forever undelivered

Teak tough
shouldered box.
The men he knew,
family
Grip each other
in two's, their march
learned with age.
Slow cautious steps
No rush to the grave.

Tears turn cold
then dry in the breeze.
Unsoothing, unknowing.
The tearful cries carried
packages of pain,
forever undelivered.

wave goodbye

Blood and bone
upon tar and stone.

On some road,
alone,
you died.

You!
You young man,
without slowing
to wave goodbye.

A testament to fear.

My lonely bed
A testament to fear,
It mocks my cowardice.

The stifled impulses.

Deafening emptiness drowns
out the beating heart.

Soft sheets no substitute
for gentle caresses.

No warmth from a pillow
but one's own.

Summer Evening

Bikes strewn about as only teenage lads can.
Yet to lose the knowledge of what is important
and what is not.
Days lived for long evenings,
the promise of summer,
the promise of youth.
Each day it's own moment,
it's own magic revealed.
No percentage to be played,
only football till dark.

Frenzy

My hands are strong and
my hands are weak.
Thet attack each other,
left the right and right the left.
Bloodied yet unbowed at times they relent.
Their blood thirsty itch satisfied.
My mind both the bewildered referee and audience,
sickened by the spectacle muttering
How could we have let it happen.
The gentle scratch gave no portent of the frenzied attack.

On that road

On that road a million dreams were won and lost.
The dreams of life as cars sometimes passed us by.
The silences between being the real magic.
On cloudless summer nights,
with the road still warm of the day
We'ld stretch out on it's hardened goo of stone and tar,
and let our eyes wish upon the stars,
theirs being the only light,
it called to us from the past making time travelers of us.
How we wished the moment would not end, and yet

The tide of time we had once let wash over us grew stronger
with more intent began to sweep us along,
at first the blissful rush left all else disregarded.
A faster more glorious decree but then the haste grew
And suddenly with the tempo uncomfortable,
we looked to the shore and found there was none.
This real life had begun and the stars were there to stare
And warn too late of things such as time and not to wish
too hard or dream too long, to get up off the road
Before our lives were done.

Yesterday I Was Six

A warning to you son,
Don't gather your life about you,
Like it can be undone.
But let the thread out, the line fly
You'll have less regrets about you
The day you come to die.
The years are ripped hard from you
and harder by the day.
With life it is a fool who is thrifty.
For son yesterday I was six and today I am sixty.