darkenings

ink seeps in

2009-10-01T02:13:00.000-07:00

feeling the light slipping in
teasing the shadows
leaving me hidden in the corner
bathed in shade
black and white
absence of grey
I felt this morning a sense of laying against you back.... head to toe.... under the sheets
just the sense of skin
and pulse
it was a close and satisfying feeling
the simplicity of a touch with no demands
as though, if I lay there long enough with you
I would watch the lines of your tattoos slide into me
the lines of ink extending, flowing, melting and reforming
knots from you into me
against your back, skin to skin
the warmth, the resonance, the taste
laying on top of me
we are both straight, touching
arms and legs together
face to face
lips inches away, eyes looking into each others

ink seeps in
disassembled, reassembled
over unending
metamorphoses

sculpted in the semblances of a spiral
downward rush of carved elations
smooth in abstract
cool beneath a kiss

touch, feel, flesh, pulse, real

ink seeps in
pools and evaporates
becoming
veiled insanities.

sip a cup of ripples
a shiver in the throat
yearning claws a gouge
into opacity.

pierced, piece by piece, unforced.

©lesservoice2009

fuzzy noise

2009-08-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

The evasive elusive
sleep of sleep
evading me
eluding all attempts
to close my mind
to the whirrs and clicks
of fears and ticks
and avalanche
of thoughts
all uncontrolled
and random
gripping
slipping into angst
ripping any chance
with dreams unheeded.

Staring
at the ceiling
listening
nothing on the outside
turbulence inside resides
demanding
withstanding all attempts
to flick the switch
and turn to off
this fuzzy noise
too loud to hear
but always here
wanting
wanting
needing
flaunting.

The abrasive embracive
a tantrum abusive
a scream unrelenting
not restive.

©robertgreig2009

impending ominous

2009-07-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

Flagrant fragrance
descending
storm intending
omens merging ominous
a frisson fusion
in air confusion
ripples affecting
unseen
a taste, a sense, an intuit
a scent, a closing close
a fall
into a stillness
til everything
stops
awaiting exhalation
impending patination
droplets scatter patterns
humid passions
inborn machinations
undeterred
a calm becomes
a hint becomes
collisions of a rage
releasing
earnest revealing
of sweat of blood
of purity
relief.

©robertgreig2009

covert collisions

2009-06-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

After the cacophony

a quiet

a void

a leftover silence

after the violence

and exhaustion

the lessening of

a temporary death

a missing breath

a pause

remains of the fray

a rush

now hushed

unconditional

complete surrender

a fade descended

gone to ground

lack of sound

a pause

stem the flow

unborn

still-born

covert collisions

coveting space

drop of a pin

submission replete

a resonance.

©lesservoice2009

landmine

2009-06-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

Sitting on a landmine
of exhaustion
waiting for the quiet
explosion.

It’s like never wanting
to move again
never daring
to breathe for fear
of not unfolding
from the breath.

A glass of whisky
slips away
the effort of thought
soft fade.

Muscles strain to hold
these fingers
held by hands
in scraping scraps
of scribblings
from random truths.

Tiny dreams
of ruins leave me sallow
fallow ground
where no steps impose
from which no sound evolves.

Straying from survival
bound in knots and whispers.

©lesservoice2009

layer fake

2009-06-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

Makes sense
of all this
how we complicate
de-simplify
spread layer upon layer
mystify.

No movement
circles wide
but random change
waverings
and weaving too to fro
embellishings.

Bury me
in granular addictions
doesn’t matter if I need it
it’s the fact that I can have it
only then I wonder why
too late the hero
cannot breathe.

And still
I cast another net
and still
I smother and regret.

No room
for error or remorse
if it all came crashing down
I may be covered by the debris
weight emphatic
dust of air
and strewn.

©robertgreig2009

burbot&turbot

2009-05-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

The Burbot and Turbot

went to town

which was odd for a fish

as they’re not often found on the ground

unless it’s too Venice

with snakes of canals

where they wouldn’t indeed never drown.

©lesservoice2009

quaking still

2009-05-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

Still

I lay here

still

and unassuming

listless

unpresuming.

Disregarding fears

slipping bindings kiss

leaving burns

on swollen wrists.

Ache

interminable

awake

and fearful

shapeless

of things to come.

Back of my mind

a timorous beast

skulks and cowers

faith unreleased.

Flowers die by day

they wilt and wither

some to seed

quaking grass, a quiver.

Stones

heavy press

a stone

collect and keep

gathering

and yearn to sleep.

Another missing person

wallows undisturbed

questions never offer

answers heard.

