The Autumn People

THE AUTUMN PEOPLE

mark my words

when days go dark

the silence leaves a

wicked mark

the autumn people

make their ways

October brings

them out to play

when whistle screams

and pipes a’steam

reveal their place

they knot your dreams

with frantic fingers

tearing eyes

the autumn people

terrorize

for none will stop them

no one can

they banquet on

the soul of man

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/df/41/34/df41349fa265fb191d2f1c6f527aea7b.jpg

Zoltar

ZOLTAR

gladdened, waxened Zoltar

in his patient prismed box

waiting for the fortuneless 

to seek what has been lost

salivating, procreating

horrors beneath false lids

mechanical, they open

no one dares defy his bid

dead clarion voice arising

from his cold abysmal shell

retrieve the deepest missive

make the innocent unwell

"come my sweetest morsels

come and hear my crystal call

enter through my portal

only doorways, no more walls

you're home now, darlings, home at last

just pay the fortune's toll

and the stars will move for you love,

and for I, who'll eat you whole"

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/15/a0/39/15a03950404b84ae6b79c6797b6cfffe.jpg

From Ancient Deep

 FROM ANCIENT DEEP

Impure glow in the cindered blue,

expanding over an orphaned two.

Moving moment dark with dawn,

fields and forest drenched in dew.

Sterling facets, sainted forms;

arctic animalia warms.

From ancient deep the dream is drawn,

downy soft in the turning storm.

Pearl the wonder, flame endowed,

she the moon and he the cloud.

Palms enfold the fragile fawn,

for wandering the end avowed. 

 

https://i2.wp.com/www.freaklore.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Little-girl-and-Will-o-the-wisp.jpg

Hilltop Houses

HILLTOP HOUSES

hilltop houses, sweetiest mouses

in, in, in, weaseling grin

what the witching hour makes, the hilltop houses takes

decrepit finger boneses, moans crocheted,

played harpsichordal dirges

din of delicatest urges, first they binge and then they purges

waiting, waiting in the hilltop houses

hilltop houses, primordial grouses

attics of antics, frantics . . . 

manticores and mandibles, edible demandables

teeth in rows and rows, jaws and jaws

the maw of earth-core prescience

elegance, gnaws its mateses, a spidery dangling fateses

breeding, breeding in the hilltop houses

 

 https://i.pinimg.com/236x/f7/f9/25/f7f9254b2c914b945de4a6b1064a49e4.jpg

Filigree

FILIGREE

gossamer the threads she grows

unspoken words in rainy rows

the message meant for you alone

decipher what you yearn to know

couriers in colored air

woven into molten hair

tired for you she has grown

take the quarry you’ve ensnared

phosphorescent eyes of night

watching you in this your plight

new pictures on her skin she’s sewn

the time is gone for senseless flight

dim the brightest reveries

distort the darkest revelries

no listening ear will heed the groan

your end entombed in filigree

https://pre00.deviantart.net/5a57/th/pre/f/2011/364/d/7/spark_in_the_dark_by_decoybg-d4kqs2r.jpg

Secrets

SECRETS

I keep my pockets hidden

Inside out when they are bidden

Then I hang them on the trees where they hum electric bees

I veil my inventories

Grow them round as morning glories

Then I lacquer them in gloss where they caracole crisscross

I classify my ciphers

Codify all new arrivers

Then I nourish them to death where they shift to shibboleth

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBkIPMzGbCWVfIg78mpnFNTiOGJpPrctJx3bgiiC5r5HdL5wXFC82ANbjVZmoMVcyAZdJrlWSBMMJeYRoQw9G-fuh4BqS6rTCZpXpjslP2_rM9mnci6lLRM2b8DJKPGN5spnFAKkaAI9A/s1600/Hidden+Thoughts.jpg

The Floriographer

THE FLORIOGRAPHER

Columbine, peach blossom

Mourning bride, crimson polyanthus

Honeyflower, enchanter’s nightshade

Rose of Sharon, ranunculus

Primrose, labernum

Black mulberry tree,

Hemlock

* This poem is written in the language of flowers.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5e/25/29/5e252910f6fd30232f25cf7d8ec3ba41.jpg

Samodiva

SAMODIVA

O, wanderer in violet light!

On living lips the storm ignites

and fast preempts the true attempt

where darkest wings long took to flight.

'Ere edge of dawn limns tangled branch

there ramifies a flame unstanched

and fever weeps 'cross those asleep

who when they wake are quick to blanch.

