Fading memories blow through my hollowed out soul,

wrapped in echoes of tormented silence and pain

riding hot desert winds, past the crumbling facade

of a dry empty ghost town where tumbleweeds reign.

Like emotional stretch marks carved into my heart,

inky shadows lie twisted, and deeply embossed

in striations and patterns that spell out your name,

filled with acid-rain tears, spilled for all that I’ve lost.

When I let myself ponder the cruelty of fate,

the unfairness twists inside my guts like a knife.

Since you left me behind without saying goodbye,

faded gray shades of loneliness color my life.

In my dreams you’re still here, warmly sharing my bed...

then I wake all alone, with your voice in my head.

©2018 - Dusty Grein

*** While not many sonnets are crafted in 12 syllable anapestic tetrameter, its melodic rhythm makes for a smooth flowing poem, which can still pack as much of a punch as the standard iambic pentameter offering.

In the mysterious dark she takes the sky

as I blur into colors on the horizon

and on the stars she doth lie

her eternal beauty mesmerizing

Wishing we could share what’s ours

I reach up on the wings of day

and she floats below on her stars

of dazzling silver grey

I wait for the ephemeral night

where we can come to meet

we drift together in an embrace of light

and a kiss so sweet

as the moment fades we return to our domains of night and day,

but ‘I love you’ is the whispered words I still hear her say.

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☀ ☾

When the weight of the world holds your down,

Please don’t worry

There’s no need to frown

It feels sometimes like we’re all in a hurry

But when you’re with me,

It will soon become clear

You’re right where you’re meant to be

Don’t be scared, my dear

The world likes to go against you

It wants to destroy everything you are

Don’t be blue

You’re a shining star

Keep shining bright, my dear

With me, you have nothing to fear

These words will make you want to shit your pants.

Excuse my French but I cook you some wit.

Such words compel you to jump up and dance.

You might as well just throw a goddamn fit.

Here sonnet channels bits from devas fine.

The cosmos is but ones and nones and strings.

The orchestrated harmony’s divine.

Things are just forms and forms are all just things.

So feel the soil brewing from underneath.

Feel Water, Air, and Fire but all the same.

Remember that you’ll have to cut your teeth.

Your fangs will help you win this blissful game.

Now go and change your wasted underpants.

So let the flow of verbage know decant.

My love will forever last,

Don’t let me go,

If you do I fall fast,

Fast out my window.

Once I love you,

I will never stop caring,

When you walk through,

That door or look to me glaring.

I will love you forever,

Protect you at any cost,

You could love me never,

But without you I am lost.

My love will protect you,

And forever be true.

Own me as you do your shoe or that lamp over there

You enjoy it

The thrill of chase lights fires in your piercing stare

I deplore it

I wonder who your mother was and why she failed you

It’s deceptive

The mask of mild intentions thinly veiled you

I accept it

Spurn me until you need your shoes or that lamp over there

I dare you

I will immerse you in darkness and leave your feet bare

That scares you?

I do not stop to judge you, for I know you too well

All my life, far too long to dawdle and dwell

My lover’s tunic is not a mere drapery on the velvet chair

Our sinful lust is inflamed then his haste from the room

If caught red-handed, why would he fight in sheer vain

If I am such an adulteress, blackened be my cherished name

I have laid eyes on dalliances, all coquetted kinds in Wiltshire

But no such disgrace and shame I see in my treacherous soul

And on my perfumed skin is his and only his irresistible taste

Than in other frantic lovers that troll the dark moonlit nights

I crave my lover to see me, his hungry eyes feasted on me

That his bewitching artful tongue cast many tender moments

Even Goddess Venus wouldn’t be a seductive temptress

As my lover who hastes, finally takes the secret passage

By far, by wonder, I feel his crazy love as shamefully passionate

My husband so dear, my lover, beyond smouldering desire

Bold words sit upon faded pages

Their dusty spines line the towering shelves

Heroes and strangers in paper cages

Each a story into which we will delve

But then comes the dilemma of having to choose

To pick the old or to pick the new

One is classic, from which other stories still pick up cues

but the other exciting, an adventure it’s true

I run my fingers along their spines

Pull them off shelves to look at their covers

Open them up just to read a few lines

wondering what I might possibly discover

and I sit here and ponder which one is right

Then pick them both up and walk out into the night

Soft light shines through an empty concrete wall;

It disrupts the line of shadows standing high and mighty,

Raising its invisible sword it strikes and strikes flashing brightly;

My hands unclench from tightened fists as I crawl,

Sharp pain stabs me in the back as I fall and fall;

Numbness spreads like a dawn over my body caressing lightly,

As fire burns my temple a war behind my eyes rages unsightly;

Hidden behind this mask is a weary who has given all.

Abandoned in a flightless and dark cage,

Forgotten in the outside world of light,

Loving those especially one forever;

Weaning myself of despair and hopeless rage,

My new life is full of terror and fright,

Promise me to let go and come hence never.

Moss covers trees and mist fills the air,

the smell of the wilderness fills your weary lungs.

Atop the mountain she looks so fair,

Back in the days when we were still so young.

Boxes of photographs spread across the floor,

he sits all alone with his eyes full of tears,

what would he do if she came to the door?

What would he do if she was still here?

Trying to keep up with her as she marches through the woods,

she turns back to smile "We're almost there, I swear"

Her smile filled his heart with joy and he replied "Good!"

The memories will always and forever be too much to bear.

He can still see the way she used to smile,

and five years after she passed, it was still worthwhile.