The Raven's Laugh .............. A Poe-esk write

soundtrack

🖤

The Raven's Laugh

The raven laughed

And flew away

But came to me

Again, next day.

I didn't bid it 

Come to me

But still it came

Though stealthfully.

Sitting on 

A snowy bough

Peeking in

My window now.

It sat there watching

 Half the day

Not even cold

Drove it away.

Watching, watching

As if a spy

The bird with malice

In it's eye.

For from a dream

The thing had come

A living nightmare

And I, it's home.

For many nights

I'd fairly screamed

To wake myself

From what I'd dreamed.

Such bitter sorrow

Such sorrow felt

To see that grave

On which I knelt.

My own true lover

My only love

Blessed by the stars

And sky above.

Blessed by the Blesser

Of all things true

I'd prayed so long,

He'd sent me you.

Such happy days,

Such blissful nights

Till jealousy made

Wrong things of right.

And anger stole

My joy from me

And made me into

Your enemy.

We fought like tigers

And we fought well

Our lover's Heaven

Became our Hell.

You ran away,

I brought you home

I locked you in 

That place alone.

With one small window

To view the world

That could not save

My dark haired girl.

But every day

A raven came

Through snow and sunlight

Moonlight and rain. 

And sat there watching

You through the glass

Till you had withered

And from this life, passed.

I buried you

In a grove of green

Far from the city

And thus, unseen.

But I did not know

Till many days

That one had witnessed

My wicked ways.

That cursed raven!

Your only friend!

Perched by the window

Where it had been.

Covered now

By bricks and mud

To conceal the prison

Of your innocent blood.

And then the nightmares

Began to come

Would not relent,

Leave me alone.

All night in terror

I cried and cried

Dying over and over

As you must have died.

My beautiful lover,

Gone without trace

While your guardian raven

Laughed in my face.

Laughed like a human

With revenge in it's heart

Piercing my soul

With each screeching dart.

And then it was gone

And I didn't know where

How, when or why

And I didn't care.

I found a new lover

With long, jet black hair

Face like an angel's

So sweet and so fair.

Some might call her strange

Some might call her weak

Because she can't laugh

Nor can she speak.

But sometimes, I confess

I wake up in fright

To find her just watching

Above me at night.

I ask her what's wrong

She shakes her dark head

Then violently loves me

In our old hand carved bed.

That is carved with two hearts,

Rambling roses and lace

The moon and the stars

And your pretty, dead face.

(I love my dark and silent lover
With a heart still torn in half

But last night I woke in feathered arms
And I heard that raven laugh.)

©by Voo Shining Stone

Sept 13, 2020

2:33 a.m.

🖤

So help me!!! As I was just now posting this.... A crow or raven right outside the window of this room...laughed Haw Haw two times!!!! It freaked me out!!! What are the odds of that happening!? Never see them around here......spooky!!!!! 👻

The Unspeakable Word (Hunger Beyond Hunger)

soundtrack (put on loop)

The Unspeakable Word

 (Hunger beyond Hunger)

Licking my lips,

I watched his mouth move

In the moonlight

He was mocking and laughing 

At a once pretty girl

Accosted on the street

As he'd hurried off to mischief.

She was far beneath him,

(I could tell by the cut of his clothes,

By the shine of his shoes

His proud regal bearing

And his beautiful face)

A woman of the night

Who sold herself like matches.

Like pastries on the baker's cart

Or papers that the barking boys

Tried desperately to sell

Before the streets cleared of daylight

Leaving the night folk to appear

She sold herself like merchandise

No longer feeling she had worth.

It was not her, though

That held my interest

But the man she flirted so piteously with

Who disdained with feigned gentility

And shook his head and laughed

As he pulled his tailored coat tails

From her thin and hungry hands.

Finally resorting to begging,

She saw his eyes go cold

And he flung her away as though a rag

And threw something at her feet

I watched her scramble as he hurried away 

Hoping to find some coinage

But finding only refuse, she fell on her knees and wept.

