Epitaph

As the door is closing
I'll not desire it's opening
My naked body wearing
Sufficiency of clothing
My empty hands grasping
At that most precious thing
I shall go not grieving
At that moment's passing
For those that are remaining
Will tire themselves explaining
The purposes of everything
If only they were listening ...

Perceptions of Time & Mortality #6 - In Extremis

Pulsing in the head
Gloominess is rendered bright
By wideness of the pupils
Sucking in the light

Milligrams of mercury
Ascending - muscles tight
Interminable impasse
Fright and flight or fight

Gigabytes per second
Written to the RAM
Confirming - re-confirming
I still am - I still am

Then the sudden dullness
Then the sudden pall
Then the sudden numbness
Feel the hammer fall

Confusion washing in now
On a tide of semi-consciousness
How to know where to begin
When time has lost cohesiveness

And every hour the nurses come
And wake me up again
And check that dripping morphia
Has controlled the pain

Later when I want to know
The brain wont let me in
To read the gigabytes it stored
Stored then hid, deep within

I am granted glimpses
That wake me in a sweat
And let me know that trauma passed
May still posses me yet

Three Busts Two Horses

Beatty's imperious stare
Stares down the sun
Sees wars to be won
In defence of an empire no longer there

Jellicoe seems less eager to go
Campaigning once again
Twelve more years
Fill his face with fears
Perhaps he thinks of the men

Cunningham has seen it all
Wars one and two
The rise and the fall
A rougher bust is his
He has seen what is

To right and left above and beside
George the fourth and the future's pride
From martial glories to a toy
From warriors to golden boy
From certainty of imperium
To doubt regarding what's to come

The Castle in the Clouds - Scene #1 - Darkness

He slipped within
The blanket came up to his chin
Breaths came deeper
The bravest sleeper
With an upstart snore
Within his bed knocked on the door
Of Darkness

A little sister
How he missed her
Since she slept and went before
Since she passed beyond the door
Of Darkness

He stirred - and through the window overheard
Lightning flashing thunder crashing
Filled his head - shook his bed
And on the pane raindrops dinned
Thrown bye the raging of the wind
He gasped - another rage of rain
Rushed then shook the window pane

Beyond the brook the blackest cloud
Beaten by the wind
Upon the hill remained
Upon the hill by wind was chained
And Darkness was within

He ran across the wooden bridge
Above the tumult of the brook
He climbed upon the hill beyond
Without a pause the light forsook
He assailed the blackness
Of the castle in the air
Up lashing raindrop ladders
Up black torrential stairs
Seeking ever seeking
To find Darkness in its lair

Admitted to the cloudy keep
Of the Castle in the Air
He set his foot to climb upon
The blackest spiral stair
Heedless of the moaning void, echoing, dripping
Heedless of the pang of fear, stifling, gripping
He climbed until he found himself
Where breath to breathe is rare
Upon the giddy battlement
Of the Castle in the Air

Far below like a memory
Writ in a story book
Slept a little cottage
With a bridge beside the brook
Peering from the battlement
An eye a face a tear
A sob in lonely solitude
A dark and nameless fear
A yearning to return
To the house beside the brook
A yearning to return
To the bed forsook        ... to be continued

Chequered

Chequered fluttering
Materialised
In the corner of my eye
Rascal you - magpie