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"Watchmen"
First Published in Tempered Steel, Vol. 30
The streets are filled with blood and the bodies of us
Who is watching them if no one is watching us?
Where can we find our god?
He is still with us or is he too far gone?
What’re we to do when the Watchmen never come through?
Are we left to wait?
What’re we to say when our heroes can’t be saved?
Are the Watchmen ever going to save?
Borders designed to separate life, from Mexico to Berlin
Justice sits in a dust bin with a rotten apple core
Nuclear halos hang inside the mind
Radioactive snow falls on Christmas morning cries
Politicians hiding their eyes hoping we won’t find the sour cigarettes
Black coffee conversations over dry crusted bloody cuts
Whisky burning bourbon breathe while cigars flutter in a dish
Who is watching them if no one is watching us?
Who will drain the streets of the blood?
The drains are scabbing up, clogged by the bodies of us
Politicians produce annihilating war pigs
Politicians pretending to be heroes
Politicians, wannabe Watchmen living a faded dreamland
"The Steam"
First Published in Tempered Steel, Vol. 31
Crystalline cut, so clearly opaque.
The head holds a rusted reel:
film, images, missions, and…
Obdurate disease obscuring my memories.
Obscuring my final glimpses of this reality.
Happenings happily remembered in frames.
Previously focused with grace,
now I must endure sharp searing pain.
Nothing to gain from a ghost stilled in glass,
No escape from pain,
relaxed only while wadding in metaphysical paths.
On a slope I sit, gazing through the dark.
The immeasurable moveable canvas flows in front of me.
Light emerges through steam and trees.
Light carrying memories.
The moon rises, comes and sits by my side.
Blue gleam of light drowned by the glimmer on the canvas.
Weddings and watersheds,
Date nights and death beds.
Soft kisses.
Soft touches.
Soft kisses.
Soft kitten, dogs, long since passed. They all call beyond the steam, they see me
Long since I’ve held her hand.
Grass crunching near.
Soft voice whispers “Long time no see”
Spirit leaves the body on the bed.
I go into the steam.