She--wicked ornithologist--

jet crest protrudes in leaden mist,

and arcane lore the lost abhor

for gruesome ends await the kissed.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/af/2c/05/af2c0585908a1c99e16cc51e0f06f149.jpg

An Eye, a Rewind, Next a Word

AN EYE, A REWIND, NEXT A WORD

an eye, a rewind, next a word

we die, don’t mind, it’s all absurd

what one and some can do for us

we shake our souls superfluous

a dart of yellow, here’s hello

from someone strange we fail to know

a turning up of what’s turned down

from some place left a ghostly town

a line so fine as turpentine

from something lost in curly twine

we sanguine sages wrestle thoughts

while gods of mischief twist the knots

we die, don’t mind, it’s all absurd

an eye, a rewind, next a word

https://media3.giphy.com/media/l41JR6jU5hEEfAzSg/giphy.gif

Egret

EGRET

secret emissary, the claw that scratches the soul

wandering egret, stamping waters in the silence

what moves you now, your plumage newly ruffed

your fulsome eyes aglow in a skull set back by years

evolution evaded, limbs dissipated, a figure built from 

bits of tin, mottled metal of blues and copper

some elegance there, beneath the stretched linens of 

your wings, toothpick bones so breakable

needle dips, punctures the surface, concave bloom of dark

myriad bits of dust reflected in rolling ripples

soft, softer, the raised arm bears the weight of a world

inclined to conquer, but this kingdom is yours, still

https://res.cloudinary.com/fleetnation/image/private/c_fill,g_center,h_640,w_640/v1573462341/txlllhetducqswuljanu.jpg

Comes the Warning

COMES THE WARNING

comes the warning, still the same

the scarlet of a stranger shame

no respite in a fast reprieve;

tease, what hide you up your sleeve?

too feral to make tame

faces tire of this game

the clay-made men, those born of flame

are left in dust and fast to grieve

comes the warning

clarion voice made cold and lame

calls its cry, the curlew came

above in gray his words deceived

decrees what cannot be achieved

swift motion meant to claim

comes the warning

 

https://sidspace.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/anger___by_nocturnal_shadows.jpg

In Hand I Take Another's

IN HAND I TAKE ANOTHER'S

disdain his name the tissue wall

it keeps its distance miles tall

a heart moves like no other’s--

in hand I take another’s

smolder stars beneath the ash

a broken chaos left to crash

this heat, it means to smother--

in hand I take another’s

woke from dazes drugged and dry

scorn the fractured warning cry

we dare to disown brothers--

in hand I take another’s

palm to palm the lines engage
markings breathing once uncaged
rare flutters arouse bother--
in hand I take another's

 https://i.pinimg.com/originals/11/0d/66/110d6648b9a3efb768fdc3b6f2c04226.jpg

Twelve

TWELVE

it came to pass, the time ordained,

from six to nine in darkness sat

blood moon eclipsed a startled pain

made plain, unstable earth enrapt

and effloresced the root of night

where all its creatures fast were trapped

a robe of ever-blinding white

around the naked frailness wound

aglow with frost, a shining blight,

the drought both clear and crimson drowned

for three plus three and three is nine

three more is twelve, the trumpets sound

four threes: the moment blindness dined

unwind the curse, outlandish bane,

or ever more wends vile design

https://d3ewd3ysu1dfsj.cloudfront.net/images/stories/large/39162.jpg?1503335123

Glass Eye

GLASS EYE

The lazy eye

The softest eye

The sunken eye

The eye is glass

The crazy eye

The stoic eye

The shrunken eye

The eye of brass

Took it in and out to tease them

Took it in and out to please them

Goggling from cups of water

Ogling at all his daughters

Strangers watching, gathered round it

Says he lost and you just found it

Makes a grin and makes her gag

Lots of laughter to be had

But who is watching, black dilating,

When we think the eye’s just waiting?

Whose deep arrow goes on mission

Sending tidings on commission?

Glass it is

And brass it be

But who’s on vigil,

Sly sentry?

http://www.jokesoftheday.net/jokes-archive/2015/06/25/Glass-Eye.jpg

The Mirror

THE MIRROR

silver paper mercury, no eye escapes its deep   

for years endures against the wall  

down marbled corridor and hall

the labyrinth’s veins asleep

promises of what might be, its syrup ever sweet

forever men have known the call

their misted minds have felt the fall

the mirror’s murmurs beat

Anticipated living step!

within, the tangle palpitates

fleetly it will dine

Who wanders, aimless, to his death?

the glass accepts his proffered bait

dead do not repine

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uITwHKZEteM/maxresdefault.jpg