Call Me Ishmael.

Liar! Liar! I surrender
If only I could find a flag white enough
to not be dismembered
Another letter postmarked
"Return to sender"

Self is sinking your ship
I threw you a line
but it gave you a slip
another icy shore
left alone to drip

Your apathy unnerves me
as you plunge to your doom
in the bottom of the sea
another man's chains binding you
while you struggle to be free

Captain Ahab sails past
his quest more noble
whales far more vast
than drowning for attention
floating on a naked mast

We all tried to save you
but lesser pleasures won
Substandard, untrue
Rejected we left you there
as your face turned blue.

Eve

I wish I could call it yesterday
but tomorrows keep passing
as I struggle to find my way
into the path you're crossing

And if not tomorrow,
it will be the eve again
of my desperate endeavor
to find the whoever
that I'm waiting for
The fruit was so appealing
of lesser lovers lost
when the garden's gates closed
and gave way to my winter's frost

Cast out and wandering
maybe she's just like me
waiting to pass the eve
and break through the morning
to let her love go free

Out of everywhere I've been
wherever she is,
there also is my Eden

Watercolor

Now close your eyes
and paint what comes to mind
use me as your canvas
the blank and untried
Color here and color there
with no use for stencils
like a free verse poem
telling of where
we could go
if we just closed our eyes
and believed it was so
paint the back of your eye lids
draw what your heart depicts
without shading
and no use for shadows
because your heart
has no room for dark

Now open your eyes
your art is perfect
it's not quite monet
and I don't deserve it
Expressed and free
Like a ship cut loose
from the dock in a storm
rocking and reeling
bending and breaking
sinking in your expression
with no need to grab a life vest
This captain is going down
with the ship

The Night Must End

A sleepless, soundless night
You wonder why your dreams remain
The tossing, the turning
they corrupt your sleep like a blood stain
The restless, still unwilling
The same faces haunt you every night
The laughter, the piercing depression
that these dreams don't fade with light
Boasting, uninterrupted
The morning floods your room
Scared, shivering
You awake from sleep's tomb
Personal, and too accurate
while awake your dreams seem to stay
The light leads to realization
Your dreams are a reflection of your day

Interrupt the Dark

In the void, vacant blackness
We are what you see
the armored, broken, rescued
who maintain belief
We are sinners, thieves, and saints
salvaged from the wreckage
of the darkened catastrophe

We'll draw our swords from their hilts
and shoot our arrows far
the darkness will only remember
the spears the stars threw so far
We are not like the Son
which gives light to all
instead we are the stars
which interupt the dark so small

The darkness will never understand
what pierced its blackened veil
the Son pushes it away
and leaves a starry trail

Chase This Light

You chased his light
and danced with him
but it didn't make you brighter
and left you dim
You chased his song
but it was out of tune
and the only one that resonates deep
you gave up on too soon

You chased his heart
because yours cannot go alone
and you fear the risk
of stepping into the unknown
I chased your love
and came up empty handed
you had none left to give
after everything he demanded

Pinnochio

Once upon a time in a far away land
There lived a princess who ruled with demand
She made it clear she needed a savior to come
So she could return with him to his kingdom
She prepared herself every morning
While her servants wept in mourning
Because the princess was given every chance
As countless men took up a stance
The princess was astonishingly beautiful and easily amused
The knights were her entertainment and were just used
They fought dragons and her gaurdian knights
But disappeared after winning the fights
The princess grew old and tired in her tower
it was no longer worth fighting for her
One night she passed on and her fate sealed
in the tower that never revealed
The bodies of the fearless few
who made it to her door and never knew
The lie she lived that grew and grew
That no man could get through
Her wooden body strewn on the floor
Hollow and lifeless against the door
Slowly her nose began to fade
Pinnochio! Pinnochio! How were you made?