©robertgreig2009

wreaths

2009-05-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

faith collisions
imparting shrapnel
extensive maximum... damage control
click,
click...
peeling shadows
off the pavement.

blunt incision
incisive decisions
deflated egos… approximate
fight
flight
right to breathe
polluted air.

stealth collusion
intruding necessary
refusing antidote.. sanitise
prick
prick
anaesthetic compliments
pale reductive.

wreaths
laid in line
eliciting a frailty.

©lesservoice2009

emphatic blue

2009-05-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

emphatic blue
the sum of nothing
a span from one horizon
eloquent and yielding in the calm.

empathic blue
the loss of grief
nothing in return is taken
from the eye that drinks belief.

empiric blue
with no demands
a sacrifice and offering
comfort, blame, in equal strands.

©robertgreig2009

equal actions tease

2009-04-25T01:46:00.000-07:00

fermenting
in a filamentous firmament
enraptured
disposed to flights of fanciful
reflection.

inflections
worm their way between
sinuous
exposed to my ephemeral
affection.

elemental
a figment resplendent
dependent
on veiled insecurities
addiction

friction
equal actions teasing
opposites
the ebb and flow
obsession.

constriction
suffocated release and tie
unbound
grieving the imperfect
perfection.

©robertgreig2009

fragmented me

2009-04-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

fragmented me
Awakening on whispered shard
Every move shattering another
ripples become
shockwaves
a heart attack of drone and thrum.

fragmented me
Unsettling on every word unuttered
another thought escaped to leave
a tattoo stain
nothing came
but white noise clambering attention.

fragmented me
No saint will ever be
blessed or crossed or water washed
of fears unqualified
I’m reducing
Something down to nothing less.

fragmented me
Ephemera is natures form
a mirror held in slithers born
reflected glory
lost and worn
a crowd that bares their scorn.

fragmented me
And vilified the fool awakes
to piece the pieces thousands
lifeless chunks
celebrate
the path to least resistance.

fragmented born
in cloth that’s torn
didn’t stand a chance
a path selected steps elected
taken two by two into the gait they all expected
shadowlorn
in fields of splintered glass.

©robertgreig2009

dark decays

2009-04-12T02:41:00.000-07:00

dark decays

as light embraces

tiny seeds of

breath anointed

tortured souls to scatter harmless

gathered on a faith.

shard remains

in shadows cower

thoughts of night

a passing phase

relented and exposed descended

tethered in repose.

voices taint

a silence lost

to shimmer sounds

impatient fuss

to penetrate, impale offending

rusting in a shame.

©robertgreig2009

little more than less

2009-04-09T02:59:00.000-07:00

feel like lead

grieving for a lighter sense of day

bed of nails

inside screams and scratching walls

for a smaller sense of scale.

and outside

worlds are turning

by the minutes

and here I stand

panning sand for morsels

made of rust

flaking flecks from palaces worn

to ruins

their ivory a precious taint

precarious

skin of bone

collected dreams of wonder aimless

home sweet home

numbing thought aspire to little more

than less.

©robertgreig2009

tock, tick….. tock

2009-03-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

tock…

lost an hour

tick

came and went

tock

without a sound

tick

minutes spent

tock

out of phase

tick

broke a step

tock

ask me not

tick

time bereft

slips by unawares

shortened hours to minutes none

left a wake of gaps and holes

an empty space forever gone.

open

bleary-eyed

a place denied

when fast asleep

to lose

to grieve

from two to three

to mourn what takers reap.

swept away

or blown apart

or never really there

the missing tocks

and yearning ticks

are balanced in this air.

©robertgreig28march2009

flat cat

2009-03-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

Flat

somebody drove

over the cat

flat

mortified

they stood shaken

clearly stirred

I reassured

them

not the cat

flat

they didn’t mean it

flat

and neither did

the cat

which lay there

flat

I reassured

once again

brief relief

adorned their face

I picked the cat

flat

up off the road

the driver stared

with pangs of guilt

the cat stared back

not

but flat

it was

and is

they drove away

I walked away

cat in arms

flat

to bury

perfect grave

beneath the hedge

not what neither me

nor the driver

nor of course the cat

had planned

that day.

©robertgreig2009

not just ghosts

2009-02-21T01:43:00.000-08:00

sometimes

I can’t breath

I hold me breath

then nothing

It’s 6:01am

and still

I drag my lungs

for air

I squint my eyes

if just to see

a swirl

a patch of turbulence

unfurl

a way to know for sure

I’m here

and not just ghosts

and specters

apparitions

coming into to view

to slip away again.

sometimes

I can’t see

through aches and tears

and gasps

It’s early

for some

but not for me

not me

I tied a knot

in a piece of string

remember

something to remember

what?

what was it now

oh yes

tight as my reminder

that I can feel

still

just about

enough to know

I’m here.

invisible me

2009-02-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

I am a ghost

half a ghost

I can’t even

get that right.

