A house

Alone with no lights on

Air as still as death itself

(But still)

Dead house

Daylight through sheer curtains

Dominion beyond these walls

(Give up)

Mad house

Museum of lives lived and unlived

Mistakes lead to make ups

(Well, try)

Toy house

Trying to puzzle out life

Testing the limits of resilience

(Hey)

Bad house

Betraying good fortune just because

Burying the past in unmarked graves

(Help)

Good house

Galvanizing against the horror

Grief breeds healing

(Here it comes)

Welcome house

Weekends of joy and reverie

Wellness re-enters the equation

(Hello…)

Here it is

Helpful in every way

Home is more than a house

*

In the shadow of the mountain

Where only darkness grows

Is a secret worth remembering

Or so the story goes

*

The rocks will sing you a whsiper

As the snakes slither in cover

And your eyes go wide in surprise

As the venom takes over

*

You’ll stagger toward the light

Afraid to look at your wound

Desperate for assistance

Even though you’re already doomed

*

The end comes too quick

With dreams of a fountain

And the secret dies with you

In the shadow of the mountain

*

Wandering the desert

Alone and without sight

How did I arrive here?

Filled with anger and fright

*

My boots are too heavy

And the sand stings my eyes

Words no longer matter

Built of nothing but lies

*

To my knees I stumble

Come now deliverance

It’s the unvarnished truth

I am my own hindrance

*

Rolling onto my back

Staring through pain and hurt

Vultures begin their dance

My death in this desert

*

What if this world were nothing more than a whisper, spoken into the ears of a sleeping child?

Would you still wish to wake?

*

The sun and stars are papier-mâché memories of a time come and gone — remnants of a buried God.

*

The wind is a tickle and it all falls away to reveal an empty box.

Would you wish to see inside?

*

To hold your heart in your own hands is to know love. But it is granular like the fine sand of an eroding beach.

*

A floating corpse smiles and breathes life into the decay. And you see only in colors, brilliant and fractal.

Would you force your eyes shut?

*

Sleep. If you wake, it dies and you will go with it. The clock ticks and the clock tocks but there are no hands to guide you.

The pain you feel lets you know it’s real but the pain is wrong. The pain is false.

Would you still heed its warnings?

*

Questions abound with answers absent.

You still ask.

You will always ask — there is no question to this.

An answer is like a death as the mystery evaporates into the ether.

The dream perishes and you wake into the pitch black of nothing.

You scream with no sound, feel with no touch, hear nothing but deafening silence.

*

To know the dreamer is to know yourself.

Would you dare?

*

You appear in a tunnel

Amidst the flickering light

Moving pictures tell a story

Of love, loss and fights

*

The shadows are ever hungry

And will swallow you whole

Plunging the tunnel into darkness

Obscuring your heart and soul

*

The platform disappears

And you plummet into absence

Grasping for purchase

To regain some substance

*

The struggle is the point

A test of wills infernal

And from this tunnel you’ll emerge

Into the sunshine eternal

*