EXCERPT

CHARGE – MURDER 1

Like corrosive acid,
truth eats away at
my metallic shell safety-lies.
Faster, ever faster
walls disintegrate,
killing the me who
I thought was.
In the wake of my murdered alibi,
ghosts fly open-mouthed,
screaming truths I don't want
to hear,
rekindling memories
buried in skeletal
graves of what-should-
have-beens.
The jagged razor-sharp
visions rip my thoughts
to shreds,
tearing apart rest-filled
nights, leaving
jigsaw clues to reality in
cryptic nightmare
cinemascope.

OUR CRACKED SOCIETY

Today a fifteen-year-old
fears sleep,
fears never waking up.
His brother was beating
the gayness from him,
purging the family's
shame with the rain of his fists.

Alone with his anxiety
of being different,
he bears the brunt
of shame his family
places upon his
pre-pubescent shoulders.

A taint that should
rightfully be placed
on the violence
and ignorance of
those who cannot
(or will not)
accept
the wonder and love that
the creation
they made
has to give back to
our sad,
angry,
cracked society.

Craziness Gone Normal

“Normal is as normal does."

Green scrub-dressed zombies
peddle pills to remove
the rose-colored happiness
of a demented mind.
"It isn't normal to be satisfied
with your life."
Sitting yoga fashion,
spoon-feeding lumpy oatmeal,
drooling from slack-jawed
childparent
mindlessly chasing faeries
through dust motes
wondering where tomorrow went...

Digging Deeper

"tell me why
psychosis
describes
child
aching
locked
inside." (from Tell Me Why by Brenda Roberts)
self asks unanswerable questions
of thin air when not one remains
alive that could answer the why's.
sitting on the floor, old photographs
fading in memories lie
on carpeted floors
and self asks of them
why? what made
me who I am? what I am?
the little gnome-like grandmother
hitting crying father/child
with iron rake handles
could that be a why?
sadly smiling grandfather
never wore the white shirt
he was gifted with at work
jealousy ripped with scissors
the newness from it,
and adultery accusations
tormented he who never
considered that someone
besides she could love him.
what lead her to hate as she did?
what cancer ate her love before it
destroyed the body void
of emotions sought by
children at the knees of
a grandmother who
never said I love you,
only nailed shut the windows,
wounding the heart
of a son who did everything
to earn her love
including imitation of
the angry touches
she showered upon him.