Brand New Key

Brand new key,

Fitting too well

Not allowing for my elbows,

Suicide by installments,

Or even custody of my own eyes.

Truth isn’t easy to swallow

Nothing that sharp is,

Wildfires don’t permit

Caveats and addendums,

Flash floods don’t schedule

Convenient appointments.

All consuming flame

Knows that real estate

Is the only good investment

So it comes and buys it all

No resistance fought

No feeble squall.

This decimation of autonomy

Is a blessing in the end,

For it strips the razor wire

From my own DNA

And cleans those wounds invisible.

– Vagabond Prophet

Onion

Exiles from the country

We’ve only ever dreamt of,

Refugees from the war

Inside us all.

Like a child miscarried,

The loss complete

But the blood just keeps coming.

I have worked for the firing squad

And know they never exhaust their work,

That injustice builds a tower

Weighty enough to soften

The strongest of spines.

I know that the aortic drum

That beats insistently

With bright red sounds,

Can drive one mad

With its loud demands.

For reasons such as these

Death row can be a freedom,

Homecoming in the coming of death.

A concrete and tangible end,

Real life to sink one’s teeth into

Before your teeth is all that’s left.

Every lungful Sisyphus’ work,

Life too much at full strength,

Some people taking handfuls of night

Just to get through the day.

Oh to find some relief

In this march to our demise.

Lean in close now,

Bend your ear to my lips

As I whisper urgently

With news that changes everything.

Your circumstance may remain,

But perspective is everything

Learning that not all blows

Are for breaking but for shaping.

Be the sculpture carved

From the inside out

With hope turning red from blue

As it swims to the surface.

Peel back the layers

Feel your eyes well up

I’m not an onion I’m a man

Transformed from an earthen bulb

Some black layers true,

But I’m pushing past the dirt now

And you can too.

– Vagabond Prophet

– Thanks @josy57 for prompting me with “Sisyphus’ work.”

Escapee

I am the foolhardy child

Who ran from the safehouse

To the hands of my accuser.

Escapee fleeing my own freedom.

You pursued me relentlessly

Like the sun the moon,

Saying you’d take me

Ignoring all scars

You’d not reject me

Until the shore rejects the waves.

You won me over

Under a clear sky

Using stars always there

To paint new pictures just for me.

Now in the heat of the night

I whisper the truth under

Moth laden lanterns

To others lost as I once was.

That you took my place

In a risk that made heaven

Hold its breath

To erase my coming death.

– Vagabond Prophet

There’s me
And then there’s you
And all I want to do
Is climb into your heart
To make in me a fresh start.

Dissolve like sugar
In those warm cleansing waters
No longer able to discern
Where I end and you begin.

Vagabond Prophet

Hell’s Hallowed Howl

Created like clear running water

Either joining up to marry a greater body

Or going still and murky in marshy mires.

Designed to age like a spider,

Which is to say well

But with a web that tells a story.

My tongue intentionally sits

Uncomfortably in its fractured saddle

Amidst broken teeth and words

Not yet sharpened.

Destined to wrestle with myself

And the one strand of DNA

That must be made of razor wire.

The anthem of the damned

Cries out loudly

“Freedom!”

Freedom to wander

And freedom to ponder

Freedom of choice and care of consequence.

Is freedom the best desire to have?

Not better to serve a good master

Than serve only myself?

I answer this question

In the negative to find I am

A bird that would fly

But grounded by weighty bones,

Having not had the lead yet hollowed out

By painful but saving tools.

By design I am the battlefield

Between Hells Hallowed Howl

And Heavens Terrible Goodness.

Both at times whispering,

Both at times shouthing,

And both at all times

Vying for my soul.

By design I trust in Goodness

Though it does not shimmer

Though it dances less entrancingly,

For its promise to pull out razor wire

And extract lead from my bones.

Though the Howl dances beautifully

Shines brilliantly and sings convincingly,

How to trust something

That only promises my desires

As though there is nothing greater?

By design,

Is a question I can not answer.

– Vagabond Prophet

– Thanks @josy57 for prompting me with “By Design.”

Backtracking Majesty

I am arrested by love

Incarcerated by affection.

I once walked the withering sands alone,

Burning these pale soles black,

Sweat stinging these blue eyes shut.

I used to tread the coals of hot regret

Until I noticed some backtracking majesty.

I saw still morning lakes

Reflecting things much deeper

Than themselves.