One foot in

one foot out

almost there

not quite.

A dim reflect

on double-glaze

frosted glass

and dozing light.

One foot short

of stepping stones

out of step

out of sight.

invisible me

half in shade

cold transparent

in tender sleight

beyond the eyes

peripheral

a softened gaze

a sense of flight

tiptoes I can see

for miles

I’m taller now

on quiet nights.

claim hallelujah

2008-12-22T00:50:00.000-08:00

They say that it’s Christmas
I suppose it must be
everywhere there are lights
everyone has a tree
so you see…

that it’s Christmas
dreams of goodwill
turn it on like a switch
there are stockings to fill
with happiness pills.

Make way for the pretence
the curtains undrawn
to show off your bliss
so eagerly borne
with carols well-worn

We wish you a merry Christmas
we are happy ingrained
when the screams and the bruises
leave scarring and stain
snow becomes rain.

other than shallow
other than pain
other than empty
other than blame
other than light
other than day
a shadowless blank
the dead entertain
a rape of the senses
a pretence ingrained
a paper tears easy
the skin lays unclaimed.

Believe me it’s Christmas
as o other time
can claim hallelujah
with nursery rhymes.

We pick through the tidings
the tinsel and tat
if we can’t find a meaning
we’ll settle for that.

Put my on standby
hold me on hold
truth is suspended
in hoping for snow.

With polar bears, penguins
portray disbelief
to find themselves sharing
an ice-covered scene.

A fragile illusion
barely sustained
the cracks are appearing
in smiles and games.

We try and we try
but the graft never takes
we wish you a merry Christmas
and hope we don’t break.

empty me

2008-11-05T02:17:00.000-08:00

I held my lover
then he broke
I scratched and clawed
until he broke
I held on tight
and squeezed the life
and then there was
nothing.

and all at once I heard them screaming
flocks of birds in sympathy....

I'm holding mist
holding rain
I danced alone
in the rain
soaking wet
I might dissolve
til all remains
are empty.

outline

2008-10-30T02:32:00.001-07:00

I am an outline
finely drawn
and unfulfilled
stillness makes me cry.

I am a blank
easily missed
overlooked, a cast off
I'm scared more than I'm not.

I am a passing thought
come and gone
lesser than a blink
my shadow made of dust.

wrought

2008-10-19T02:26:00.000-07:00

My days collide
as atoms dressed
of gold and silver specks.

A drape of dust in
sunbeams hung
pick out abandoned flecks.

I count the hours instead
of making hours count
like precious bejewelled wrecks.

I touch the empty
gaps inside me
carved in tiny thoughts.

And scrape the blood
that’s dried and caked
on every pain I wrought.

I hurt like this
to make me feel
something more than nought.

I am
I breathe
I hardly know my name.

salinity

2008-08-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

hopes and aspirations
spun like dirty little diamonds
on an asphalt of
infinity
repeat themselves
demanding tones
salinity.

fakes and non-solutions
spreading surfaces like slicks
rainbow toxins
seeping
weeping wounds
unhealing faith
unseemly.

Stretched along a breaking strain
a push and pull refrain
steeping words in acrid smoke
watch them fail to rise
from ashes in reprise.

too close
for comfort zones
to offer consolation
prizes for the fool
who lost the golden rule
and cared a little more than etiquette intended.

there’s stillness
that can hold me like a vacuum
in the morning
infiltrate
run me through
leave a space
vacate.

08-08-08

2008-08-08T14:34:00.000-07:00

08-08-08
a string of diamonds
pearls, rust
whatever
strung from here
to there.

a thought of glistening
but holding back
for fear
of showing-off
a vulgar side
still hidden.

a sense of wild
blue yonders
rushing forth
full of promise
and giving nothing
in return.

08-08-08
the numbers trail
in mute procession
unrewarded
unabashed by wonder
proffered.

are
you
sure
of what your say
today
of all days
demanding
careful insight
unique
attention detailed
moments
logged and catalogued.

posterity demands
that recollection
offers
clarity of thought.

still days of wonder
wander aimless
driven
by little more
than obsessed
recriminations.

~none

2008-07-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

A scream relentless
I breathe
feel no breath
inhale
inhale
inhale
let go

... nothing
over
and over
hollow
losing light
still standing still
failing light
shadows avoiding
lifting off the ground
walking away
still standing still

breath
not mine
palpitations
breathe for me
panic
breathe for me
for a while
while I bleed
screams
relentless.