I followed him down darkened streets

Where my footsteps made no sound

Listening to his boot heels ring

On every cobblestone

He did not know I shadowed him, he was not of me, aware

He swore some oaths, he wiped his clothes

To remove the smell of her.

Pulling deep on a silver flask,

He returned it to his pocket,

Stopped to watch some partiers

Whistle to hansom cabs for hire

He knew that he would not go home, had no wish to go

Or to a mistress waiting with sleepy eyes
 And soft hands, for his touch.

But before that, he knew the night

Would bring him other pleasures

A victim to calm his own blood lust

With the daggers in his pockets

He turned to find the discarded girl

She would do as good as any

The black bag heavy in his hand as he smiled an evil smile.

He took his time and I took mine

As my hunger drove me onward

I  knew what I wanted, I wanted him

But it was a long, slow chase

I had to be careful, had to be on my guard

For there are those who aren't kind

To me and my kind.

He stopped there in the moon's glow

As though he'd heard a noise

 In silence I glided behind his back,

Heard the blood rush through his veins
(And the sound made me go mad)

I breathed him deep into my lungs, intoxicated, impatient

 My mouth begged for the taste of him, my body, for his blood.

For I, too, am a woman of the night,

A creature of the darkness

But I do not beg, I only take

And sate my endless hunger

Slake my thirst on those I find delectible

Like this handsome cold hearted fool
 With his greedy, wicked eyes.

Who are you? he cries. You're beautiful!

And I lower my lashes, pretending to blush

He caresses my cheek that's as cold as white marble

As his will bends to mine and my hypnotic eyes

Pulling his body against me, deep in the shadows

I feel the knives in his pockets, feel his heart racing

But he does not and will not ever feel mine.

I am so hungry, I'm beyond hunger!

Like an animal now, I howl at the moon

The man in my arms, though wild with desire,

Sensing some danger, begins to fumble and fall

But I push back his hair, exposing his throat

And I shush all his whimpers, whispering

Don't be afraid.

Then I feel him give me the sum of himself

All life loses meaning before this moment in time

His wife and his mistress, both waiting in vain

Behind their sad and neglected doors

But it matters not to me to see that he's full of avarice

I feast now with my hunger unleashed

 And a soul that's simply --------.

 

©by Voo Shining Stone

Sept 4, 2020

12:07 a.m.

Written in response to a Poets Dream word prompt

in which we could not actually use the word.

********************
And what is the unspeakable word, Readers???

😮😲 🙄

Mask

Dark Piano

Mask

I wear a mask these days
These long, long days of apple green
And cherry red hues of violent fire
Flowing ever constant through my veins.

No one should see this
This me that lives inside my head
This soulstruck, angry being
Shoveling coal in an imaginary hell.

What is it about me
That terrifies myself as nothing else can
That wakes me in the deepest night
To lie awake working out unsolvable puzzles?

I love..I can love…I do love
I love with a persistence that denies dream
Denies fault, denies substance and begging
And clings to invisible strings dangling in the darkness.

Yet in the morning
I wear a mask and a cloak of hiding
Covering breaks in the mind
And tears in the seams of a ragged heart.

I do this for protection
Not for myself but for the world
That must not be exposed to the hurt
Hanging from my eyes and shadowing my footsteps.

I am a phantom
A ghost living among the living
Not participating in the life
But still remembering it’s taste.

Here and there, now and again
I meet another, like myself
Shrouded in mist and howling in silent pain
And we stand and stare as if in a mirror.

And oft as not, we do not speak
But nod in recognition and bow
To a fellow sufferer of these dark days
And endless, everlasting aching.

Once, I was young and beautiful
Vibrant with life and running over with love
Joyful as dawn and undaunted by the setting of the sun
And the world was my happy playground.

But now the midnight
Wraps me in it’s icy arms
Caresses my face with cold sleepless fingers
And kisses I do not want.

It tells me that here I belong
Here, abandoned by love and deserted by hope
I must dwell now always, hiding my ugliness
Behind this mask of the forsaken.

