Afraid of Falling

Part of me wants to fly
The other part stays grounded
Afraid to try
Sometimes, I just have to close my eyes
Find the edge
And leap...

King of Nothing, King of Everything

Climb this rocky mountain peak

Bury the words you want to speak

Hold back the cover of darkest night

Prepare for the coming of the light

Stand alone in the endless rain

Masking the hate, hating the pain

Feel unlucky, so warm and clean

Try to think over the screams

Lonely dark and cold ice burning

Standing still the world is turning

Shapes predatory lock your bones

Sliver sliding o’er hot coals!

Restless faces, eyes are watching

Dirty hands on clean white washing

Candle bright the dark withholding

A piece of litmus paper is smouldering

Hearts in chests and heads on pikes

Too many holes for fingers in dykes

Your hands search for a love to find

And love finds a place to hide

A match strikes the light it makes

One stroke struck is a nation’s mistake

Blame everyone else but yourself

Too stubborn to bend a knee to help

Your blindness is your spine-stiff pride

A breastplate to glance suggestions aside

Think that the Nexus is you alone

Turn a cave into a home

Muscles burning tension wires

Bell tower brazen rings church spires

Holes are whole; bell to toll

Narcissus was an ugly troll

You’re in need of no proof

You watched life criticise the truth

And it came to you as no surprise

When his mouth opened and out came lies

You watched as age destroyed the youth

You won’t have him under your roof

One look at them will paralyse

How in hell are we supposed to survive?

O lonely, lonely, lonely child

What can be done to make you smile?

If only to turn away the grey

Change the sky to a summer’s day

Bridges burning hot and fast

Throw, threw, thrown the stone is cast

Night and day are just the same

No one wants to shoulder the blame

Dear King of Nothing, hand on sword,

To save the day your oath, you swore

Oh King of Everything, is that your desire?

To consume the world in damning fire?

Holes

Holes
These are the pieces I can't fit together
Snatches of conversation
Where did I leave my car keys?

Running late
Loose neck tie, rough shave
Odd socks
More holes

What was the date?
Red rose or white?
Traffic jam, screaming on the radio
Oh, these holes

Candle lights, broken phrases of poetry
Fumbled lines
Disconnected topics, rambling
Gouging holes

Holes
Where I can't think
What am I doing here? Who is she?
Too late; red shoes, she is leaving

Gone

Buy now, pay later

It feels so good to be disconnected
These random images
Floating on a sea of apathy
Faceless strangers heave and haul
Overrated assumptions about the mechanics of relationships
And the politics of popularity
Hidden behind masks of conspiracy

How we all love to embrace from our armchairs
The wrongness of the world
Just to share it with the masses, but do nothing
Chinese whispers invariably seem enough
"Open your ears and eyes to this new truth!"
Only to contradict it tomorrow on a new band wagon
And change the channel on TV

We buy the lies as easy as the air we breathe
So cheap when we justify them
By the empty promises they grant
A species of self improvement, that begins with the numbers
Of that credit card you swore you'd use only for an emergency
But... since when is life affirming anything but... an emergency?
Of course; buy now, pay later

Overwhelmed

Overwhelmed, I
Under a night sky pin pricked with stars
A million lost souls floating alone in the dark
A scattered bounty of a lonely god from afar
Each disconnected blink, a simple point of light
On a tiara no one will ever wear
Lost in silence, a perpetually held breath
Will this fabric ever tear?

Overwhelmed, I
At the longest distance between two points, alone
An absence of gravity, floating
Weary limbs, heavy heart and head, take me home
I've spent my last breath telling her how I feel
My words naught but sounds evaporating into air
In this, the coldest parsec between here and now
With her seemingly distant and unable to care

There is an old tree with gnarled branches
Beseeching forlornly the empty skies
Shattered down its middle by a sword of lightning
And while clinging to life, looking for a place to die
Here I am, hands in my jacket pockets
Smoke rings of frost halo my head
Wishing at that moment I was a lightning conductor
While I am living, but wishing to be dead

Overwhelmed, I
No more
There has to be an end...
Somewhere, surely?

Afraid

While the sun was shining and the hay was being made

While the cards were in your favour in the game being played

While your face was smiling and the words were kind

And the dark clouds were at the edges of your mind

You weren’t afraid

While the answers were simple and the costs were neat

While tomorrow smelled sweetly week after week

While the flowers weren’t faded and the dream was alive

And the dark clouds hovered too far to the side

You weren’t afraid

We were

Two riders heading to the same distant horizon

We were

Two souls looking at the same future spread in front of us

We were

Racehorses firing away to the hills and beyond

We weren’t afraid

Now the passing of sunsets

And the showering of rain

Forced us to slow down

Showed us some pain

Gone were the pioneers

Gone was the heart

Gone were the promises

We made at the start

When the stones of reality came crashing down

When every familiar face became part of the crowd

When you weigh up the options and don’t like what you see

And the dark clouds moved like a shadow over me

You were afraid

When you think about tomorrow but dream of the past

When the seeds of promise were scattered in the dust

When it became too much to fight for, you gave it away

And now those dark clouds can hold their sway

You are afraid

Like the gambler curses his luck

And the poet kills his muse

Like the painter downs his tools

And the sleuth doubts his clues

You read your cards and folded

And you didn’t play the hand

They say that life is like a game of chance

They say you need a pinch of luck

To gamble with romance

From what I’ve seen and what I’ve felt

I know there’s some truth in what they say

Where do we go from here?

If I told you not to cry, would your tears dry out for me?
If it was just a lie, could you find it in your heart to forgive me?
I've spent too long reading your eyes for justification
Catching whims, only to discard them again and again

Where do we go?
Where do we go from here?

If they wanted you to fly, would they have not given you wings?
If they wanted your silence, why would they let you sing?
You're a stowaway on a sinking ship, going down again
With so much to say, how can you be just part of the game?

I am sinking
In this dark water filling my mind
Where do we go?
Where do we go from here?

Now you're alone in your misery
Just another part of the scenery
A cog in its place in the machinery
When will you learn?

If you wanted freedom, why don't you cast away your chains?
If you put a price on your soul, that anyone can claim
How can you be so sure, that your soul is pure
If it's a tawdry trinket for sale?
Souls are bought and souls are sold
Gold for blood and blood for gold
Is this the way of the world?

Where do we go?
Where do we go from here?
Knowing with every breath... a lie is given life
I'm not afraid
To let you go

If it stops me from sinking...