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THE GRIMOIRE
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Oh ancient book
with symbols arcane,
your mystical key unlocks
the past.
Revealing the mysteries
of the ages
with words on century-faded
pages, and incantations
in tongues of old.
With magic imbued
you hold dark secrets,
the wisdom, and the power
of the oracles and sages.
You conjure the tempests
that rage in my heart,
and summon forth demons
that prowl my every desire.
GROUND ZERO
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Inside a jar of man-made life
a child with radiation eyes
that never saw the sun
never saw the sun...
Reflections dance inside his brain;
a seed is planted free of pain.
They grew him strong without a heart;
machines can always get new parts.
And America did worship him;
to stay alive they had no choice
but to sing and dance for him
and sacrifice their children's toys
for one tear ends the world
one tear ends the world...
Assassins from the other side
killed the child without a soul.
His head glowed bright atomic light:
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Ground Zero...
And now it's too late to turn back;
the earth is fading into black
and soon your mind will turn to rust
and all your dreams will turn to dust.
You'll fall so dead
the pins will fly out of your head.
HAIKUS OF HORROR
Rotting flesh and fangs
Hungering for human meat
Return from the dead.
Silently the blood
Flows into rivers of gore
Madness stalks the streets.
Cemetery mist
Dances ghostly in the night
Hands reach out from graves.
Cobwebs and shadows
Dusty trunks in attic locked
Gruesome riddles hide.
Pyramids of stone
Ancient altars to the sun
Sacrificial blood.
In the dead of night
Footsteps sound in empty rooms
Shadow people dance.
Necronomicon
Conjures things not of this world
Old Ones awaken.
The mark of the Beast
Manifests in loving eyes
Number 6-6-6.
Lifelike mannequins
Hideous secrets hidden
Underneath the wax.
Black leather midnight
Faceless figures reappear
Night demons taunt me.
Kiss of the vampire
Bloodstained lips that call my name
Moist with death so sweet.
THE HAUNTED STARS
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Lost in a realm of shadows,
I wander in search of
a flickering flame.
I look in your eyes but find darkness.
Your soul is a sky filled with haunted stars.
Trapped in a world of phantoms,
in circles that hold no
beginning or end.
I run through a night lit by neon
and wake in a dream of recurrent screams.
Chained to a heart of madness,
the haunted stars gather
and spell out your name.
I fall to my knees in exhaustion,
and bit by bit
I
slowly
disappear.
HERE I AM
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Purple darkness beckons;
the harsh night calls my name.
Here I am, a shadow-child,
outside looking in.
The hunger in my cold heart,
the thirst that pales my lips
draws me like a dying moth
closer to your flame.
Your touch is warm and gentle,
you make me feel alive.
Here I am, the velvet ghost
of things the past has claimed.
Silent towers grimace
above our blood-stained joy,
Whilst hauntingly you gaze,
amazed, deep within my eyes.
No promise of tomorrow
will you find there, my sweet love,
For in my eyes the sun sets only;
never does it rise.
HIEROGLYPHIC DREAMS
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Forgotten lovers and strangers
paint their images in my brain
with meaningless shapes,
with meaningless lines,
and words from poetry out of rhyme.
With secret symbols they gesture,
hieroglyphs that turn to strange
abstract blurred Picasso faces
for my perception to evade.
Disarranging my solitude,
my understanding now transformed
into confusion, fragments, thoughts...
and in the translation
their message is lost.
I AM SHE
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I am She...
a blazing star of many colors,
a universal mind of many dreams.
I am the fertile earth,
the sacred garden that gives life
to the seed.
I burn like the golden sun
I shine like the silver moon
I rise and fall like ocean tide.
I am She who spills her blood
upon sacrificial altars
where magic and miracles
are performed.
I am the Creatrix
the cycle of life, unceasing,
the elements and the seasons,
forever changing and timeless.
I am She of ten thousand names.
I am She of a trillion faces.
I am the Spell-Caster,
the Dream-Weaver,
Storm-Bringer...
I am Goddess,
I am Woman,
I am She.
IN LAMPBLACK EVENING SOLITUDE
In lampblack evening solitude
I sit in the parlor, watching time
gradually slide by.
Each minute stretches into a
lifetime of failures and regrets.
Each hour transforms into eons.
I fill your heirloom cup with the tea
you always liked, even though your lips
will never taste it.
I converse with the image you left behind,
remembering the sound of your voice
like a chord trailing off
in the wind.
The clock ticks in rhythm
with the beats of my heart,
both growing old and feeling weary
In lampblack evening solitude
your memories creep
under my bedroom door
like winter's icy fingers.
They climb into my bed and
enter my sleeping head,
leaving me to toss and turn and
awaken, wrapped in a cold
sheet of sweat.
Your pillow, untouched, is a grim
reminder that the rain on the panes
is now my only companion.
IN MY GARDEN GRIM
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In the cold dismal rain
I buried my tears
like seeds in a garden
of autumn's withered dreams.
Soon the brown leaves of death
did cover the ground
and rot with the sweetness
of decomposing grief.
Then the bleak falling snow
did blanket the earth;
my tears were forgotten
in winter's frozen grip.
On the first day of spring
they sprung from the earth
and bloomed like clusters
of mourning glories blue.
