listless in love
and youre falling asleep
when will you return back to me
back to me

love like you care
and then you look like you do
when will you return back to me
back to me

living a lie 
lean into death 
shifty little fly
now caught against the web

but I want to say that
youve my heart
that youre still bloody with it
youre still bloody

your love it
went straight for the jugular
and im still bloody from it
im still bloody

living a lie 
lean into death 
shifty little fly
now tight against the web

you put me in you
put me in
you put me in you
put me in

you.


you put me in

Cornered, Drawn & Quartered

Make a move to pull away 
Inside the 
Velvet hood 
Of purple night as it begins 
To shrug
Above then over 
Shoulders of the mountain 
Down the throat
Into the valley
Choking past approaching swollen
Wheat filled fields
Before the locusts. 

They come
Float the river to the belly.

Resolved 
To follow through high crop or fallow.

A slight of hand
Pulls back
The mask of dawn.

Lights' dance to calm
Some sullen lake
In mourning.

All closing gaps and 
Narrow passageways
Full day cracking knuckles
Aligns a spine 
What made from stone and branches
Rest turns to concession
Four horses line a covered glade
Muzzles low in understanding
Move to pull away.


Cornered, Drawn, And Quartered - First Draft

I see rain
Approaching from the eastern tree line.
Feeling 
more unsure than apprehensive.

I see you.
You seem okay.

Merriman Valley, 
Just above the Cuyahoga.
My youth 
Sank into the riverbed.

1963:
shots rang out and into every-
Body. 
With our TV still bleeding colors,

My family 
Moved to Cincinnati.

I met you.
You seemed okay.

That next summer took my mother.
Another summer five years later
Took your dad.

I remember you with Mary, copping 	
Smokes and laughing, the winter 		
You left for the corps.

On the Ohio I stood alone and promised
I’d be back to visit, one of many that
Must have come before.	 

Time came.
Buried me.
And even still
I am who we were.

I see you
Approaching from the eastern tree line.
Feeling 
More unsure than apprehensive.

I feel rain.
It seems okay.

I See Rain

And I really put it out there
My neck against a wooden block
Black blood blank stare aware
Of the people all gathered to end

My life in I’ve stolen and butchered 
Beaten been beat until my eyes they heard
You against the wall with a man never mentioned
My hands took no pleasure
Squeezed as you squirmed

Outstretched bound black masked man hand on the lever
Bite my tongue the sweet taste sours
Images flood back to me
You in your torso ripped brown patent leather 
Him eyes so wide reflecting my blackest impulses

And I still taste your hair in my mouth
See your quivering lips pout then quietly part
That silence then echoes my silence now
As you smile from heaven while I blacken in hell.


Blackened In Hell

-Emily Hopeful Doe-

Emily Hopeful. Emily Hopeful Doe. 

Emily lets go of her hold and the end of the rope falls. 
All her life’s love stories folding
Out of view of her eyes.

Wondering what’s outside of the frame
She recites her name over and over.

Emily let go of her hold and the end of the rope fell. 

Emily Hopeful. Emily Hopeful Doe. 

Had she ever looked beyond…			
She curses, and rolls.
Her back to fold the grass.

Emily, three sheets to the wind as the end of the day comes.

Wondering where the light goes.
Passing her glass through a candle
Over and over.

Emily, three sheets to the wind and the end of the day came.

With every eve lies tomorrow.
Emily Hopeful cries.

Desperate she paws at her mirror.
Lies on the other side.

Words she’d held true decorating  
A love blind tired mind.

Fall to the dense underbelly,
Among all she’d dug to hide.

Emily Hopeful Doe.
Her mom would sing to her.

Reciting her name to remind her
Of her youth when she’d grown.

A young Emily in the garden
And, Oh!, the joy she’d breathed.

Emily hopes to…..
Emily’s doubtful though.


Emily Hopeful Doe

Demos

Bass_Nonsense_RV

Cold blood, New start

She waits for her man, In the 
Silence of the double standard
A small stifle, then a steady hand
As she takes it out

A six shot copper plated 
Bullet holding double action  
Standard cocked and ready
And then she takes him out.

Oh the greatest tales of love
In all the greatest tragedies
Hear tell, not so, so wrong

Oh his body slumps against
The marble mantle shudders slightly
Her life resounds in death.

She moves beside herself, from the
Doorway to the kitchenette
Red lipstick on the crystal stemware
Red on the wall

A humming from the ice cube making
Stainless steel refrigerator 
Steels her racing heart       
Cold blood, new start

Cold Blood, New Start

Empty Corridors / A Window Filled With Light
				
Climb in
Slumbering 
Around the bend

The larger insects bite deep				
While you dream of you deep asleep
The bloody roots of your lost teeth

Drowning
Desolate
You’ve swum from me

All gives way
The shadows reappear
Then rearrange

Stretching down 
The empty corridors
Come back to me

Comfort me
Running towards
A window filled with light

~I hope I didn’t wake you my pet
  I’ve just come back from an awful place
  Honey, it’s too early for worry 
  close your eyes get some rest~
 
Break through
We’re falling now
Ad infinitum  

We separate and our others
Separate and their others 
Kill each other off		 
  
Not resigning to be lost
A desperate want to reunite
So crawl kick scrape bite  
Pull yourself to waking life

~You might be playful my pet but its
  Painfully clear, see
  You are the light through the window
  I’m empty corridors

  Honey, you wordy old windbag
  Now don’t take your eyes off from mine
  We’ll lay as one while those dreams come undone
  You are the light of me~


Empty Corridors / A Window Filled With Light

Bury Your Dead, Arizona.

Laura cries with indecision.
Surrounded by the swelling sand,
She keeps her eyes,
Along the freight line.

While Mary keeps her front porch light on.
For weary souls the sand blows in.
She, always a room,
To lay their feet.

In…
Bury Your Dead, Arizona.

Laura pinches off those tears.
Her eyes still closed, imagines ends.
A shallow grave 
To yield a resurrection.

While Mary tilts her head to find
The ceiling and the rooms above;
Empty as the bugs and dust alone in openness.

Alone in…
Bury Your Dead, Arizona. 


Stoydja