empty love

she said she didn’t want to hear
about romance
or words of
love
I told her
that was ok
with me
because I didn’t have
any to offer
later that night
she dressed
picked up the
money
and
walked off
into
the darkness

rejected lover

in my hour
of need
death has forsaken
me
turned away
like a rejected
lover

my cries go unheeded
and in despair
darkness
becomes
my
friend

neon gods

on sunday morning
he preaches of love
and redemption
his main street whores
sit in the front pews
feeling saved

sunset will find them
back on the street
doing the lord’s work
I wonder how god looks
dressed in neon

messiahs

don’t believe what all those prime time messiahs tell you
they’re only looking for ratings
and a
new mercedes

rejected

the monk
hung his head
and
walked alone in silence
when they told him
jesus
didn’t love him anymore

war babies

the bombs fell
and
the face
that
wasn’t
a face
screamed in
horror
looking at her
babies
she knew her
eyes
would never
again
be like other people’s
eyes

cherry blossom

I’m an honorable cherry
blossom
going back to
bloom
at my mother’s
knee

grannie's shotgun

grannie's shotgun went off by mistake
last night
it
blew the head off of our neighbor's
dog
and now little billy
cries all the way to school
where the classroom bully kicks
his ass for
being a
sissy

the police said granny was a menace
and took the gun away
we all just laughed and sent her
off to one of those
homes
where they gave her a chemical
lobotomy
and now
she just sits there
talking to
jesus all day

monkeys

breakfast monkeys stare
wide eyed through the
glass
with suction cup paws
they cling to the dirty
window
shouting obscenities

while silent children
with
envious hearts
pray for their
salvation

salvation

she stood under a neon
sign
painted in colors of the
evening
for the price of a
room
she offered to
be
my salvation for the
night

unwanted savior

I took him
off
the cross,
put his ass
in a u-haul truck
and sent him down
the road

the world doesn’t
need
another savior
and besides
who
needs more blood
on their hands?

home

there is a voice
shrouded
by the mist
of time
that calls me
to a place
guarded by the
forest
where a cottage
door
stands open
and I will
at last
be
home

ghosts

I cannot say what loves
have been left on distant shore
I only know where once
they were
in my heart they
sing no more

and still these ghosts within
that tap upon my pane
remind me now of sleepless nights
beneath tomorrow's rain