Cracked (Sonnet for the Hollow Man)

Cracked (Sonnet for the Hollow Man)

Without a fathers love he aspired least
The gritty streets became his guiding hand
Through brittle glass he met the fiery beast
On heavy burdened legs he could not stand
The dragons kiss that licked his cracking lips
And stumbled he, backwards towards the wall
With broken oars, enslaved, he steered his ship
To drumbeats loud that brought his final fall
Through charity of homie's bent on greed
Of repulsive favors they did preside
Down a dark, dingy alley they did lead
This man in tatters with the hollow eyes

With crumpled bills he bought his final piece
He heard the ringing bells, his soul released

copyright 2010 Todd C All Rights Reserved

The Road

The Road

Out on the road is a life void of, the laughter of contented children
and that feeling you get as you ……
watch them in peaceful slumber …
and kiss them goodnight

Out on the road is a cracked door leading to the bone chilling cold
of the bedroom of typhoid Mary
where to enter is to risk it all…
and even to leave physically unscathed..
you are haunted by the unyielding knocking from the bare knuckles on
the persistent hands of conscience

Out on the road is loneliness ..
The ghostly breathing walls of a hotel room which..
collects the secrets of many …
and then secretes them in nightly imagined banter
until your locked, room door, invites you out into the perilous night

Out on the road is the stuff of broken dreams…
(not always your own)

For the loneliness spreads like a slow moving cancer.
Like an operatic voice that shatters the glass
on the brittle reality

Out on the road is nightly debauchery
Leaning on friends filled with misery,
dragging you down into their reality
Loving the company…
Acting hard and tough and hiding the frailty

Out on the road are late nights and even longer days
long past 9 am til you come out of the haze

Working your fingers to the bone ..
but you send ONLY the money home

and you Roam..

and you Roam

and you Roam

Out on the road you get lost along the way
You stare back in silent disgust at the sullen bloodshot eyes ..
and into your all knowing reflection you try to lie
and sometimes all alone in your borrowed bed you even ……..


C alls you never made
       R eality setting in
                                            Y earning loved ones left behind

Out on the road you often Dance with the Devil
but she never lets you lead
she loves to watch you bleed
she merely plants a seed
leaves you wallowing in need

But you never find that Shiny fiddle made of Gold
and in the end the Devil gets your soul

Out on The Road……

Copyright 2010 Todd C All Rights Reserved

Sandman

• 

  
  

  Sandman

  
  

  I'm the crud you rub so hard the moment you awake

  From a night of hell, in sleep you fell

  Horrific dreams that I create..

  
  

  You tried to move but couldn't, your body paralyzed

  Labored breathing, nightmares I'm weaving

  As my REM attacks your eyes

  
  

  You twist and moan to no avail, on your back and pinned to the sheets

  You feel a presence ..Yet unknown

  Your heart pounds in rapid beats

  
  

  This world you're trapped in feels different,  with an evil air of doom

  and this pitch black darkness seems,  never ending

  Inside the Sandman's tomb

  
  I place my cold, clammy fingers, tightly around your neck

  as you wriggle and moan so helpless and alone

  A night you'll not soon forget

  
  

  I love to watch you clench your jaws and struggle to break free

  It fills me with such satisfaction

  One might even call it Glee

  
  

  I'm the Evil eye paste that keeps you stranded in the dark..

  I seal your lids from any light

  For my imagery is stark

  
  

  I'm that foreboding feeling,  as I pull you to sleep against your will

  As you fight to stay awake

  but feel a spine tingling chill

  
  

  So try to resist, I love to watch it, stay awake if you can

  But I always leave my calling card,

  your eyes packed full of sand

  
  

  
  

  Copyright 2010 Todd C All Rights Reserved

Lost Highway

Lost Highway

The road twists and turns, pulling me to a means with no end
The lines blur my reality, as the back slappers drone on, in empty echo
The lips move in gibberish from hollow eyed strangers eager to draw in this scene
As bad wheels, turn in aggressive revolutions, trying to keep up
The bearings squeal, in dry grind
As the breaks overheat ….
unable to yield ….
I accelerate... to swerve the impending crash
The near miss leaving me
Exhilarated ….!
There is no sense in false security
Where lies, flow down a river whose banks are littered with empty …
shot glass wisdom...
promising eternal loyalty with  glassy eyed pleading
always the same......
 “hey...Is it my turn ?”
The mirror isn't for reflecting
for your reflection goes unrecognized
lines blur the reality
like zebra stripes in some psychotic circus
The greatest show on earth !

But it's all a sell out!
So you move up

Street Corner barkers, all to happy to let you take a peak,
extol its virtues in symbiotic raving!
There is no frugality in jonesing,
just the all consuming drive to get you more
Peeling back the green layers of your dark eroding soul
where you gag down the lies through the devils glass!
your neural centers....
bristle in accelerated euphoria,
bordering grand mal seizure
the waft of ether intoxicating …..
the skank in the corner
alluring...
You take in the accolades like a politician garnering votes
All, there for the crumbs
Fooled by an ecstasy  as everlasting as a cameras flash …..
But the lens is covered ….
The swirl of dreams no more than a bursting bubble
The tears shed for you are many as you worm your way down....so low
Denial ... the alibi that fools, even you
You sing the suckers song.... “I'll stop tomorrow “
There is no more outpouring of internalized tears like confession
where in that moment.....!
You remove the keys from the ignition and exit the fast lane,
turning your back from the heap on the side of the road of,

The Lost Highway



Copyright 2009 Todd C All Rights Reserved

The Extinguished Flame

The Extinguished Flame

Our candle burned brightly once

It swirled and danced to our once united rhythm, bathing us in times of sensual passion

and quiet evenings of just

holding on ….

Its flickering movements swirled to the nuance of our glistening skin, as we stroked each others souls

in a unity of oneness.....

and admiration...

All our senses and spine tingling pleasures replete

No love , more complete

Seasons change as the rivers run dry , like the trails of molten wax,

our flame more susceptible to the swirling winds, as the curtains billowed

We somehow always managed rekindling

but the wick became shorter ….

Sweet music , once so dramatically reverberating and yet …

so immersed in whispered echo ….,

hushed , like fingers upon quivering lips …,

now skipped bluntly across the scratched vinyl

Fires once...now a flicker

I watched in stoic numbness the silent teardrop fall …

Slowly, it dropped in frozen time lapse as memories and desires and yes

even love …...

crashed against the once pooled wax

spilling over the sides of our candle in an avalanche of letdowns , ..mistrust...and regret

I blinked ….

and in that second ….

one silent tear, so transparent …...replaced

The Extinguished Flame

Copyright 2009 Todd C All Rights Reserved

What If....(the Apocalypse)

What if you knew it was coming

would you hang your head and cry

Would you face this storm with courage

and just smile and wave goodbye

What if you had a day , a week,

would you finally open your heart

Would you swallow your pride and anger

before this world is torn apart

What if your last memory,

was one of heartfelt pain

Would you hold your children tightly

and let your compassion flow like rain

What if you knew you would make it

but in the process you'd be alone

Would you plunge your own heart deeply

with a blade just freshly honed

What if it meant that all the hate

would burn away like dust

Would you relish this infernal cleansing

seeking shelter with the just

What if you had to decide ones fate

could you really make that choice

Could you leave behind a loved one

without heartache in your voice

What if this happens in an hour

and as you feel the instant heat

Will your last thought be satisfying

from a life you lived complete

Copyright 2008 Todd C all rights reserved!