Slow was the first pulsation of this heart but fast would its thrum be through life. Mother read in the stars on the chart that we were to embrace you as eventide embraces the light that is soon to depart. You unsettled us with the fixated yellow grin: we knew sanity and your smile were apart from the moment you held the bluntest knife and set into mother’s skin a most demonic art.
Today there's a new bumble bee hovering over the speckled daisies. Small wings play soft music to me that sing the same words you did. Those songs still croon in the breeze through the stripey bumble bee fuzz. Tonight there's a new shining star shimmering beside the smiling moon. It glistens brightly against the stillness watching calmly over the world below. I swear that star has a laughing grin from seeing the same pranks you pulled. Tomorrow there'll be something new so familiar that it feels almost borrowed. The gentle reminder that you're near. You reflect in our features in the mirror; In our kindest deeds to our neighbour; In the hearts that'll remember you forever.
Ten soldiers, all lie flat. Children, ten of them, hand in hand. Kings recognised in a hurried, nervous manner, without noticing the crimson velvet HEARTS.
Dangled cold toes under hot taps Weary bones that cry to collapse. With night she is blessed with peaceful request that she rest in it's traps. When awoken, as sun shines brightly, the rattled chest clenches tightly. Warmed by a shiver death doth order her: deliver politely.
The young heart denies all final goodbyes once more. Choral peace song cries while death try disguise it's score. With winged bird it flies, news that all hope dies in war.
Soon you will be washed upon the sands of time as a memory left on the tongue tips of the angels left behind. Your physical form will be gradually reborn from the glistening teardrops we’ll cry in chorus as your body is bid to the eternal dust. You’ll slip into the arms of family through the gap of our knowing and feeling; welcomed and soothed by the same loving presence you too once grieved. All the fear you feel in the shallows of this vast ocean will no longer matter as you begin to drift between the folding waves of a final sleep. Goodbyes won’t be whispered into the sea, but the thickening mist will nod, on my behalf, that we’ll meet again someday.
nature n u r t u r e s man
man f e a r s death
death c h a s e s life
man e x p l o i t s nature
life k i l l s man
nature r e c e i v e s man
death l o v e s nature
Am I to be poured of cold glass and dance with death in soft pink gin? We'll spin upon a tailor's pin wearing the tarnish of brass. Bewitched in gaze, sunk in morass, I tread both lines in mortal skin. Am I to be poured of smashed glass and dance soft with death in pink gin? Reaper smiles sickeningly crass rapping bone on pondering chin with a heavy sigh of chagrin. This moment of visit must pass. I am poured out of cold smashed glass while death dances soft in pink gin.
No one digs in the corners Where the smell festers deepest. Their shovels just clang and clack On the crumbled poured cement That’s broken in the centre Because it lifts easier that grey concrete rubble bow Where the walls join together, Connected to the cold ground: Below the record player, That knew only but one song At entirely the wrong speed: Is where she lays, still waiting, Still wasting, still wailing out. No one will ever find her. The ammonia stings their eyes Should they wander close enough To spot the fresh plaster marks, Or the abandoned teddy Adorned with a bow, alas, No one digs in the corners.
I saw the postured seating - face forward - chin up - But an empty plate for eating. Flies thrummed buzzing wings - hollowed out - dripping down - Feasting on the heartstrings. Your corpse used as a flower vase - water held - death dwelled - Adorned in maggot petal grace.
The Poet Armistead 