Expiration Date:

Once, on this road,

                                       there was a moment . . .

                                              where

we crossed paths                  
                                         and for some
unknown reason                                                     
      you looked at me
                               and saw
       a bleeding soul . . .                                 
              you heard
a heart song,                  
                                                     an echoing refrain
of yesterday's melody . . .                                         
                                              your fingers, delicate . . .
    fluttering   

white butterflies . . .. .                                     
                             over empty spaces . . . .
I looked at you and saw                               
                           Phoenix rising . . .
passion surrounding                   
                           me in brittle arms of steel,
I breathed on you,                            
     blowing ashes to the searing winds . . .
                                                            flames like roses blooming
    and withering. . .         

                                rising and falling,

                                                                 sizzling beneath pearls

of tears like white wine . . .

The oak tree . . .
                                      has no
memories of this .. ..                                 
   but stands stoic . . .                                                          
                                                      a shelter from the
scorning sun . .   

                                                  and here I pause, 

bewildered . . .

                                                        looking down this old rocky road

waiting . . .   

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I am moved . ..
by this sentimental music,
a wistful dream of yesterday;
yes, there was that day . . .
it dances slowly in my memories,
quietly fading . . . until the rim
of the past
becomes the moment of today .. ..
and here I sit,
my heart melting . . .
under the tender touches
of a piano's voice . . .
and slowly a few tears must fall,
while the beauty of the music
becomes a balm
to heal . .  

Royalty free music for professional licensing

      

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Expiration Date

printed in faded
purple ink

on the lid of this life . . .
pointing obliquely to the end. . .
I cannot make it out
my eyes are too blurry

from the salty brine . . .
it gets harder to see

as the line gets finer,
and the time gets shorter
but my heart shrinks . . .
inward . . .
shellacking its surface
to reflect the burning
rays of pain

and I spread

some calk
to fill in the
puncture wounds

as if they were holes in old houses

needing repair . . .

yet there is nothing left
but this dull pain. . .
I am old enough
to know
that wounds heal,
and the scar left behind
is yet another shield

of protection and knowledge
against the woes of
time . . .
and though
a flower fades and drops
never  to return
there will come a day when
yet another
bloom will grow,

the thorns a little sharper . . .
I know that I have
little to offer you
but my flimsy understanding
of life and time,
like the pale lunar moth
struggling to get to
that glorious moon . . .
brushing against the
topmost leaf where
her delicate scales brush off,
the glue too insubstantial to hold,
she flutters down
into the flame
of reality
and perishes . . .
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Royalty free music for professional licensing

Inspired while listening to Ivann:

lying on my back
in the tall golden grass
I am completely invisible
to those doomed to wander on this flat land . . .
here I watch the star-flies,
little flocks of insects or fairies . .
   swooping through the dusk,
like stray embers
   flashing upwards,
from that great bonfire on the horizon . . .
I call them to me
    by name
and they come without hesitation . . .
bringing the music of my soul . . .
                it lingers in the air
like the perfume of the gods . . .
moving like the waves of a restless sea . .
               I am overwhelmed by the ambiance
stroking me like calming fingers . . .
my star-flies  swim back and forth in this
                   raw emotion .. ..
touching my eyelids  . . . which flutter with want . . .
my lips . . . like tender invisible kisses . . .
my body completely relaxed . . .
I swoop upward and outward . . .
with my star-flies . . . into the deep space of Heaven . . .
     and I am truly lost to this world . . .


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