IN THE REALM OF FAERIE
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In the realm of faerie
dreams enchanted lie.
Time is timeless in its spell
and one can never die.
In the realm of faerie
magic weaves the night.
In circles spun from spider silk
their potions will delight.
In the realm of faerie
fascination does abound,
but take care not to step upon
a faerie dell or mound.
You'll surely find their circle gay,
a charming citadel,
but one whole year shall be your day
when bound are you in spell.
IN THE VIOLET OBSCURITY
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In the violet obscurity of a joyless twilight,
in graveyards I walk alone, echoless,
on carpets of spongy moss and creeping phlox,
past long-forgotten tombs and nameless crypts
that weep shadows for the death of sunbeams.
A cold wind arises as the orange horizon
bids a sad farewell.
Memories of you, and of us
tumble cruelly through my mind
like windswept leaves, helpless,
directionless.
Words, like daggers, pierce my heart;
their poisoned tips swim in my blood,
tainting the remnants of my hopes.
In the violet obscurity of a joyless twilight,
I hunt with desperation for resolve,
but reflections of things that once were
are all that I find.
I look to stone sentinels for comfort
but all they can offer is indifference.
And then, bursting up through the dirt,
a clawing hand! Putrid and horrid.
A hand of decomposition...
my hand.
I scream and run,
trip and fall like the darkness.
My bones shatter. My mind careens.
Silent laughter fills the air
as I feel my insignificance growing
malignant like a cancer.
I reach out for your hand to help me up
but a frosty wind is all I feel
biting at my flesh.
I yearn for yesterday
but, like my salvation,
it is buried too deep to exhume.
The sky, now indigo and starry
becomes a shroud for my corpse.
The netherworld of your eyes
as I remember them
becomes my open grave.
ISIS LIVES AGAIN
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Desert winds howl, sandstorms bite,
the claws of Bast rip apart the night,
merciless and sharp as razors;
Tremble the priests and old stargazers.
The Pharaoh moon, like a falcon rises,
majestic is her face of gold.
Thunder cries, earthquakes rumble,
calling forth the gods of old.
And now the rivers' water and mud
thicken and flow red with blood.
Bells ring in the temples,
the pyramids tremble
for Isis lives again!
Friend to slaves and rulers alike,
protectress of the dead,
her magic fills a corpse with life
and fills her foes with dread.
Her breath is the wind
that caresses the Sphinx.
Her eyes are the shadows
that dance on azure seas.
A fiery Phoenix from the ashes reborn,
she rules from the throne of eternity.
LADY OF THE STORMY SKIES
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She is the lady of gray stormy skies,
she is the watcher with white marble eyes.
Standing in silence, a ghost from the past,
haunting the living, dark spells does she cast.
Goddess of graveyards and shadows that creep,
bathed in the teardrops of widows that weep.
Standing forever 'neath gray stormy skies,
sculpted from sorrow, but never she cries.
LAPSUS LINGUAE (A Slip of the Tongue)
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Some men speak with dragon breath
and acrimonious tongues of fire.
Some men talk in alien tongues,
smooth tongues, twisted tongues,
tenacious French kisses,
tongue to tongue.
Some tongues are square,
some tongues are cool;
rhyming and jiving,
fitting in perfect
tongue and groove.
With canting forked tongue
some men speak.
Others tell it like it is
with tongue in cheek.
Some tongues talk hip,
never at a loss for words.
Strung up and hung up,
stoned on the absurd.
Some cats talk old,
some cats talk young,
but always tongue-tied and baffled
when the cat's got their tongue.
LET ME SLEEP
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Let my colors fade to gray,
let my spirit drift away;
no reason have your dark eyes to weep.
Let me sleep,
oh let me sleep.
I've tired of tasting bittersweet tears;
in salty seas I've drowned for years.
But place on my crypt a wreath of black
and never look back,
you mustn't look back.
Let your grief fade like the setting sun
in dying hues of orange and red;
my long-awaited joy shall be
found in the grave that cleanses my dread.
Do not disturb my dreamless keep
as I sleep, so deeply sleep
alone and where the stone angels weep
free from this web I've spun.
Let my colors fade to gray,
let my spirit drift away
like petals on a moon-kissed stream;
my journey's done and just begun.
LONELY WEDNESDAY
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Lonely Wednesday
walking around...
outer space inside my head.
Looking at strangers
Ash Wednesday faces,
death masks bleeding in the rain.
Wednesday afternoon of black,
my storm cloud tapestries
are painted on the sky.
Haunted and hunted,
silent and still,
like avant-garde
self-portraits.
Lonely Wednesday child of woe
watches funerals from my window.
Shadow dreaming
in darkness and silence,
counting the raindrops
as they fall.
LOVE CAN MAKE YOU CRY
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Love can make you cry,
love can make you fly so high
on wings of fire in the sky;
and that you cannot deny.
I was born to love you
like a thousand times before,
and I will cry
a thousand tears for you
‘til I can cry no more.
Love shines like gold rings
but it doesn't mean anything,
it's just another song to sing.
Open up your eyes and see
it's just another fantasy;
you can't buy a dream
but reality is free
and it can make you cry.
Love will make you cry
the way you made me cry.
If you turn back the
hands of time,
never let your mind unwind
for tears are all you will find.