One Day Special
What would I do
if I could fly for a day?
I’d fly all day, of course,
to faraway lands,
across the seas,
over the highest peaks,
and relish every moment,
reliving the thrill
for the rest of my days
shackled to the ground.
Nay.
To long for that
which is no more
and never will be again
is to serve a life sentence
in a prison of false hope.
What if, for but a day,
I could move unseen,
and roam unchecked
through the normally forbidden?
What would I do with a gift
more suited to thieves
or crooked men
of the lecherous kind?
The temptation to sin
claws at my chest
and lures a darker self out
to play with no consequences.
Alas, my conscience
is mine to bear alone.
A single, blemished day
on an otherwise faultless existence
stains with lifelong guilt.
No.
Or maybe.
Maybe I could perform ″miracles″
like the angels who walk the Earth.
A kind deed out of thin air
or an invisible saviour
to inspire for centuries to come
with every religion claiming
it was their God.
But alas, tis but a parlour trick
to reaffirm in the faithful
that which I myself have lost.
No.
I cannot.
It would be better
to inspire kindness
from one human to another
than to keep others waiting
for the Hand of God
which strikes more than it saves.
I am a simple man
and do not want much,
except that which eludes
my fellow men --
the truth.
Oh, not the divine truth
or whether aliens exist.
I want the truth
behind your smile,
that look within your eyes
when you hold me tight,
and tell me that you love me.
What better way to know that
than to hear your thoughts
just as they are born
and still untouched
by the senses?
It may only last a single day,
but what I hear, unspoken,
will keep me happy
till my dying breath.
Epstein
Oh, I know how you lived.
I know where you began,
and how you crawled your way up
into the pockets of the rich,
the powerful, and the perverse.
I know how you lured your prey
the vulnerable young
into your den of debauchery,
forced yourself and others upon them
and threw them out on the streets
like used, broken dolls -
casualties
of your greed and lust.
They were going to school.
They were going to go to college.
They were someone's daughter.
They were someone's sister.
They could have had normal, happy lives.
But now, they won't
and never will.
And when they came back to haunt you,
to demand justice
for the unspeakable acts of evil,
you pulled the black strings you tied
around the necks of your corrupted puppets,
and got away with it,
time after time and time again.
But this time, you’re going down.
All the people you know,
your so-called “friends”,
or should I say
your fellow paedophiles in power,
will not come to your rescue.
Oh, on the contrary,
they cannot drop you fast enough
or denounce you with stronger words
and feign ignorance of your beastly ways.
I can’t tell you what’s coming
but all I can say is this:
You’re going to pay,
and so will the others,
for all that you’ve done,
and I will be there,
yes, that’s right, personally,
to look after you
for all eternity.
Dear Ancestors
The time has come
for me to visit you again.
I've brought you all the things
you used to like so much,
along with other stuff I'm told
the dead can't do without.
I wonder – can you hear me?
Are you really there?
Is this for the indifferent dead,
or is it for the living?
All I have are memories,
and memories of your memories.
That is all that's left of you,
and what I fear will become of me
the day I turn to dust.