Bittersweet Farewell

The wrinkles on her fingers
Echo like rings on a tree
Chopped down past it's prime.
It had lived in its time.

And the smile on her face
Speaks volumes from the past.
Libraries of wisdom
Whose memories can't last.

And the voice whispering softly
Seems to whither as it goes,
Humming solemn lullabies
Of bittersweet farewell.

Through the Gates of Hell

Liberation is almost impossible, that's why it's only for the seldom strongly-willed individual.

I've recently learned that freedom comes at a high cost.
Though, as a nation we're supposedly free,
we're locked behind secrets individually.

Like biking up a hill,
The hardest part is to keep them.
Your knees grow weak and your legs become sore.
You're still at the bottom,
But aching for more.

As you climb towards the summit,
You wonder what's in store.
Will your sore legs betray you?
Will you crash to the floor?

As the bruises and bumps
Multiply on your thighs,
The burning sensation just presses you on
And the fear in your heart ignites flames as you depart.

The summit is within reach
But your knees have gone weak.
The strength is within you,
To press on and continue.

And though the top hurts like hell,
Your uphill battle is behind you.
And downhill from here,
Your tracks will remind you
That trailblazing isn't easy,
But your past can't define you.

And as you speed towards the finish,
Gleaming faces you'll see;
They cheered you on the whole time,
And they always believed.

I did great things before, and now that I'm free,
You'll see the good I can do
And how great I can be.

Stolen Sunrise

I have clouds of sulfur in my eyes
That cloud my truth and give me lies.
In my bed awake at night,
I lie for hours frozen in fright.
He lurks behind my bed,
Runs crazy nightmares through my head.
He keeps me up and I don't sleep,
Because behind every corner there's a creep.
The noise of the heater cracking at dawn
Peels my eyes from where they belong.
A sudden jolt reminds me I'm alive
But in my dreams I don't survive.

One Behind and Years to Come

I can't find words to explain how I feel about you.
It's like something that wasn't supposed to happen
Did, in the very best way.
It's like something magical in your voice
Touched me and gave me life.

And now I'm grasping for the words,
But really nothing says it like
I love you.

I love your laugh
And your smile.
I love your mind
I love the way you look when you drive at night.
I love you near
And I love you far.

And even when our plans don't work out,
They find a way of working better than we planned.
And even when we feel hopeless
We remember where we stand.

And when I forget why I'm living this life, I remember
It's for moments like these.

It's for your eyes and all they see.
It's for the adventure between point A and B.

It's for the moments that we have,
No matter how few or far between.

Breaking Boundaries

Though I have not found
A single strand
To hell I am bound.
Destined to chase the soulless,
Grasping to their tails,
I head down a path,
Reaped by only trolls.
To saunter down a path,
Still virgin to new souls,
And dance upon a memory-
Fleeting as it unfolds.

Down a path not made for skipping,
Along a river not made for stones.
Red walls covered high
In naked bars and bones.

And behind a web is spun
To entangle all but one.
Each strand takes another captive,
Forever things are trapped in
The sickly wall of souls.

If a soul were to escape
The spider loses sleep.
The web of souls is much too weak-
The captor stays awake.

And though no dawn will ever break,
The morning brings a weary eye.
The spider made a huge mistake;
The walls are now alive.

City of Curtain

City of curtain
Walls of blue
Things have changed here
With the loss of you.
The city is grey now,
Lost all of its hue.

Can't quite find words to express
The sadness, chaos,
And duress.

The cruelty shown
Upon your wake,
You left curtain
To see your fate.

And now the city-
Black and blue,
Painted sorrow;
Tried and true.

Tested citizens
Failed their trust
Once enhabited-
Filled with dust.

Flipped the hourglass,
Fine grains pass.
Counting down
To lay with grass.

And grow may the sprouts of all you have done,
Your remains; but flowers
Beneath a grey sun.

Try as you might,
None shall pass.
Curtains conceal
The looking glass.

All that is beyond,
And all that have passed
Curtains conceal
The looking glass.

The flame in the heavens
Has fizzled at last.
Curtains conceal
The looking glass.

Ripples

You are hardly a speck in this universe. A speck the size of stars and you're still merely dust. So the size of your words, uttered but once into this crowded barren plane of space and time, will mean nearly nothing to those who came before and will surely come afterwards. But for today, how do these murmurs affect those floating on about you. Though you have your six inches of space, there are billions nearby who await those words to fall upon their ears. Never deaf nor blind to the injustice you've portrayed with a single word. But in time, I suppose, that word will just float away, becoming less than dust in the days to come; less than you and I. These blind words wisp away and become echoes in the universe. But where might they resonate?