the departure
unexpected

a solitary witness who
owned only three summers
unperturbed
said, ‘Nana's gone to sleep
and won't wake up’

then
displaying childhood's acceptance of
all things new
spoke nothing more of it

until, at the wake
in the deceased’s sunny kitchen
was heard to
whisper to
her siblings and cousins

Floaters

By RW

Brief lightning

Halogen flash of feeling

too soon gone

not even an odor lingering

just moments made less savory

by rapid passage

Now I see spots

and the darkness is no longer comfortable

 Before you
I was blind
I crawled and cried
as a child

my thoughts
were mere doubts,
inner shouts
that howled
and ground my awe

until when
you intruded
and diluted
my heart
in the world
of words' art
and in you. 

A curtain of false civility
like tall grass hides the predator
whose ripping teeth are veiled
by lips of greed
all the better to stalk
profit

Don't mistake the gleam in laughing eyes
for a cheerful twinkle
humor masks the mirth of sizing up
an unsuspecting prey

Those who take him for a friend
taken in by feigning of good will
are merely meat in waiting
ear tagged for the cold locker
a meal for when greed's hunger
makes him drool
don't be that fool

Freedom and liberty,
so often a catchphrase
sacrificing sanity
at the end of a smoking gun.

They're not concepts of faith or belief
they are complex ideas with no absolutes
that require thought, sacrifice, and grief
and need to weigh loss with answers.

We live together for better or worse
and freedom to kill is often the first
liberty lost.

So we consider what it means
when we lose the right to cause harm or blame
and gain the good of mutual nurture
guiding us to a better future.

 In the heart of life
we grow
sometimes friends
sometimes foes
to build and construct
or even to destruct
but
we all end
wretched and
worthless

six
feet
under

under a grave stone
 

with bandaged loin
shuffling step
before his twenty-fifth birthday
and long before I was born
he returned from
The Great War

she told me
‘doctors made cuts in the webs of his toes’
and, while he screamed his torment
she would pull them apart
until water turned to blood

she told me
at each and every beginning of day
for three long years
he wailed in a flood of
agony and despair
as she slowly drained
the toxins from his body
because his kidneys no longer did

The struggle out of misery,
the drama in violence
corrupted by mockery,
innocence stolen.

A captive heart,
souls drenched in tears,
wounded by time,
shattering dreams...

Patriotism!
Kill political will,
awaken heroism,
the outbreak of freedom.

in a corner-torn moment
she stands
in shades of grey
the new-born babe
swathed in woollen white
clutched tightly in her arms

before her in a wicker chair
his hands caress the napes
of the necks of the two small boys
who lean across his knees

all dressed in Sunday best
for a family album addition
to keepsake the new blessing

a happy picture

so you'd think

an intuition
for I know the story

I look closer
seek their eyes
find therein
emotional exposure

Where are you I need to talk?
To walk as I do, with new thoughts
A strange quietness to my ways
Where equals are so different.

Fly high with thoughts anew
Where is it going I ask?
Be gentle with their worlds
We can see many new words

Coldness that freezes Ice
Warmth that would melt rocks
Yet both held at bay.
Touching the mind.

To sing stories of old
Prayers from many tongues
Worlds kissing at a whim,
Then pursuing their own path.