Shallow waters seldom hide the blackened sand below

Rocks and land, erodes in tides, defiled by ebb and flow

The calmest waters, clouded up, by a river built on lies

The purest shores, shrouded over, engulfs an isle that cries

The years weep past, the time goes by, the waters seldom turn

Every second bleeds, through wasted lives, the oceans start to burn

As memories close an...

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"... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...

— John Donne, Meditation XVII.

Saint Christopher Bell

We seem to be collectors

of memories and junk,

piles of the stuff;

both kinds lean against damp walls

in self-support, waiting

for purpose,

finding little but ...

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This is my return to the submissions list after seven months of travel, during which I was often either incommunicado, or almost so. Technical wizardry does not always work as advertised. I do not seem to be able to suppress my historical bent.

Lincoln Triptych

Part One: Defiance

A land made soft

by Heaven's tears, cried

thru' blankets hung aloft.

Some ask wit...

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to return to that place, I say not, but only

to find what was once lost

to fix the broken part of me..broken

to make what never was

to pull down the shade screens formed

to blind the penitent to newly ordered crimes

and forever fix this rift between the fixers and I.

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Night comes to an Indian ghost town..

footsteps follow well-trodden paths through an inkwell of darkness

upward toward a hidden citadel

where apparitions of inhabitants welcome the returning..

Evening swans are still singing in the ruins down below

to defy the arrogant rooster whose sure his day will come;

and who fills his barn with domestic fare and

sleeps in a snare of...

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We take so much for granted

from this world on which we play,

the breath inside our lungs

drawn in from a cold and windy day.

Draining the life from a world already

so drawn and stretched to it's limits,

desperately trying to imbibe

the scarcities still deep within it.

To live; to breathe; to follow time

as down the wind it sails

against all odds and obstacl...

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Please keep on the grass

Smoking allowed

Nine people in this lift

Play your music loud

Please play ball games

By the entry sign

No speed limit

No closing time

22 units every week

Leave open the gate

Don’t sign in on entry

Stay out until late

Please unfasten your seatbelt

This will be an unpleasant ride

Don’t say I didn’t warn you

Chris...

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