I close my eyes
If I close my eyes so softly
And rest my consciousness to a sublime state
I can still see you
I can perceive your soul
You survive despite oblivion
I could linger here
Living within my thoughts
Forget the reality and just subside
Glorious insanity of introspection
In my protected house
Here we could laugh
We could see the sky empty and clear
We could listen to nature breathe
Yet what chance of this paradise
Even now I am wrenched back
I open my sight to the fog of burnt day
I hear screams and torture
Lives slashed prematurely
Some cleanly, others with spiteful wait
Some survive, but unrecognisable as human
Even those who escape the blasts
Are torn and shredded abstractly
Minds bleed from the visions before them
Hope seems an insignificant dot on the horizon
A dismal afterthought now deserting
I listen to the crashes gouging the earth
I want them to end like fireworks as bright flowers
The rainbow ones that light up sky
With whooshes and bangs not deformity
No more grief just irrelevant joy
I should be outside on the alien landscape
Dodging craters and corpses where once were fields
Taking my moment of glory
But where is that to be found here
I can no longer comprehend the notion
I see heartache and families stunted
I see pale faces deprived of growing old
I see you, torn and bloodied
And me, still whole yet ruined
Alive yet drowning in my mind
I wake alone
Solitary confinement in a morning bed
Where neatness of the vacant half
Echoes the emptiness of a heart
Curtains that once guarded passion within
Try to protect lonely tears from the world
Ashamed of the brightness that intrudes
Here absence of warmth casts frost
In the place where love calmly lay
Now only abandoned and neglected sheets
Shape once relaxed here with breaths of rhythm
Yet stillness of nothing has replaced its life
Emptiness replacing slumbered existence
Hand of memoried longing caresses a pillow
The pleading wish for those drowsy eyes
To awaken to security of blue gaze
Arms had offered comfort of luxurious hold
Now only fabrics devoid of emotion
Spread crisp in their utter detachment
Solitary confinement in a morning bed
Where neatness of the vacant half
Echoes the emptiness of a heart
Curtains that once guarded passion within
Try to protect lonely tears from the world
Ashamed of the brightness that intrudes
Here absence of warmth casts frost
In the place where love calmly lay
Now only abandoned and neglected sheets
Shape once relaxed here with breaths of rhythm
Yet stillness of nothing has replaced its life
Emptiness replacing slumbered existence
Hand of memoried longing caresses a pillow
The pleading wish for those drowsy eyes
To awaken to security of blue gaze
Arms had offered comfort of luxurious hold
Now only fabrics devoid of emotion
Spread crisp in their utter detachment
Glass Lake
Glass lake of tranquillity unmoving
Reflecting bare trees and high hills
Spiralling eagles play high above
In their cloudless, serene domain
Through the silence a presence is felt
A shift that is subtle like a breeze
The perceptive eagles soar out of sight
As a change in the scenery appears
A ripple begins on the water
Starting afar and coming ever near
And as it’s intensifying pulse approaches
Cold draught carrying fear pushes past
The glass lake’s surface is broken
All reflection is splintered by waves
Blackness and menace take over the sky
Bullying blue composure away
As clouds fight and argue for dominance
Thunderous exchanges are made
And stabs of white spear lightning
Attack and maim innocent trees
The black blanket cloud is smothering
Yet in the distance it is turning to red
A scarlet spreading, inking of colour
Proceeds the reason for this change
Through the red stained cloud cover
Come bursting with hollers and glee
An army of terror, of creatures unknown
Riding their fierce, hell-raised dragon steeds
Their skin is thickened as leather
Their bodies all scarred and marked
And the creatures on which they are riding
Show a perfection of evil and strength
The fire that lights up their passing
Turns glass lake into cauldron of steam
Trees torched first by lightening now breath
Crumble to dust in furnace so extreme
……
Glass lake of tranquillity unmoving
Now peppered with dark charcoal dust
The eagles though cautious return to their game
Cloudless sky, clear of nightmare once again