Never-were

I got to pretend to be a prince
For a while
It was such a wonderful dream
Existence on the periphery
I exist on the periphery

No one really knows who I am
Only those who could remember
Me has not been me
And I am not the same
And so much has by the wayside fallen
And I've so much more to gain

A hodge podge collecting trinkets
Ornaments for all my shelves
Sometimes I want to save the world
Others I can not even help myself


Life in such vivid, vibrant colors
Loathsome time in charcoal grey
And anon, and anon

Hang upon the Christmas tree these letters
Spelling out what we can not quite say
Across a family from behind fences
The more things change...

So at the impass, crossroads leading
Nowhere, somewhere, twixt between
This and that and no there, not there
You are not meant to be where
That road leads

Staring off to unknown horizon
Trepidation so oft the victor
And I just can't forget
The projector screen inside my head
That shows me pictures
Memories encapsulated
Of what once was
Or what could be

Somber too, these memories
Or memories that might have been
For sometimes we hold those too
Just as close and dear
The never were
The almost could be
Or sometime would be
If we could sew with ley lines
And make a tapestry
Of a destiny
Of our own choosing

Sometimes we are not who we could be
Or not whom we wish to be
Or other times we are the part
We have chosen to play

Mask is painted
Stage is set
All the pieces upon the board
Could fall like dominos
At a moment of notice

Clear away that board
And play another game
We do not have to always lose

Let us bend the rules in our favor
Let dreamers breathe forth reality

Carpe Diem

Caught up in the echoing serenade
These words from the mirror speak
From the roads where memories made
The paths that we still seek
And still we find from time to time
Tokens that remind us of affection
But in love; no reason nor rhyme
Our hearts left without protection
But in struggling toward that failing light
We reach moments that in brilliance shine
So if the treasure is worth the plight
Then grasp each moment and make it thine

Flowers in Her Hair

She turns her head from you, not wanting them to know

The twinge that comes across your face leaves echo of the show

A subtle hint of entropy that surrounds her since the day

She found you in the shadows, and you took her joy away

I miss the flowers in her hair

I miss the smiles, like she didn’t have a care

I miss the wistful way she’d look upon a day

And I’ve counted every moment

Since all that went away

Tried so hard to understand the storm that writhes within her head

But I have never seen that hell, so I know that it’s no use

And you’re left without the option of forgetting her as dead

When the haunting of her pale eyes are left here to accuse

I miss the flowers in her hair

I miss the smiles, like she didn’t have a care

I miss the wistful way she’d look upon a day

And I’ve counted every moment

Since all that went away

I watch you follow her, to rid your tell tale heart

Cut you off in the bathroom, before you have the chance to start

I’m not accustomed to this way of taking, so I hope I do it well

So that when I’m finally through, you'll wish you were in hell

Bought with Memory

Brought to heights like Icarus
To fall as only Satan knows
To have danced in the courts of Dionysus
And tread where Persephone's garden grows
Light and dark, so oft the same
Another rose, a different name
We pick our cards and play the game
We want the choices but not the blame
We fear the loss just like the gain
Live for the pleasure and the pain



Just don't pretend you never knew
When this dance is finally through
We grab our coats and bid adieu
And it ends like these things often do



And one day when the memories are faded
We've forgotten why we walked away
The celluloid in our minds degraded
All we have then is what may
Or may not have happened had this or that
Become tomorrow and that next day
Found us arm in arm, and all that matt-
ered was the interwining
The rune stones of our own divining
All came back to decisions made
How the sheets turned down in these beds we've made

Tapestry

Sunlight filters through a patchwork roof
From this room I've always felt
Like I can see the world
From the north window winding rivers and streams
That twist and travel behind the hills and the trees
I imagine what creatures may live there
Where the winding paths may lead
But I am in this tower, and I can not go that way

To the west, majestic mountains
Sun drenched evening red
On the crags that stretch on forever
Could I climb those peaks
What would I see from the top
Or on the way up?
But I may never know
For I am in this tower, and I can not go that way

To the east is the sea
Blue with no bottom
An endless receding horizon
Could I sail those seas till I found land?
Could I explore those depths until I
Discovered something new
and I try to stop imagining
Because I am in this tower, and I can not go that way

And to the south are the sands
A bright blue sky over shifting ground
Where I could be lost forever
Find the oasis, and live out my days in paradise
And perhaps some passing caravan would find me
Years after I had passed, and read the journal I had left
And I would live forever
But forever is so far away
I am in this tower, and I can not go that way

Between the windows, stand book cases
That are always full
Of books about these places where I have never been
And I may never be to
For I am in this tower, and I think that I am forced to stay

But here in this tower, I can see it all
And though I have not been, it is still here with me
And in this tower I can learn what I may never see
But is it enough to know, or must we sometimes be?
But I am still in this tower, and from here I can not say

Early one morning I awoke
So restless from my dreams
I looked upon my four windows
To see these familiar things
Unchanged as from the last day
North and West and South and East
Each different in their own way
But it could not bring me peace

A rent in the fabric
Ignorant fabric had been
The backdrop for my scenery
For all I had thought I'd seen

I placed my hands inside the tear
With some fear I pulled it wide
And for the first I beheld
What the tapestry meant to hide

A moving shifting landscape
With a life all of its own
An ocean beyond the hills
And a road dotted with homes
A lake beneath my window
Creatures moving through the trees
And birds flying through air
Flower beds alive with bees

I sat down to collect myself
For I could not believe
Years of what I thought I knew
Such an elegant deceive
A world alive beyond these walls
That I did not know to be
My body shaking, the time had come
To set my spirit free
I ran forth and cast myself into
The water just outside my door
Embracing life and all things new
I'd be held captive here no more

I struggled to the shore
Of lands where I had never been
Over my shoulder, one look back
At where it did begin
I could have left when e're I wanted
I was not ready yet
The lesson of knowing that I don't know
I shall ne'er forget