Sonnettics

As patient as a graveyard, there he sits
And watches as his wife falls fast asleep
The room is cold–he presently forgets
The promises he promised he would keep
His mind is silent, calm and still as death
Epiphanies are duly held at bay
His only mantra is his shallow breath
Which falls and rises now as if to say:
To sleep, to sleep–the bed is getting warm
To sleep, to sleep–the dreams are fading fast
To sleep, to sleep–ignore the coming storm
To sleep, to sleep–the future is the past
He dies the moment that he hesitates
A man who lives is not a man who waits

I caught a glimpse of where she was to live
With someone else, a happy little life
A place where she would find enough to give
As mother and as someone else’s wife
A garden full of flowers, neatly fenced
A closet filled with someone else’s stuff
A mind if not a heart that is convinced
That life and love could ever be enough
Enough knows nothing of eternity
A word that has it’s fill then falls asleep
It’s dreams are just a fleeting memory
Of closets and of fences built to keep
A happy little life to love within
Eternity was never sliced so thin

If half a life is all your life will be
If happiness is only in the rain
If every time you think you’ve found a key
You find the locks have all been changed again

If Spring succumbs to Winter’s latest frost
If distance is your constant enemy
If counting time is counting time that’s lost
And losing time’s a constant memory

Then let your mind recall eternity
And feel how close the soul is to the heart
Replant the seeds of faith in you and me
Our strength of love will break all locks apart

Though tears may come and go, the Rain will stay
To wash the tears of half a life away

My mistress has her will, but I command
Her body and her mind do what I say
She takes each word I speak as a demand
And without hesitation she’ll obey
And such a heavy burden none has borne
Because her heart is filled with love and trust
For me, within my side it is a thorn
To not consume her will upon my lust
And yet at times our passions’ flames converge
My will, her will, comingle heat with heat
And so express each solitary urge
Where passions tangle bitter with the sweet
We rise together like the morning sun
And burn as brightly when the day is done

She stole away to tell me I’m her life
Her dearest man–she kissed me on my neck
Another time she might have been my wife
Her tenderness would not be kept in check
But as it is she does the best she can
To love, protect, and hold her lover’s heart
And though I love her, I am just a man
Who quickly spirals down when we’re apart
But then she steals away to bring me back
To lift me from the deepest, darkest place
Her faith in me makes up for what I lack
And peace illuminates her smiling face
And all this love she has through peace and strife
She says she has because I am her life

The trance of silence slowly brings me back
To quiet places where I walk alone
From red to white to grey and then to black
At times I pace the halls I call my own
Confused how silence steers my heart to doubt
When all I seek is solace in a breeze
And once I am within, I am without
A thought that brings me quickly to my knees
Then to my hands and I begin to crawl
Ashamed what silence easily has done
Abandoning my heart, my hope, my all
Surrendering to silence, which has won
And now the only sound to quell my fears
Is shattering of falling crystal tears

The road ahead is dark, but full of stars
It takes me to a place I’ve been before
A string of pearls, the headlights of the cars
A flash of shadows, trees, and nothing more

The hypnogog of speed and lights and dark
Propels me to an other-worldly place
My body and my soul both disembark
On trails of memories from time and space

The hum of traffic slowly peels away
Like pages of a book that’s burned to ash
The dust of desert night which once was day
Retains its heat like metal in a crash

Then SNAP! I roll the window down a crack
The edge is gone, the night has brought me back

As if transported to a quiet field
Where wind is felt, unheard, where life is green
A place of peace where love can be revealed
A hidden place, by vulgar eyes unseen

How frequently I go there on my own
And find impressions she has left behind
Within the greenest grass that’s ever grown
Upon the earth or in the human mind

How frequently she’s left some token there
Because she knows I wander in this field
Her fragrance lingers in the fragrant air
A charm to which she knows I’ll always yield

How frequently my joy is made complete
In serendipity’s wide field we meet

My hands would be content to be employed
With any part of you for any time
Remembering the spots they once enjoyed
Your willing thighs, your begging hips, sublime

My fingers feel the need to be caressed
Between your supple lips and by your tongue
They won’t be satisfied until they’re pressed
Upon that mouth whose work has just begun

And when my hands and fingers find your heat
In all the places touching you gives rise
The passion they’ve untied is incomplete
Though given voice in all your gasps and cries

While time becomes a door to love denied
We press against that door and come inside

The glow reflected in the puddled tears
Shed for a misplaced lover long ago
Is not some beacon left alight for years
Divine the surface now from what’s below
The shallow pool you stand in is your own
It barely bathes the bottom of your shoes
The light reflected there is yet unkown
But glimmers in familiar shades of blues
But if you leave, the vision is perturbed
By rippling time that always calls you back
Such tokens are so easily disturbed
By movements and the metaphors they lack
So stay my love and watch the light increase
And I will find new ways to bring you peace