Oct. 11, 1996

Shaken awake out of a deep slumber
Eyes open to an old world made new
Poised to plunge now
Into life's rich colors
To lick up life's sweet pearls as dew

Sometimes we fall into the error
Of closing our eyes to friends
Of closing our hearts to precious help
Which their arm readily extends

Sometimes we become the source of
numbing sorrow, stinging pain
To the ones who are most precious
But in all of our wretched self-centeredness
We continue to inflict this torture
Perhaps in ignorance
Perhaps with ill intent

But this hardness we have perpetuated
Forcing all to down bitter pills
In the end will only fall back
Into our own belly to the brim to fill

Hard words crowded into my mind
Then spewed out my mouth
Spilled into the air
And stabbed out her heart

Desolate love only managed then
To grace this skeletal soul
From a once brimming cup
of passion and care
From the one, my only lighted abode

Forthwith then she left me
To my own black hearted affairs
To work my poison devices
To drink this black souled despair

Yet in her hasty leaving
My stained mind sat in blink
And raged and raged against itself
Against its fetid stink

I'm facing up now to the reflection
Cast by my shadowy soul
This grim dissatisfaction now seized
With a new determined fledgling hope - T.R.A. 1996