The laneway smells of sweet clover
Overrun by long timothy
That soaks toes in morning’s walk
Back and forth we go.
Dampness holds its structure
Amidst low hanging overcast clouds
That have lifted only slightly
Since twilight broke them off.
Calmness awaits
Imagination creeps in
Day’s plans unfold
Tracks on the road.
Alone I awaited
Like a ghost I could see
I knew
I wore colours I needed
And embraced
My worn vision
Pale, vanishing
Twilight
Smokestack feelings
Carrying my wind tunnel
Like a Gypsy traveler
Upon my bent back
And singing my silence.
Remember, my sweet love
I have not gone too far,
The softness of my hands
Still reaches for your bosom.
Caress my softened heart,
It searches for you in twilight
While this articulated landscape
Shows the plan
I have been digging for.
My letters are still written
For the tips of your lips,
Exposing the little curls
Found inside your touch
That leave me sewn
Into a journal I’ve yet written.
I don’t want you to remember me
When you see daylight searching
Over twilight’s shoulder,
I want birds to scream bloody murder
Through their washed out faces
Long callused like knots
Grown out from tree trunks.
I want you to document my every step
That lives deep in the mud
Like you would document a nightmare
Scared of even breathing
For danger it would incite the demon
You most feared.
I don’t want you to remember me
For in your memory, icy cold
Shall rest my name, sworn.
When a lonely mountain calls her name,
When a red sun sets,
A lake, my heart, listens intent;
A loon calls out for twilight.
And her name is here again
Amidst pines that run the shore,
Where slowly her lines
Run though my head
Slow memories drawn out into the lake
(A canoe silently passes by
As darkness settling in)
To warn me of my heavy eyes
And heart amidst the peaks
Where I shall watch again, tomorrow,
For a sun to lead the way.
I want to go off and into something else
I’m not here anymore, left blowing into the wind.
Where does my pain come from every night?
Leave me there, it’s in my soothing song.
It’s not lines I’ve drawn across my head
Nor lines that draw my sheet to bed,
It’s circles running down my cheeks
To smother every heartbeat I don’t want to forget.
I’ve lost the difference in my dreams,
They’ve come into my days with open eyes
Reaching out to what I see;
Reflections shaking out in twilight’s lake.
Harmony will be my memory’s drawing
As I lay my bedding down as straw,
Take my hand with what I’ve yet to say
And brush my dusty shoes so that it’s here I’ll stay.
My innocence exists
In tiny bursts of firelight,
Choking on minute details
Of brilliance and twilight
Provided by sparkling stars over head.
But in confusion
I simple stared back
At flashes and smiles
Misunderstanding and
Enjoying the experience
Until I can have one myself.
I’m running around
In cat screetching circles
Complete darkness
And two golden girls;
How do the ends come,
How do we lay down plans?
And as we watched the twilight spread
A little voice came and said:
“Let your vices go
All shall be good
And in the morning you will
Return once again to drink.”
Night falls in quietening circles
Swiftly crawling away in crackles,
And my footsteps leave traces for
Two days more
Until it thaws.
Just as Helios had mounted high
Upon our valleys Eastern slope,
He chased birds as frost’s glove
About, appalled,
Distraught.
So now we wait as new circles retreat
Into twilight’s thin air,
Blues to blacks
And a star lit map
Guides us forever home.
When twilight circles my mind like crows and shadows at the hour of feast
I wish for silence, a thousand feet deep.
A silence so lasting that breath trails off into
A frozen pane of windowless reflections,
And the moon clears it’s sleepy eyes
As it gazes over sharp backs of rocky mountains.
Stars must look different from up there, shining so bright.
I have always imagined they have different colors
As the temperature drops.
But from a thousand feet deep I can find only shadows.
I crawl upon bloody knees and fight for my own feast
Among crows and worms who, at this intimate an angle,
Scream like black night and wrinkled sheets.
I pause for a moment struggling to understand
Black lines that criss-cross my hands.
Black arcs that cap my fingernails, digging deep.
I find twilight again as thought slips from my conscience
And incoherent noise picks up again.