Shaded Heart

Across fields of golden grain I see her
walking, or marching, down this aisle of Fate.
Gracefully she moves as a timeless specter
or some ethereal beauty yet unseen.

Her scarlet dress dances under harvest moon
as I sing to her whispers of endless song;
Those amber strands anoint her supple face,
deservingly crowning her august head.

My arms yearn to touch her tender hands
and my legs itch to drag me to her feet.
My heart dreams to simply watch her smile
and to gaze endlessly in those cerise eyes.

Yet, I remain motionless and silent;
my limbs imprisoned by some insidious fate;
my voice stricken by some soulless warden.
The crows overhead mock my imposition.

Splintered thoughts cannot express
the violence that powers these wounded hands.
As each twisted line slips away,
I am one awkward step closer to my fate.

Inside the wisdom of a tainted grape
I find no delusions, no distractions
from my malevolent realities. Instead
the pain ferments inside: a bitter crop.

Rage soothes me but does not satisfy
the lurid desires of a shaded heart;
as each blackened grain of time falls
that radiant desolation spreads further inward.

Listless nights drown me with a vast silence
and faded splendor of worlds unobtainable.
Here I live beneath a placid surface;
a cold and wavy face adrift in time.

My darkest hour was barely grey
compared to your incessant dismay.
I tried to help but you wouldn’t speak.
That fateful hour, your life so bleak.

You run away and still I follow.
You realize your life so hollow.
I wish I’d been there in your life
before you took that silver knife.

You took your own by my side.
The pain I felt I can’t confide.
I only hoped it was a dream.
I could not stop the bleeding seam.

When you died, so did I.
I did not realize my demise.
I follow you now to your grave,
for without you, there is no shade.

I awake to a day gone bad
The bitter morning calls to arms
But I set out completely defenseless
Vulnerable to the toils of Fate

The dawn bleeds into the sky
As my life pulls out in front of me
The burned rubber and broken glass
Sound the end of my seeing of you

Your face it sank in my eyes
It was everything I needed to see
I was ready to die at that moment
Knowing I still had your love

Life begins to reveal its irony
But I’m praising that life isn’t fair
I know if I got what was coming
I never could have touched your lips again

With extreme, comes a change
Balancing in full my derange
I know not why I am here
Or why I still live in fear

The rising up sets me free
But I’m rising to reality
What once was clear, now is haze
I am lost within an empty maze

And as I grow forever strong
I seem to kill my own soul’s song
There can be no in-between
I have met the bitter seam

What lies beyond, no one speaks
Only dreams and imagination keeps
That which I now must transcend
To begin a new, to close an end

And so now I dwindle away
From that which I always stay
And life goes on, minds forget
Alone I travel this fateful trip

“I’d kill for peace.” said one man
Marching off to war.
His blade gripped in his hand,
His head filled with lore

Of those who came before him,
So bravely did they fight.
They left home but a peasant,
But returned a noble Knight.

“I’d kill for peace.” said another,
About to face his foe.
He wielded his mighty mace
And swung his deadly blows.

The clashing of the sabers,
The clanking of the spears,
The sounding of the crying trumpets
Filled the warrior’s ear.

“I’d kill for peace.” shouted one soldier
As the hour grew weary and late,
“I’d kill for peace.” agreed another
If they only knew their fate.

Then the war was over,
And nothing could be said.
No heroes were forged that day,
For no hero can be dead.

In war there is one victor,
And all shall know its name.
Every man will succumb to it,
For it will always reign.

“I’d kill for peace.” said the man,
Who lay dying under sun.
For when the war was over,
He found that only death had won.