escaped into the night, kidnapped by an angel dark
with chameleon wiles
darkangel predator-- cunning interloper
charged with whispering secrets and promiscuous promises
impossible to keep.

I_ArtMan