Darkness settles in

Like the clang

Of the gallows’ bell

Judgmental

Discordant

And irrefutable

A time when

All alone

Self-incrimination

And reproach

Wander freely

Through my mind

When failures

Seem insurmountable

And flaws

Become ravenous

Caged animals

I sit beside

And the little

Inner voice

You reinforce

By telling me

I have

I will

And I do

Is so timid

Cowering between these

Self-created and

Shrieking accusations

As to go almost

Unnoticed and

Most certainly

Ignored

When sleep

Remains at bay

And whiskey

Provides no

Adequate escape

When it seems

Only suicide

Can stem the tide

There is yet one thing

One distant light

I wish I may

I wish I might…

At the dawn of life

When the first creatures

Crawled from the proverbial

Primordial ooze

Evolution was busy

Watching its wondrous

Beautiful new creation

Take trial and error

Stabs at survival

These hand-crafted

Chosen firsts

Had everything

All the best

Evolution could offer

Its hopes and dreams

Carefully assembled

From the best ingredients

They practically glistened

Packed full to the top

With the need and tools

To survive and adapt

Change and grow

Build and achieve

To become their creator’s

Penultimate vision

Meanwhile…

At the unfashionable

End of the ooze

In the cesspools

And waste dumps

Where the leftovers

The garbage

And the undesirable

Muck of creation

Is dumped

Out of sight

Out of mind

The sickly medium

Of undesirability

Is formed

Its lurking potential

Unknown

And unannounced

In this filth

Life of another kind

Gurgles away

Slowly and hidden

Stealthy

Evolution

Happily brewing

His chosen ones

Drunk on success

Is contentedly unaware

Here life is lumpy

Disfigured

Misaligned

And inappropriate

It twitched and jiggled

Limped and loped

It cavorted

Undesirably

Without design or reason

Without purpose

Without a righteous hand

To give it shape

And guidance

And love

Yet it grew

None the less

And while Evolution watched

His beautiful beings

Emerge and blossom

And take their first

Tentative steps

On this pristine

New world

A dozen or so

Misshapen figures

From the muck

Climbed aboard

Life’s short bus

And made their

Daring, dashing escape

To leave their mark

Their stain

And their own

Special blend

Within the mixture

Of life to come

On this planet

Unforeseen

Unwanted

Unplanned

Unscheduled

And relentless

You are my penne

My ziti

My love rigatoni

Entwine me

In your spaghetti

Let me peek through

Tubetti, into your world

My fingers caress

Your eliche curles

As we snuggle together

Like gemelli

Warm and clinging

Like twins of the heart

Orecchiette so dainty

A nose like lumache

Lips of lumaconi

Blowing cochiglie kisses

As I return anelli

Of my own

Capelli di angelo

You are the source

The very angel herself

In streams

Of tagliarini

Or tagliatelle

You float down to my side

Bucatini, though so far

From basic

A fettuccine enmeshment

Comfortable

And satisfying

You are the farfalle

That makes my macaroni

Less ordinary

Let me add you

To fusilli

And make of you

A dish so sweet

Let me caress

Your vermicelli skin

As I cover you

And fold you

Into the loving

Ingredients

Of my embrace

My fine little

Al dente

Italian girl 

A once proud Norse ship,

The Gunnlod’s Mead,

Now sailed in disrepair.

Her damaged masts and tattered sails

Dejected in the gloomy breeze,

The rotting hull and shattered keel

Bashed too many times

Against the irony,

The reef offshore

That Hope’s Last Wellspring

Had in store.

A cruel misnomer

That cried, “Try, try again”,

“Just keep the faith”,

Providing no prize

For the attempt

But punishment

For the crime.

The albatross that led the way

Abandoned this ship long ago.

The gulls remain and wait

To pick at the inevitable,

The meal served up

By its demise

Upon fate’s dinner plate.

The mermaids and the succubus

No longer need their lure,

Nor call out seductively;

Lounging patiently

On relentless waves.

They are confident

They’ll get their prey

Later in the day.

The lost crew,

Marionettes with cut strings

Heaped on the parquet.

A dance with the listless

Swaying to the rhythm of the sea;

The maligned, discordant

Symphony of Failure

Creaking eerily

From taught, distorted rigging.

All vitality long sloughed away,

Like Kvasir’s blood

By the always advancing,

Always encroaching tide

Of frustration

And fate.

Thus the will is crushed.

The struggle grows weaker;

Attempts to overcome

Fewer and further apart.

Desire, trust and faith

Are dashed upon the rocks

And life becomes

A long, drawn-out

Savage shipwreck.

The once fierce hearts

Drift to and fro

In the sea’s foamy surf

Eroding with indifference,

Degrading into entropy,

At last arriving,

Sinking effortlessly

Into the Harbor of Apathy

Alongside their picked-clean bones

And ruined ship.

Their lives and dreams

Condemned to the deep

By eternal hope.

It is a ravenous beast

Racing up my spine

Encroaching ever further

On my inner sanctum

My peace of mind

The pieces of my mind

Where courage and faith

Now shrink back

Eroding into self-laid lies

Into bitter cobblestones

That pave the road of fear

It is the little voice

That howls with madness

Telling me I can’t

I never really could

Why even bother

It will end up just the same

It is a hundred different ways to say

Don’t even try

Just give up and

Just give in

Have a seat in the mire

Called apathy and self loathing

We’ll swim with the suicidal

Where the water is warm

It will be just fine

You pathetic

Wretched

Little boy

It is a deadly dialogue

An inner sickness

A laughing twisted rant

Deftly obscuring

God’s embrace

It breeds deceit

Constricts courage

Destroys hope

Crushes dreams

And corrupts faith

The devil’s tongue

That lives and breaths

Inside my very skull

You make me sick

You’re disgusting

Hopeless

Useless

You’re nothing

A waste

Just a… vile reflection

In the mirror

So… quit

Just quit

It will all be over soon

Just quit

After all…

You never really tried, did you