This Aspen stands tall

Branched over my head

Smelling faintly damp and sickly

Sap runs down my fingers thickly

They stick together

It’s on my clothes

Now my hair

It’s everywhere

And lo… the earth

Chasm-esque and opened

Devours me and yards I fall

Into a fetid, rotted chapel

Black and brown and white with mold

Ahead, not far —

A friar, a holy man?

Greets me with gangrenous hymn

Diseased ideals

H...

A hot pursuit with blaring blue

The bank lies empty

We bribe for silence

(but there is no honor among thieves)

And now the rain breaks upon us

Hot

And brutal

And unrelenting

Our tale is not uncommon

For many choose to steal

And even less choose death

To live a life they feel...

A Canon —

The Old One’s ancient tome

Her beauty calls them home

All renounce their rest to please thy Lady

A Hymn —

Her cantors’ putrid drone

A foul alembic tone

All rescind their rest to please thy Lady

A Curse —

Flesh draped top broken bone

Gaunt figures flayed and stoned

All revoke their rest to please thy Lady...

Lord knows

The Lord’s nose

Could smell the grief upon me

A rank scent

Like foul blood

I’m covered head to knee

Search within

A lamp

A djinn

Forgiveness through a genie?

Naught a wish

But tempered action

Naught frozen

But fiery and steadfast

Forgiveness, oh forgiveness

Embrace thy present

Release thy past...

With careful gait, I enter —

A great hall, banner strewn —

A Kingly Lion

counts His coins

with frenzied glare,

in royal chair

He sees me

And I, He

The rising fear inside me swells

Red He sees, greed He smells,

and fast He charges towards me

like prey, like game

My icy blood, my frigid stance…

they both ensnare me.

He tears, He mauls,

He bites, He claws

with unchecked rage

with misused might

H...

Tales are told of sirens’ call

But what power do their pauses hold?

What better fate

To long for verse

Or cast our ships to rocks?

A closest friend

A haunting foe

A soldier of infinity

A prison cell

A place to flee

A sanctum for eternity...

If your hand could reach inside my heart

What would you do with it?

Which path would you explore first, I wonder?

The light

The dark

The love

The pain

Some vaults gilded, some naught to plunder

How much of me would be new to you?

Would fortune await this crusade?

I have buried much

To protect your wayward crew

Choose well, your path and prizes

With caution, calm, and care

Do not lose yourself a...

Today I watched a spider weave

Its complex web

My eyes were wide

Its gentle care and loving spin

How quickly made

This house, a home

How has something smaller than

A single moment

Caught my human, judging, gaze

Steel-like strings and perfect math

The pattern made, it makes me ponder

How can I, a conscious sloth

Make that which is so uniform?

Yet even after making’s end

Each lattice, unique...

In the presence of presents

A pall —

A notion —

Each extinguishing breath deserves pause

As a wish is made

Finite and special this day is

Precious and fragile it is to hear

Happy birthday dear —...

There, the hill I laid upon

And felt the moss and smelt the logs

Still and sweet my thoughts back then

And now that meadow, lost to me

It’s hazy — like a dream

Lost maybe, but a part of this landscape

I’ll visit

And lay again

And feel the moss

And smell the logs...