Saplings with supporting rods,

Even twigs need a father

Something to grow in the shadow of

Learning not to turn all blooms

Away from but towards the sun.

That trees need no language,

Soil needs no tongue

They speak to each other

With yearning twisted fingers

And thrive upon the embrace.

The sun has no agenda

Yet the mountains bow

Before the glory every morn.

Rain that kisses the land

To lend a helping land

When the fields cry out

With dry lips and parched throats.

No paperwork, no formal requests

Only simple needs simply stated.

Every rockslide applause

For the sky it could never reach,

Every thunderstorm a parade,

Fireworks celebrating

The end of another drought.

Finally the people who dare to trust,

Loving and giving to people

Who can never pay them back.

Working fingers to the bone

To help others find a home,

In this world full of shadows

Finally shedding some light

By trusting and striking

Some matches on the rocks.

So yes I am not my own,

By love I am arrested

My deepest sins contested

And at times even jested,

That I would be such a fool

As to sojourn alone.

By grandeur so big it’s hard to see

I am swallowed whole

And spat back out a whole person,

With a whole soul

That is freely yet completely

Given to the one who soothed

My aching feet and breaking heart.

– Vagabond Prophet

Ebb and Flow

Welcome to the ebb and flow

To the sporadic spells of rain,

To the workload that swells to meet

Your well rested vigor.

Good day to the hat

You only notice in its absence

Hello to the fireworks

Hope exploding for a future

Less volatile than the past.

Welcome to the ebb and flow

Of weather that scalds and chills

In the same day.

To the violin bringing

Tears of joy and sadness

In the same melody.

Greetings to the planet

Where hearts of men prevail

And the only chance at redemption

Lies outside the world altogether.

– Vagabond Prophet

Fruits of the Spirit #3

Faithfulness as defined by the poets dictionary:

Definition: Anchors firmly dug into place, to a solid ground nobody else believes is there. Mocks and jeers go floating past as you realize the irony that nobody notices you are not swept away by torrents of madness, despair, or tragedy. Strength tempering your bones into something unrecognizable but so much stronger.

Other definitions include: The knowledge that nobody taught you that guides your every move.

The immovable convictions of a country not found in maps, content that you the amateur cartographer that you are will diligently chart it all when you get there.

Having a song stuck in your head that you’ve never heard before, and believing that the composer is whispering in a language just for the two of you.

Antonyms include: Cynicism, refusal to separate truths from facts braided though they are, uninvested in the definitions given by the compass of your soul. Untethered as a buoy that warns of nothing.

Only faith promises that there is more to the ocean than water; all because of a dream you once had of it taking your sins out to sea and down to Davie Jones and sending back in their place salvation.

– Vagabond Prophet

@mildreflections thanks for joining me on this project! I am beyond pleased to be collaborating with such a talented poet. Hope you enjoy this addition.

Pandora’s Box

‘I am pandora’s box

Devil’s got the key

Opens as he pleases

To take control of me.’

This is the way I thought

Before my heart was bought

Taming every vein

Purifying acid rain.

What a miracle you’ve wrought

In blood spilled for prices paid

Your mercy magnified

By wrath that you have stayed.

The justice undiluted

For my behalf you have disputed

Saving me from hellish jaws

And circling vultures hungry caws.

– Vagabond Prophet

Flat Earth

Dipped in water and then oil

Not knowing how to mix with myself.

Sometimes you have to re-break the bone

To get it set right.

Wide asleep

When the vines that creep

Pull me under,

I hear beasts within and without,

I hear claws upon the door

At most unholy hours.

I am the peacock with need so dire

To prove itself just once,

I am the rhinoceros with steepest spire

Upon my face betraying lies.

I am the tiger saying its for camouflage

But it was always about ego,

Nobody else has this colour scheme.

Here’s the truth that chills in July:

If we spoke before The Tower of Babel

We might understand each other,

However in this post Babel era

I only mix the shadows of words together

Rendering the truest shade of grey.

I miss the days of old

When the earth was flat,

Stars on the same level.

When I could run full speed

And have flames engulf my need

Stripping off the laquer

The feathers, the horns, the stripes.

The earth is round, but slowly

You’re bending it back

Back to how it was,

Running gets easier as the slope

Promises to lessen in time,

And though I’m dumbfounded

I’m finally finding sanctuary.

– Vagabond Prophet

Thanks @josy57 for the prompt “Finding Sanctuary” I hope this makes some kind of sense.