THE WEST WIND KNOWS

The West Wind Knows


 Wonder who else but the west wind knows
Just where the pale moon flower grows
And if the moonshine in her power
Can reach to smell that fragrant flower?

This town has died and left it's ghosts
Now rolling tumbleweeds for hosts
Lead you to doors that swing and sway
In saloons where old pianos play.

The cowboys rode the trails near here
They'd hunt the bear and rope the steers
But there's no beast left here to find
Like men, they've left this place behind.

Their bodies, though, are laid to rest
Most pierced by bullets in their chests
The cemetery, bleak and morose
Now populated by their ghosts.

At midnight, apparitions walk
Down these quiet paths but do not talk
They just acknowledge and nod and leave
Forgotten too long now to grieve.

Such hope they had when first they found
This western soil, this dusty ground
But greed and life took hope away
And in this dusty land they lay.

Moon flowers grow upon them now
Bloom out at night upon their brows
Coyotes howl but don't come near
For nothing living will live here.

This town of ghosts, with dark red mud
Made darker still by spilled red blood
Where only that pale flower grows
In the place I walk when the west wind blows.




©by Voo
Sept 4, 07

SHAPESHIFTER

Shape Shifter

I am a gentle man, you said

and kissed my hand, raising your eyes

in the process to meet mine

in the candlelight

Promise? I queried and withdrew 

My hand from your tightening grasp

I wouldn't hurt a fly, you answered

And certainly not the heart

Of a fair lady

And I believed you and went tumbling

Down into the spell you cast

The web you wove

The love I needed so badly

For days on end and nights

Forever

Falling for you and your lies

And then the spell was broken

And the web began to strangle

True colors came to light

And cruelty took the place 

Of tenderness

I saw the true you in full sunlight

One day as you shape shifted

From knight to ogre and reached

Out to crush my soul in your hand

You sneered at my fear and laughed

At my pain

You sir, are no gentleman.

You sir, are no gentle man.

You sir, are no man.

©by Voo

Jan 10, 2005

 8 p.m.

WHAT WAS CAN BE AGAIN

What Was Can Be Again....................

                            

The past is dead but still alive in it's haunting, lingering way

We see tomorrow coming up while it is yet today

We think of things that we must do and things we should have done

And groan to think of work and toil when we could be having fun.

The little boy becomes a man, the man becomes a boy

Sitting in his rocking chair, bereft of childhood's toys

The little girl becomes a mother with children of her own

And then they leave to parents be and leave her all alone.

Cause and effect, response, react, reflexes unaware

We huddle closer to our heart to find some comfort there

The memories quiet in our minds till called to take us back

To happier days where we try to stay till the present's whip is cracked.

The days when we were beautiful, the days when we were loved

We treat those photographs like gold and hold them with kid gloves

We tell ourselves those days were real and these are but a dream

And sadly look in aging eyes knowing we 're not what we seem.

The lovers in us yearn for love, the singers, for the song

The painters long for palettes full and murals ten miles long

The teachers in us need to teach the lessons that we know

Could help the young still having fun to spare them from our woe.

But lessons learned must come from life and pain and joy and sorrow

We cannot hold to yesterday grasping for tomorrow

We cannot keep what pulled itself from our tightly clenching hands

They must be empty of all that was......... so that it can be again.

©By Voo

August 27, 2005

2 a.m.

BLACK LIKE THE NIIGHT

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

THE RAIN MAN DANCES one of my scariest writes

The Rain Man Dances

and the rain man dances on the dark divide

of heaven and hell, beckons me inside

and I run but stop at his grinning face

there in the dark and gleaming space

of death and dream, found then but lost

there at the foot of the unfound cross.

               

               

the black skies darken, if indeed they can

to hide the shadow of a shattered man

but in the flashing of a lightning bolt

I see what's left of my last last hope

a pale hand reaches to touch my face

to pour on me it's soothing grace.

      

pushes back my hair and pats my cheek

and fills my mouth with something sweet

I swallow hard and wipe my eyes

then look in stunned and sad surprise

to see the rain man dancing still

as the cold rain falls and melts my will.

     

the desert of my soul has drowned

my cries imprisoned in a well of sound

the rain man stops his dance of death

as thunder roars and grabs my breath

and down we go on paths of pain

to eternal desert and no more rain.

  

the iron gate shuts and the lights grow dim
on my voiceless prayer and my wordless hymn

I fall in the nightmare where the lost ones reside

and the rain man dances on the dark divide.

               

         

scary soundtrack for poem

this music adds so very much to the read.....

©by Voo

Jan 21, 05 4:42 p.m.

based on a nightmare