What a hellish, lonely thing life is!
Outwardly, I have not changed
I am still beautiful there, still young, still very much alive
It’s only on the inside that I am terrifying

It’s only on the inside, that it’s dark

All the time.

by Voo

Sept 22, 07

copyrighted

On The Other Side of The Other Side

On The Other Side of the Other Side

Out there in the cold gray dawn

I see you in the mist

Your face so sad and vulnerable

Needing to be kissed.

I cannot bear to see it

I cannot bear to feel

And yet I do not really know

If it is false or real.

You raise your hopeful eyes to me

A tear runs down your face

You plead with me yet silently

To all your fears, erase.

And I don't know the way to go

To make you smile again

Two lovers, we, so wild and free

That started out as friends.

Then love stepped in and pulled us

Down to love's dark depths

So star-crossed, we, so love starved, we

Needing love, despaired, bereft.

And the more we loved, the more we wanted

The more it slipped our grasp

And futures bright bade us goodnight

And slipped into our past.

What good is love if it can't live

Within the present time?

What good is love if it can't exist

Outside the tortured mind?

I ache to hold you desperately

In my two arms so tight

To bid you stay here in the day

And banish the lonely night.

But wishes are only wishes

And hope is just a yen

And yearning is just a dream undreamed

Of what might have, could have been.

I see you in the mist of dawn

Your head bowed on your chest

Waiting for me to come to you

And give your soul a rest.

But here between the two of us

There stands an invisible door

'Twixt tangible and ethereal

And it won't open any more.

I've tried to break it down with tears

I've tried a hammer's pounding

But the hammer bounced back in my hand

And in my tears I just fell, drowning.

I watch you in that mirror now

There on on the other side

Waiting to see if you can find the key

To the place where I reside.

What cruel, cruel fate, the two of us

Have been assigned and yet

We're sentenced to recall the rise and fall

And the love we can't forget.

My love, I know you hear me

There on your side of this

Unhappy world where boy and girl

Were wedded with one kiss.

Then torn apart with breaking hearts

To exist in the world alone

Watching one another fade

Till the two of us are gone.

©by Voo

for the man that faded into the mist

9/09/19

2:29 p.m.

let that devil be

let that devil be



perpetrating storm
she lied with sunshine
flattering with a look
that belied her cold disdain


patronizing innocence
she became my heart's betrayer
falling in with clear skies
she became my drowning rain


truth was not one of her gifts
nor was it in her nature
sincerity's beguiling dance
a trap I dropped into


 red rose scent upon her skin
it hid the smell of danger
luscious lips and snake skinned hips
and dark clouds in the blue


seducing like a sideshow
in the eyes of curiosity
in the latter days of childhood
before the boy became the man


I threw my money at her feet
and entered at her bidding
left my soul at her front door
and I've not seen it again


flashing pretty darkness
the morning fled forever
redemption's promise blazed and burned
and the rays of sun were gone


swallowing me like a sugary treat
she wiped her hands and mouth
threw me in with a thousand men
and her lair became my home


perpetrating storm
she lied with sunshine
her hands of sin are never full
and now they're holding me


if you should hear her honeyed voice
don't listen to her calling
turn your ears from her sweet song
and let that devil be.


©by Voo
Sept 24, 10
2:36 a.m.

Windows of Opaque

Windows of Opaque


Watching for me outside the realms of love,
They paced like lions in the coliseums of death
Back and forth, and back and forth, undaunted
Waiting for my appearance
And the sealing of my fate.

They had always been there
Since before my birth and even more hungrily, after
Pseudo-lions, but devils underneath
(They rip and tear with words, and claws)
And the damage is un-bearable.

When I was a tiny  thing, I thought
That I would grow to tree top height
And fight these foes like a hero in a myth
But I am grown and I'm still small
And my life goes on like this.

My room, no bigger than a box
Two windows, left and right
But so opaque I can't see out
And no sunlight can peer in
A cruel joke, would you not say, to play on a sightless Seer?

Sometimes a crack forms in the dirty glass
And I see outside for just a moment
Guards with eyes so closely set, they look like one big eye
And all around them, five pointed stars
Falling from satanic skies.

