we are dust and shadow
Ethereal ghosts
Moving in life’s undertow
Within temporary hosts
Doomed to live for eternity
Yet to die and be reborn
Lost in our self pity
Tortured and forlornWe are forced to roam
Through the realms of man
Outcasts from our natural home
The Gods cursed our clan
Once Angel born and pure of heart
Now ancient and laid so low
We questioned the Gods and they tore us apart
Leaving just dust and shadow
She dances as the moonlight
Weaves silver through her hair
A princess in the realm of night
O would she this heart ensnare!
Her hair shimmers like dark water
Her eyes shine with an inner light
She is her father’s daughter
And her father rules the night
———-
When I close my eyes I see her srill
Her dreams broken and undone
The night holds her against her will
She longs to feel the sun
The shadows follow her everywhere
Protection that holds her tight
Forbidden to leave her fathers care
She is bound to the endless night
———
Oh how I loved her, how I cared!
Yet this love I did betray
Her need of darkness was not shared
I yearned for the light of day
I returned to the land of the living
Intending to return hastily
But Her father was unforgiving
And The night was lost to me
———
So I wasted under the blazing sun
Tormented by the shadows it threw
I took to searching every one
For a glimpse of a face that once I knew
But as I neared the shadows faded away
Leaving me lonely with my regrets
In anger I cursed the light of the day
In a place where the sun never sets
———
When I close my eyes I can see her dance
Feel her hand slip into mine
A waking dream of a forbidden romance
From another place or time
I long for the day when my beating heart stills
And the dark shadows come alive
We will dance together on moonlit hills
Where the sun will never rise
He returned to gaze on the mountains high
Snow tipped peaks that scraped the sky
Beautiful yet deadly in their majesty
Uncaring of the passing humanity
Who in the mountains shadow live and die
some in this shadow still must lie
And some have carried pain from the past
Return to face their pain at lastReplay the memories from a childhood day
When life or death was a game to play
But two climbed that mountain wall
One returned, one not at all
One always lost, one never found
Somewhere on that frosty ground
Should mournful weary souls decry
There still his white bones must lie
Entrapped by wild flowers roots and stem
Where eagles sing his requiemHe gazed upon that mountain high
Where all forbidden secrets lie
Of the two, he was the truly lost
Left behind but at what cost
In his dreams memories abound
And what was lost cries to be found
He hears the call with weeping eyes
The child he once was replies
He knew he would climb the mountain again
Where Eagles still sing a requiem
No matter how much we want to pretend
That our lives are uniquely bright
But beginnings give birth to an end
And we all must face the night
Riches and armies cannot prevent
That last inevitable fall
Whether noble or evil in intent
We will all heed that call
Those with honour will step into light
Accepting judgment without debate
Those steeped in sin will scream and fight
Unable to face their fate
Though man himself will surely die
His ideals and dreams survive
So though he in his mortal grave must lie
The legacy he leaves will thrive
A child of my times, restless and seeking
A future path to lead me to truth
To listen to tutors endlessly speaking
Dismissing their wisdom with the hauteur of youth
Sitting exams with low expectations
Winging those tests on a wing and a prayer
Outside the window she was picking carnations
That’s when I first began to care
For the girl
For the girl with the long dark hairA bloody war for reasons no one understands
But for people like me the bloodstains were real
Politicians in silk gloves to hide the blood on their hands
Profiting on the dreams that they steal
Death begat ghosts and the ghosts they were abundant
Until I could see them just about everywhere
So they locked me away making my dreams redundant
Dreams that I wanted to share
To the girl
To the girl with the long dark hairNow I’m old and lonely looking out at a winters scene
But turning over my memories like pages in a book
Building a story of a life that could have been
If I could have avoided the paths that I took
I mourn the loss of youths possibilities
Shadows surround me and lay my life bare
And I worry about the probabilities
Would life have been fair
To the girl
To the girl with the long dark hair
Save that dream, don’t let it go
Dreams are all we have, you know
Life is just what we do between
Those precious moments when we dreamSavour the taste of what you need
Grow it from a tiny seed
Hope blooms with such tender care
Spreads its magic everywhereWith hope and a desire you can create
A dream that you can propagate
So spread the magic for all to see
So your dreams become your reality
He stood looking down on the village so far below
Marvelling at its normality, quintessential peace
Above him the hilltop, peaked with a dusting of snow
Reassuringly auspicious, nature’s showpieceSoon, he knew, the tourists and skiers would return
The village would be overrun, garish ski coats and backpacks
Cheerless smiles from those who fail to discern
The mountain’s imperviousness to their annual attacksHe wondered if any ever truly saw the wonder
Of the moon riding high on a cold frosty night
Above the mountain in all it’s cold splendour
The ice sparkling in response to the caress of its lightIt was, he thought, a place for angels and seraphim
Not for those who have no ability to see
A truth greater than the mountains that stood all around him
But hidden away in natures simplistic beauty
What lies ahead is not easy to predict
Life’s not that easy to know
It doesn’t matter what path that you’d picked
It never goes where you want it to go
You confidently march into your dreams
Sure of the road that you take
But the future never what it seems
And your dreams turn out to be fake
And the road you assumed would be a highway
Turns out to be closed for repair
And the dreams in the end to your dismay
Turned out just another nightmareYou pick yourself up and set your sight
On something less than you desired
In the hope that this time all will go right
But wind up less than inspired
You find you’ve traded your dreams for an armchair
Your adventures come out of a book
The futures still somewhere out there
But now you can’t be bothered to look
So don’t waste your time searching for paradise
Your not going to find it today
I’ve glimpsed it in dreams maybe once or twice
But reality soon wipes it away.
I look through my telescope at the galaxy
I wonder who out there is looking at me
But light travels towards me finding its way
From stars long ago into the now that’s today
So I’m looking at memories of millennia that’s cast
My telescope into a time machine seeing the past
So my observers not born yet and those that I’d see
Have already passed into their own history…
His eyes that once were warm with laughter
Now bitter and full of hate
Unable to process what comes after
To wrestle with his fate
His life now an endless hurricane
Of denial and despair
Consumed by his guilt and pain
He turns around and she’s there…
He reaches out to hold her
Calling out her name
A sudden clash of thunder
A flash of lightening came
And in that sudden illumination
Her face a grinning skull
His hopes final annihilation
Succumbing to deaths pull
She reached her arms around him
Pulled him to her breast
Her arm but a skeletal limb
Thrust inside his chest
She wrapped her fingers around his heart
Tore it through his skin
His horror peaked then fell apart
As she sucked his soul within
So beware one and all of you
For that girl who walks the storm
She is the evil that lies with you
Death in skeletal form
If the thunder you can hear
And the lightening blinds your eyes
Run from the things you most fear
For death lies in disguise…