Obstacles

They were like rooftop geese

Building homes, raising young

In all the wrong places

In spaces unnatural for their kind.

They were like the hammock

Just waiting for a body to drop

Before the knot betrays its weakness

And plunges to the hard ground.

They had no vacancy

In their hearts for eachother,

The affection atrocious

The quarrels ferocious.

They were diehard tryhards

Attempting something significant

Only down this path at all

For some misplaced expectation.

Sparrows wearing owl beaks

To make folks think them wise.

The crescent waned

And so did the wax

On the long night of

Strained and forced relations

The stale devotion

Began to attract flies.

It died loudly I still hear it in my sleep.

Somehow I still wake with a smile

The puzzle box given me

Not a picture to copy,

So I turn the pieces over

To make something new.

Together we became like seeds

Endlessly turning ourselves inside out

In our attempts to climb the sky.

Now we’ve evolved into compasses

Caring nothing for obstacles

Only convictions and destinations.

Years ago now that I used your tongue

To ask for your hand

We venture together

Into the kingdom broad and tall

That’s casts its borders like fishing nets.

– Vagabond Prophet

Thanks @josy57 for the prompt ‘stale devotion’

@delightfulharmonypoetry

Shake hands with worry

Make all courage scurry

Give a nod to fury

Jingling his keys.

Veins pumping vanity

It’s vain it’s insanity

As I travel from solstice of length

To the solstice of brevity.

Trample something damp

To make myself feel strong.

I’m the prophet who having

Seen his own defeat

Only had bravery galvanized

To prove the fates wrong.

I chew on keys

To unlock the words stuck

On the tip of my tongue.

I should have known

How this would end

I had been tonguing

The fatal flaw for months.

And when I brought my

Jaws down to crush that dinner

I should have known

I’d be defeated, fractured into pieces.

– Vagabond Prophet

@josy57 thanks for the prompt “knowing when to lose.” This thing is weird but there it is. Out in the world now.

Strolling through sopping grey

Summers first reprieve

Is a whisper of autumn.

When every blade of grass is slick

From the breath of the night

And all parched land takes flight

Making way for things shadegrown

Before the big sleep.

Vagabond Prophet

Days of Honey

I am Mr. Cash

I am the mourner,

I’m everybody dressed in black

Who am I?

Is grief not where I dwell?

Is sorrow not the gold mine

Where I scratch out a living?

These things you say to me

Only leave me perplexed,

My days stuck in traffic

My nights stuck in thought.

My swallowed tongue

My rib cage rung

Climbing up and down

From a mind with kidney stones.

Every thought taking such effort

To unearth from the depths

And push to the surface

The pain brings me to my knees.

My own heart is the box

Marked fragile, intentionally dropped

Because it says so.

Now these keys on the ring

For locks I don’t remember,

Need to find a resting place,

And those locks with wide open jaws

Awaiting the crooked teeth

Of this forgotten tool

Will not close their lips for any other tongue.

For it knows my shape

And lies in wait

To fulfill the promise

Made by someone other than myself

For I hold the key that another designed

And must seek for it a sheath.

The journey is long

The path winding

And so I am thankful

For the days of honey

That heaven finally brings

To remedy this bitter soul.

– Vagabond Prophet

Thanks @josy57 for prompting me with “Swallowed Tongue.” This one kind of got away from me, hope folks like it.

https://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/vagabondprophet/177335092142/tumblr_pdygqsy8rI1wr7drj?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio
https://vagabondprophet.tumblr.com/post/177335092142/audio_player_iframe/vagabondprophet/tumblr_pdygqsy8rI1wr7drj?audio_file=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Faudio_file%2Fvagabondprophet%2F177335092142%2Ftumblr_pdygqsy8rI1wr7drj

Hi everybody, so this is my first time posting my own song. I realize I need to practice especially my guitar work and I apologize for the lousy recording quality I am recording just using my smart phone. Comments are welcome and appreciated, feeling pretty terrified over here about doing this but comfort is the enemy of progress. Hope some folks like it.

– Vagabond Prophet