I Walk AloneA Poem by Ron SandersNot according to Hoyle.I Walk Alone
When streets are dead, and liquid lies have dried, sifting shadows stitch a billion puppets’ eyes. Mucus, in threads, is sewn into hide… skin marries skin till the fresh puppets rise. Out of my bed…man, out of my mind! I slide into midnight--from sleep’s tether torn-- the world to disdain, the hillsides to roam. Sidewalks are idle, the storefronts all blind. But there…and there…are life’s bleak reminders…there! Fleeing from footfalls, the whoring lowborn scatter like rats under neon and chrome.
Then here…and…here: where lamps are no longer, the black bushes rear. Creepers emerge, in moonlight surreal. Shrubs break from soil. The foliage draws near, longing to lean on my lean denim foil. Sampling, saving, the branches converge: leaf learning flesh, thorn tracing wheal. Tendrils, recoiling, in one motion merge. So real they feel…in ghastly waves they ache my way, reeking sweet patchouli, seaming scrub and sky. Merely dreams…clearly dreams are they! Rounding my limbs, reaching my heart, they tremble, start, surrender and die.
High overhead, a lone rider wheels; her mask, like mine, the pallor of bone.
No path, no pale…no surface have I-- none beyond the fog that chides the chatter of my heels. The canopy reels where I walk alone.
Slay me where the sunlight bleeds, burn me where she dies. Turn my bones in hallowed hearths, where horror’s hand recedes.
Day is remade: No one sees her flames run like beetles, dashing rock to rock, crafting soot of hemoglobin.
Day is unmade: No one hears her screams take the elders in their dreams, and none can know her timeworn scheme of roaches, flies, and lullabies, of pointless babies primed and plumped on useless prayers and curdled cream.
Written as fools were we, from the moment our coding was spat from the sea. Targets and tools, contused and confused-- bungling, begging, bumbling bastards all; ridden like mules, abused till we fall.
Off in the dimness, the dark curtains part. A rider appears, his steed mailed in stone.
No cross, no creed…no ballast have I-- none beyond the emptiness that weighs upon my heart. The deep shadows start where I walk alone.
Don’t miss my collection of poems Out Of The Whirl available on Amazon at:
Out Of The Whirl: Sanders, Ron: 9798671245547: Amazon.com: Books
My stories collection Wild Stuff is also available on Amazon, at:
TALK TO ME at: [email protected] © 2021 Ron SandersAuthor's Note
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StatsAuthorRon SandersMarina del Rey, CAAboutL.A.-based novelist, illustrator, poet, short story writer. more..Writing
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