Ghosts

oh! welcome phantoms
ghosts which haunt our memory
rest not fair spirits

A Memory of the Forum

I wandered in the storm
among ancient stones
set in antiquity
to the glory of Saturn
for all eternity,
this temple of golden hope
now but broken masonry
haunted by sacrifice
lost to the rain

Coral

he built his worlds
on the remains of memory
landscaped layers
from discarded thoughts
that lived too short a day
or slept a night too long.

The Cabin Burned

a cabin burned
this retreat of memories
and thoughts stored away
for a rainy day
flames red and gold
of passions old
..and new,
now irretrievable ash
intangible shadows
smoke cast to the winds of age.

Memory

not with words can I impress
dare declare the hopelessness
that I could seek to find to truth
fair narrative upon my youth
nor to those days long dead and gone
would I decry in old man’s song
for that time though brief, was gold
thus in my poor verse ’tis cheaply sold.

Memory

watercolour days
painted on fragile vellum
fade in memory

Like Breath (rewritten)

like breath
on a broken mirror
memories begin to fade
as soon as born
leaving behind just
shattered reflections
of what they once were
or could have been.

Memory

once I walked with elephants
doleful and forlorn
but elephants all the same
we smiled and acted like monkeys
for the cameras
the elephants, not so much

I remember each step
each skip behind acrobats
tall men in hats
and bedraggled clowns
but I always go back
to the elephants’ parade
do they remember me?

Untitled

she threw up paper petals
which caught fire in the rain
and each rose to the heavens
as prayers upon a flame
where each became a tiny star
upon firmament wide
that like her evocations
burned brightly ‘fore they died

Memory

Memory
’tis but the voice of death
urging you toward him
in gentle whispers.
He speaks so softly
and in pastel hues
lest we recognise
his words for what they are.