In So Few Words: la petite fille (February 2012)
An older composition that I had forgotten about.
I like the subtly of it.
Fall’s Night (November 2011)
Had just gotten back from a week in the field, but I don’t think I was ready to be out of the woods just yet.
There’s something to be said for the clarity one can only find when they’re completely lost.
12.23.95 (July 2011)
Not much to say about this one.
Was an old concept that didn’t really work out, but I like the imagery.
Bohemian Lullaby (November 2010)
Short and naturey.
I got stuck on a rhyming kick for a while and this was one of the better ones.
Starlight (November 2010)
Short, cutesy, and all sorts of rhyming.
No matter which way you cut it, this one is adorable.
City Nights (November 2010)
Had the concept for this one stuck in my head for like a week.
Finally wrote it one night while watching the Ohio River in Louisville. In November. It was cold.
The List (January 2010)
There’s nothing particularly special about this one.
Wrote it after we were mortared and waiting for the all clear and casualty report.
In So Few Words: la petite fille
It would do no justice to sing the praises of the woman you’ve never met.
You could not fathom her beauty through a picture, nor imagine the sweetness of her words upon your ear.
Ripe nectarine could never taste as sweet as her skin, though it makes for fine competition.
Woman is a lover, with wiles outside her grasp.
Yet she is not so grounded that she stops gravity itself.
Fear is not beyond her senses.
Wonton urges express the calamity inside her mind, in a solitude she cannot escape.
Lost to her wasteland, she wonders on.
She thinks she cannot be seen.
Fall’s Night
Time seeps through war-torn skin,
Turning it again to flesh that used to be,
Though stained darker than before.
If eyes could see with perfect clarity,
The loam unclouded by contemporary lies,
They’d need no gilded tongue to express their yearning.
Forgotten, the cool breeze of a late fall’s night.
Felicity breathing through the skin at a hint of nature’s touch
Small shivers remember the ecstasy of being.
Howling to the hunter’s moon,
Man’s best friend has left him for greater cause.
To lead the way back to an old beginning.
12.23.95
Alcohol stains the glistening of her lips,
That ruby-red rife with rich satisfaction
Know they not their mark tonight
Cold hand upon hand as she lures herself to his trap
Entangled in a web she herself could not weave
The fresh snow breaks beneath surreptitious steps
Lamp posts buried in winter’s debris light the frozen path
Heaving hearts struggle to hide cascading intentions,
Watching dark clouds fill spacious skies as Christmas Eve encroaches
Broaching the door, drunken honesty’s bitter sting let’s loose
Echoing “If I don’t say this now…” as trespassing limbs begin their conquest
The pheromone of inebriation stifled only by bad cologne and burnt-out cigarettes
Between hard floor and harder hips, virtue has lost its meaning
Bringing to view the reason forbidden moments are worth living
The campaign to end broken promises lost once more,
She writhes in the shallow shrill of carnal victory
Bohemian Lullaby
Thinking of you, my honey bee
And how you respire so sweetly
I thought I knew just what to do,
So I marked the map and followed through,
Trudged and trudged and caught the cues,
But still my dear I couldn’t find you.
I thought you’d heard, my silly bird,
What news was on the way,
But as I came, nothing changed
And that’s why we’re here today.
I guess it’s good that I’m lost in the wood,
For in this place I’ve found a friend.
His skin is rough, and his body is tough,
But I think he’s on the mend.
My friend you see, he is a tree,
Who has had a problem or two.
He was all wrong and now his leaves are gone,
And each of us is hollow without you.
But if life is long for men who are wrong then at least one thing must be true.
For as long as live I’ll never forgive that I allowed myself to live without you.
Starlight
Night sky, sky night
Starlit, star bright.
Wishing on winds so winding they seem,
Wishing on Welkin to bring forth my dreams.
I remember you, I remember your blue,
The sky so wide my vision grew.
I can’t tell if it’s true, the sound of you,
My ears, they hear what I want them to.
But if it is and if I might,
I’d ask only to dream of you tonight.
If you could, before I go
Come see me here, so at least I’ll know.
Soon she’ll near the end of her flight,
So please I ask before Luna’s lost from sight.
Starlit, star bright,
Please grant my wish tonight.
City Nights
Dustless smoke circumscribes the evening clouds,
Shrouding the anticipation of the night to come.
Hot lights on a Saturday night leave heaving bosoms desperate with wonder.
The piano man practices his lost art along the glitzy sidewalks of the big city, seducing his keys for coin;
they surrender so softly to his tantalizing touch.
Inebriated explorers wander the bulwark of the running river, their gaze drawn along its careless malaise.
Always, it reflects back the lights of the scene that can only exist after dark.
The barge drifts along, with its captain standing at its edge, looking back to the vagabonds looking back to him.
Eyelines cross, and the thought lingers of who will disappear first.
Greatest of the skyscrapers scratch the city heights, standing as the crown jewels of triumph in man’s dominion over nature, yet the solemn trees watching over drunks and midnight lovers seem much taller.
Plucking vibrantly her proud strings, this guitar hero knows no songs that ever had a name.
Her tender tendrils writhe around the fret board in ecstasy of this, her feminine frame.
She’s nature’s mother now.
The List
I sat on the cold bench, waiting
Listening to the sirens go by
As I heard bystanders murmur the names of my friends
The blaring horns overhead are indistinguishable,
No doubt issuing a warning that’s far too late for some
It sounded like a whistle, something a child would sing
Harmlessly careening through the sky
It dropped itself lightly, like a football lost in flight
Before exploding at the scene
Chunks clunk clunk clunking on the roof above
Air rife with smoke and powder
Confusion with ammo crossing paths, out for blood
Looking around, taking names and making sure everyone is safe
My list seems a little bare, three lines are left blank