September Poem #1

Far below, beyond the shadow of the moat,
Where the forest clasps the stream by the throat,
The moon fingers the breast of the mocking snow
As I clutch the dungeon bars at Kildeary Low.
My feet are frozen to the rock floor.
Thousands of nights, bent kneed I implore
That my captors, shall reel, clutching their bellies,
Will stagger to gardes-robe, tongues black, smelly,
Vomiting bile, victims of plague born by rat
Which I'll survive, for I live nine just like a cat.

September Poem # 2

Go and leave me be! I say leave me be!
Take your dancing girls,
Those sweet young whores who semi-naked writhe
Jiggling bosoms. I'll none of that. Nor your muscular
Hulks pressing metal plate. And with it
Take your drink, your twisted drugs,
Your motorcyles, your tattooed thugs
None of that! Can't you see! I have an appointment with quiet Death.
She and I will stroll majestically to blue silence,
Arm and arm, chatting of days behind the veil,
Toting up the roll call of history, grinning
At our newfound friends, the burnished skulls of yesteryear.

September Poem #3

As Laura and I sat on the screened back porch,
Hopelessly remembering days before bellies sagged
And chins doubled, when love burned like hot daggers,
Above our mowed grass, fireflies mocked our incapacity,
Desperately flickering their mutable dance of blinking love
While the bug zapper periodically snapped
The necks of innocent, wandering moths, and a shadow moved.

Which of us knew the name of that dark, hirsute creature
Moving by the fence, breathing like some hungry thing
Come from the grave or beyond there, looking for Laura,
Looking for me? Not that it mattered. No need to run.
Soon enough he'd come for us and friends as well. Was his name Jesus
Or something far more troubling?

Laura didn't know. Nor did I. All that we knew was he sat,
Endlessly hungry, strong on his haunches,
Licking his lips in the shadowy dark.

September Poem # 4

Stand back I say! Take those nails that drip with blood
Off my face. Release the shackles from my wrists
And that saber poised upon my chest. My friends
Of black steel beat your portals. Those infinite
Silences of dark space have filled with revenge.
Your turn to burn with remorse has come.
Dawn explodes like gasoline. So gather your scuttling
Allies, coeval spiders of bigotry and death,

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