Into the limbo of neither night nor day

he was led away into a silence

broken only by the crackling

branches of leafless trees

whose fingers webbed and frozen

rattled in derision

the doors and sightless windows

from which all eyes inviolate

had watched his shame.

It’s said he was a normal child -

prankful - all boyhood joy

until his father’s drunken rage

pushed him down a sewer

headfirst, submerged.

His father died too late.

His mother lived to wish him dead

lamenting the cross she bore.

He walked the streets

alone, crouching for hours

clutching his neck

as if to strangle the demons

prowling the unlit corners

of his tortured mind.

Spied upon and ridiculed

trapped eyes aglow with pain

skin stretched taut over cheeks

hollowed deep in purpling veins.

His arms would spin

and spinning they would run

in frightened glee.

"Damn you," he would cry -

"God, oh God, get away from me!"

He broke one early dawn

routing the "innocents’"pious sleep.

Bony branches clacqued applause

at the shrieks his soul disgorged.

His mother sobbed, "Come in, come in."

"I’m in heaven ," he cried

"Fuck you all!"

He waited then,

so calm and still he waited.

Until the flashing lights

reflected in his eyes

and stealthy figures moved to exorcise.

The vacant face described a lie.

He’d flown

Behind the prism

Of his screaming eyes.

STEPS rev.10/96

Boundless
are the steps
I’ve climbed
both going up
and going down.
Countless formations-
brick, concrete, dirt,
crushed stone.
Some so high
and endless
I feared
to reach the top.
Some so low
and shallow
I ran
all the way
both up
and down.
Tripping
over cracks.
Leaping
over crevices
where lichen
grew alive
like untrammeled
ideas.
I felt the echo
as my feet
pounded surfaces
to the tempo
of my heart
expanding
flower- like
to expose
tendrils of
tuning forks
vibrating
at attention
to listen
to absorb
to harvest sounds
for memories sake.