They are puppets but I am not
For I have cut my strings and now
I am only a doll in a heap on the floor
Barely remembering what it is to be human,
Barely containing a piece of a soul.

And today, again, I feel them there
Just outside this place that holds me
Keeps me safe, but keeps me prisoner
Keeps me bound to noise and chain
Like a vessel made of whispers.

This world is no longer lovely, if it ever was
It is illusion and shadow and love that is not there
I feel like a dandelion with no ground to hold onto,
No sky to cry out to, no heart to see into
And no mercy to throw myself upon.

"The prince of this world is a tireless bastard"
I heard that somewhere and I've never forgotten it
For it is true like most things are
Before they become lies that conquer hope,
For repeated long enough, the biggest lie can sound like gospel.

I have found myself a stone.........
A pebble in my shoe that grew
Into a weapon that I can hold
To beat against these panes of glass
Until they break and let me see.

I am no more safe in here than there
So why stay here? Why not just leave?
I crawl through the shattered windows, in this defiance
Holding the stone that has turned to a sword
And drop to the ground upon my shoeless feet.

My guards are amazed, they stop dead still
The lions, those demons that devour mankind,
They howl at my appearance at last,
They climb the walls to get away,
They see my crazy eyes and behold, they are afraid.

My room, the box, falls down behind me
Folds itself and disappears as though it'd never been
And as illusions shatter like a million silver mirrors,
I cry out one last time and march on bleeding feet
With my head held high, through the shards of glass
And my broken, human heart.



©by Voo
Feb 16, 2013
9:30 p.m.

Shades and Shadows

Shades and Shadows


Shades and shadows
Overcast the great green ground
Of Earth and sky and sea
And people and tree
Their tingling fingers touching
Hearts with coldness only
Human hearts can feel
And only human souls 
Can dismiss........

It spreads
This darkness too dark to see

Too dark to taste

Too dark to fight

Without a supernatural light

Shades and shadows

Looking down and 

Looking out and looking

Upon

Like overseers keeping watch

On underlings and landlords......

Lording greedily over property

We feel them but we do not know what

We touch them but we recoil unaware

We see them but we do not recognize

The shades and shadows standing beside us

Hovering in the corners, hiding behind the doors

Walking inside our minds and haunting us 

In our dreams

They have always been here

Long before us, long after us......

In ageless fields we cannot see

And do not want to visit

But there is something they do not know

And never will:

When this age is over

They will cease to exist 

And we will be reborn.

©by Voo 

August 13, 2005

3:30 p.m.

Black Like The Night repost

Black Like The Night

.
.

She wore black like the night
Downtown in that little dive of darkness
I watched her from my bar stool;
Nursing my beer and my recently shattered, manly pride.

.

Somehow, I couldn’t see her in a place like this
She looked mythical, like a creature rising from a song
Long, black hair and eyes like midnight;
I wanted to fall into them but I held back.

.

I wondered if she was a spell caster
Or evil masquerading as sweetness
We stared across the dim lit noisy room;
Until my soul could no longer resist.

.

I wanted to buy her champagne
But they didn’t have any
I wanted to take her for a walk on the moon;
But I knew she’d already been there.

.

When I came to myself, night was fading
I was in the middle of a dream at the edge of the world
I opened my eyes and saw her standing on the water;
Beckoning me with music in her fingers.

.

Her smile was like honey, but it was not warm
Still, I starved for her and reached out as I stood
I heard a murmur as I stumbled in the dark trees;
But no matter how hard I reached, I could not touch her.

.

She was an angel, she was a demon
She was a siren and a premeditated crime
Taunting me with whispers till I ran screaming;
I fell into the black water and plunged to my despair.

.

But that was then and this is now
Now I sit on a different bar stool in a different dive
It’s midnight and I have no pride left in me at all;
And there she is, wearing black, and shining like a promise.

.

She beckons me and I follow, as she knows I will
As I do when the madness calls and I am lost
She carries the keys to my desperation;
And she always finds me.

.
.

©By Voo
August 1, 08
five after midnight