The Insomniac Writer

As a New Year’s gift from me to you, I’ve recorded a few audio versions of some peoms from BLACK BLACK BLUES. You can either play them in the podcast player or download them from here:
Vanity Is The Drug Of Choice
Morning Ember
Just right click and “save target as”.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A bit of a teaser for you… the first two stanzas of “Home”:
Beyond this hard, cruel earth,
hurt and poverty,
beyond now
a Lover waits
 
near a river called “Mercy”
which flows from a wound in His side
with Him my parents stand waiting
for their child to wash in with the tide

 
She has just begun to feel
over hate
over love of all that tries to kill her
over bait
left dangling before the cart
Who knows where the horse has gone?
 
She has just undone the real me
defecates
on this love of truth and all things fragile
orchestrates
imagining she has a heart
Who knows who she’ll be come dawn?

another hospital, another waiting room
sardine-stuffed with weary families
red-eyed and brimmed with soured coffee
numb to the bells and whistles
the shabby symphony of life, death, and the in-between
immune to the stale air and its grim bouquet of disinfectant
 
how often have I shared this road
with the nerve-worn nameless
the miserable few?
how much life have I spent
held fast in the [...]

Ravaged Nun and Greasy Priest 
I tense like a tabby cat whose prey just flitted by
on paper wings
as thin as hope’s blue thread
 
her grin –  a feint,
her teeth – capped with ice,
topsy-turvy tombstones
to truth’s cruel fate.
 
I’m a sweetless piñata made from yesterday’s news
a faithless vow
as empty as a gourd
 
she’s all deceit
a deep salted wound
a prick and [...]