Halloween
I see in a mirror these macabre eyes
My face grown as a monster's mask:
sharp teeth, frazzled hair, maniacal look of deadly rampage
Oh, save me from what is inside of me
Defective reflection from far away
Monster in the mirror say I am fairest of them all
Despair of me no more, as the hair grows wildly, long on human skin
Werewolf song I commence under full moon light
Sharpened fangs ready to bite: Trick or Treat
Halloween, and another lousy Tootsie Roll to eat

Friend
I awoke with no sense of place,
no sense of wonder
I desperately tried to find solace in a returning sleep,
but a dreamless morning was no friend
Confused, a somnambulist enemy I became: of myself,
of this place, of this wonderless world

Thursday Think Tank Prompt--Poets United

Long Walk
After the rain I walk on old train tracks
the air is damp, my breath is deep
cedars glisten in the gray sky
Along these tracks I feel no fear
the old trains stopped long ago

The Coast
Two A.M.
A last saloon nearly closed
On a curb a woman sits, head in her hands
Softly she says:
My boy is on the coast,
lost to drugs,
A bartender turns away and locks the saloon doors
The glass shakes against the wind

SC: I wrote these two poems a number of weeks ago. I made a couple of revisions to the second poem, and it fits the theme.

Arms
I'll stand in the shadow of bright lights
Move my hands, swing my arms, sing a song as loud as I can
I'm free, hidden behind this summer brightness
But the darkness ebbs slowly
Then autumn comes
I'll Fall till I sing once more, rise up I will
Freedom keeps time to these swinging arms

Lament
I was bad once, long ago
In a way I wont say
Just that once badness was my name
People were hurt, really one woman
Her heart got broke like a country song
They say being bad is a young man's game, even played once
But thinking of her is an older man's lament

Awake
I awake into darkness
The lamp's light shuddering my reluctant eye
Like a rusted man, joints tired, I dress in worker's clothes
My belly only full with toasted bread I walk into the chill of blackness,
A courage rises as a hard step
But by midday the fight is gone, my dreams returning to a bed's desire

Young
Years ago, when i was young,
i had a big lazy grin
It was fun, dreaming, smoking weed in the park
i hear the laughter sometimes of my old friends
Talking like a summer breeze, when time will come, when we are men
lovers of life, of women, of ourselves with lazy grin
Now I am old,
When I see these youth, I warn them to waste know years,
don't be like me, but mostly I wish i were them

What?
What do I need to do?
Slam shut the poem?
Lock it tightly so no verse escapes into me?
Is there purpose to fight such things?
Let it be what it is, perhaps
the words as the answer, the question revealed as a strange vastness

Lines
There's a highway coursing through my veins
It drives me crazy on mad days, I ride too fast; out of control
The peace inside is the slowing down,
The stopping gentle in between broken lines
A valley in the night is where I'll hide
Along a soft shoulder I'll step aside

The Walk
I waited in a hospital waiting room
A wounded man walked by
He ambled with a cane, his overcoat was tattered, torn on the sleeves
There was no grimace in his face, nor pain in his eyes
He walked in pride, I supposed
I waited some more and went home, my watching people done for the day

The Dig
I put my back into my work
A shovel dug difficult into the frosty earth
Soon the winter will come, the boss says
The work will be done, the back will rest
The spring will warm my skin, my fresh hands will hurt again

Rain
Late at night, the window pulled down
I drove my father's car
October wind was cool on that country road,
the leaves had fallen, a young hand brushes autumn rain
Bruce Springsteen was on, like a heart alone: I'm on Fire
I sang and thundered some more, a father's son at home

The Hope
If your hand was untied
And I was like you, we'd be lovers, perhaps
Maybe married in the glory of our single days
All in hope are your dancing eyes, like untied hands
Follow us as we slip away