The Poetry Marathon

For all the time spent in toil
I can’t but help to feel the spoil
Of body and mind and all my resolve
Yet here I stand, unbroken

When day light fades, I feel the shade
Cover my aching frame
I sigh in relief at days end
Yet here I stand, unbroken

Where is rest beyond the plight
Of unending days spent in toil
Of nights lost to pain and fitful sleep
And there I lay, unstirred

Upon cocks crow I rouse unrendered
To face the day, rest left untendered
Yesterday’s trial still within me
Yet here I stand, unbroken

Though I long for quieter days
And nights not spent in angst
The prospect of tomorrow biting my feet
And there I lay, unstirred

The value of what my body endures
Spoils not the value of my toil
It gives value I cannot enumerate
Yet here I stand, unbroken

The edge looms not far ahead

Two steps more and I may be dead

But then there’s the sound of doom astern

Is that a voice I heard?

Perhaps it’s just the shadowed bird

Nary a quote of foreboding warn

Just a noise to drive the truth home

It’s just the roll before the storm

That roils about my anxious dome

Walk the edge

Push the square

Let my fear take me there

Taste the dread in my head

Ply the sheets of my bed

Traverse the nightmare where I’m dead

Feel the heat pierce me through and through

And all at once my eyes are clear

I’ve naught to fear

The feeling of dread was in my mouth. By the time the elevator stopped, I could feel the panic continue to rise. I knew what to expect, and yet I was still taken aback at her being there. Greeted with a half crooked smile and a vacant heart I said, “Hey. Long time no see.” Of all the scenarios I imagined, I’d not expected a lack of blood shed.

The cold air pierces
Memory of warmer moments
Ghost of love long dead

When we will stand and greet the future

Then doff the cloak of the darker times

Where is the cure?

Where is the plan?

To unite the world of the faltering man?

Here are the lights and the wires and the frame

Of a future so bright

With a pilot so dim

Instant message

Electric correspondence

Book of faces for time and long lost spaces

This world is rife of future endeavors

Yet still I wonder if things should ever get better

For every advance in machine and means

We step away further from being

Human is a word of days late

To be feared and surpassed

To be treated as one more affliction

Technology and all its wondrous things

Stand hollow to the course on which man has placed its feet

When the towers fell about our heads

We wondered short of the cold and dead

Who to blame and who to strike

And so it came to pass

When word and action carried

The world aloft on arrows

A trajectory of folly

No weight or power could alter

Trumped by foolish favor

Foiled by fury and fear

Reason gave way to revenge

Solidarity, to fear

Oh your light gave a fright

To this lone wandering star

So used to the dark of the night

Being afraid is all it had known

One nightmare to the next

Every step was a fight

Searching for a place called home

In a word or a place

Who ever knew it was in a name?

And then you came

From beyond the shallows of night

Smiling a ray of hope

And all at once it never knew

What was before the darkness

And the music played through the smoke stack room

The clink and chimes of good times and better days, too

Played chorus to Queen, Aerosmith, and The Doors

Under pressure to get a grip and break on through to the other side

Of that stone cold steel door to the outside

I had no idea the future would come to sit

With me

And speak ever so sweet

With me

And tell me how nice to meet you

Through the softest notes

I have come to know

The end is not forever

It is a pause

A momentary breath

A blink

A dimming of the lights

For the next act

And you

Were there

The last time the lights dimmed, my sight went black, and the air about me froze

You smiled

And that was when I knew

It was all for you

I remember, towards the end
You asked me why I don’t tell you
You are beautiful

I thought it strange you would ask such a  thing
As I recall, I told you so every day

I smiled when you ever came to mind
Which was always
When I saw you, I wouldn’t hesitate to kiss you
When you would pass by
I would embrace you
Never to let go

You said, I didn’t show it enough
I didn’t tell you enough

You were mistaken, mi amor
I told you every day
Every moment you were in my presence

Could it have been that I did not say it enough?
I won’t deny that
In my defense, though, you knew I was of few words
My heart did not reside on my sleeve

In fact, the truth is
I did not dare attempt such a feat

To tell how beautiful you are
How much more I fall in love
When you look at me
Your way

I can not encapsulate the extent of your grace
Within the mire of words
Sought and placed as markes
Upon the portrait you are

It would be as futile a thing to attempt
As it would be for anyone to describe a sunset

Try as I might have, it would be done in vain
For I could never put words to what I could never understand

It is my greatest regret
For all that we lived
For all the love we had

You could never see
The words I spoke
In ever kiss
In every look
In every moment when all I could do
Is stare in wonder

How could a wayward soul like me
Be so lucky

To find such a beautiful thing
In such an ugly world
And somehow convince it
To love me

Never gave much thought to what you said before. Of course I was never really listening anyway. Even when you told me what to look out for. I was determined to still find my own way. Of course that goes without saying. Even after seeing what you went through, I was still determined to do as I wanted anyway. My mistakes were always mine to make. Yours were only snapshots to eyes that could only see a fraction of what you were trying to say.