Nature's Death

I see mountains across the valley close
Snow kisses gently their triangle peaks.
Blanket clouds warm their chilly tips;
Hiding the frozen life below.

Shades of gray both light and dark;
Soften the stark and rugged scene.
Blues reflect through icy shards
The lifeless glacial world beneath.

          -Terr_us, Copyright 1996

LOVE AT THE LAKE

The breeze is gently rustling in the trees, and the loons are calling on the lake,
Through the kitchen window, I can smell the apple pie she's started to bake.
The air is clean, and freshly washed from the afternoon rain,
I can see her in the window, smiling at me, and there goes my heart again.
I'm lucky, I guess, that she still loves me, though twenty years have come and gone,
I'm glad she could love this common man, and still...she turns me on.
With the patch of flour on her cheek, and dark hair now streaked with gray,
She looks as good to me as when we were first wed, and that seems like only yesterday.
Tonight, I'll talk her into a swim, while the warm summer wind blows,
And tonight, I'll fall in love all over again, when she slowly removes her clothes.
We'll make love at the lake, in the moonlight, to the calling of the loons.
We'll walk hand in hand, back home to sample the pie she baked this afternoon.
Later, as I hold her, and watch her drift off into peaceful sleep,
I'll say a thankful prayer to God, for our love, that is so warm and deep.

Rozzman

FBP,Inc

copyright 2000

The Last 3 Lines

These last 3 lines a I read them again
Seems to me that you closed the door on a friend
After long nights of laughter and all our sharing
You could throw out such lines, not even caring.
So tonight as the moon hovers so bright and so full
I head to the beach, but tonight it’s so cruel
Walking the same path and hoping you’d come
But knowing in my heart that all is undone.
These last 3 lines that you gave to me
As I read them again, the tears flowing free
Alone on the beach, in my mind, in my part
The tears won’t stop flowing; you’ve broken my heart.
Reaching the waters edge, its so dark and so cold
But it does not keep me from this pain I do hold
I can feel the waves crashing and the wind in my hair
As I wander in deeper, deeper into despair.
As the waves take me down for the very last time
I prayed for one moment that my pain would not climb
With a rush of the sea and the howl of the wind
My body washed back to the shore once again.
Back alone on the beach all alone and so cold
A faceless young man came along, I am told
He stopped for a moment to lay on my chest
A small piece of paper…3 lines, were his best.

“He hears the waves, but does not hear her
He knows where his heart belongs
He turns, not looking back.”

-NightCry- 8/17/2000 1:16am

Copyright

For So Long Have i Loved You

Initials found carved in the bark of the twisted tree;
Played upon the saddened heart and the mind of she.
Turning back the pages when she was twenty-four;
Living on her parents' farm in a time of war.

"For so long have i loved you," he told her 'neath this tree;
"And i would be the happiest man, if you would marry me!
i'll hurry back, i promise," and he then gave her a ring;
Kissed her and ran off to fight, while she stood there crying.

Her memories turn like a page, alas, five years have fled;
And she had cried e'ery night fearing he was dead,
But late one afternoon, while resting 'neath that tree;
A voice had called out softly, familiar to she.

"For so long have i loved you," he told her as she cried;
"War had the pleasure of parting us, but our love can't be denied,
For your unwavering devotion, my dearest, kept me well;
Safe within your heart where darkness dare not dwell."

Wed they were beneath that tree -- now, many years have flown;
Their children had all married, and their grand-kids also grown,
Greying years had claimed them, as they sat beneath that tree;
"For so long have i loved you," he said quietly to she.

"My time is now, my darling wife, an appointment i must keep;
i promised i'd ne'er leave you again, but i be in need of sleep,
May i rest my head upon your chest? Your heart i long to hear;
For in your heart i shall reside and with you, i'll be near."

That had been twelve years ago, she sadly did recall;
Tracing the heart he carved for her, that first time in the Fall,
"For so long have i loved you," she confessed as she cried;
"Your hand, my love, i long to hold," then sat down to rest and died.

c.2000 Keyley MF Hobbes

Teresa M. Engelking

Copyright 1999

My Struggle Towards Paradise

I sit here thinking to myself
Of days that were once so fine
Now my life sits upon a shelf
Watching others move toward the finish line

I have fallen behind in this race
With pain I inch along
I try not to show it in my face
Is my longing for endurance so wrong

I would love to run once more
Instead I have to painfully creep
My body often feels so sore
I just sit here and quietly weep

One day I hope to see paradise
Real soon I believe I will
And without pain it will be so nice
Perfect health will be such a thrill

Copyright 02/14/2000
David M. DuBurk

SISTER

As I impatiently stood back, waiting for you to see,
Believing one glorious day, In His love you would be.
Hopelessly trying to push, the God that I know,
onto your heaving shoulders, thus, the tears did flow.

Knowing not how to help, I humbly prayed,
distressing to support, yet only dissarrayed.
Having yet to incur, the glorious Holy Ghost,
Forthcoming into you, sights you would boast.

By chance you did see, a baptism of a friend,
Dunking of body, mind, and soul, heartfelt, He did send,
Finally happiness, for me to recieve your call,
Out of my eyes, the tears did fall.

Emotions of pride, was all I could press,
Into the phone, oh so glad you finally confess.
Now having this knowledge, that seeing is believing,
I hope you keep close to your heart, that He is not leaving.

~Jennifer R. Haegele
Copyright 2000

Played The Game

I sit here in this house of bars
the hours go by so slow
I think about the "why" I'm here
and the easy way out to go
This loud room with all its noise
a hundred voices heard so clear
I tell myself how lucky I am
doin’ days and not a year
When I'm standin’ in the line
with the other ninety-nine
the look I see’s on every face
color doesn't matter, neither does race
We all tell our different stories
but still they're all the same
in the end we're here to pay the price
because we lost the game
But, I'm the one who put me here
there's no one else to blame
the hand I've dealt myself is misery
the bed I sleep on is my shame
I know that when I leave this place
I'll hold my freedom in my embrace
and leave behind what I always thought
that when I played the game I'd never get caught

Copyright 1998

Regina Fullbright

   Beyond the light

                                                                                           by Albi

                                                                                     Copyright 2000

He'd needed this break,
picnicking and swimming,
from the tension of his first paying job
since college.
And he was smitten by her,
no doubt.

The piney scenes she'd painted with her acrylics
on the toes of his sneakers.
Her ready and energetic laugh.

He glided the sleek car
through the warm night.
She leaned across the gap between the bucket seats,
and played with his ear lobe.
Somewhere she started to talk,
but he was so into the curves
swelling out of the dark,
he hadn't heard the words
except as background.

As they started to descend a long hill,
she bluntly asked,
"Do you feel it?"

"What?"
he finally said
in the tone of someone interrupted
from another conversation.

"That deep empty feeling...
you know...
like you're nothing.
Everything is nothing?"

He considered the alien words
that hung vibrating above the throb of the engine,
alien from who he was now.
He eased on the brakes,
controlling all that metal,
and their bodies,
to stop at the traffic light.

"No," he said, "I can't say I ever felt that."
while peering at her in the soft red light.

"Really," she said plainly.

"No, I haven't" he gazed at her as long as he could,
then had to shrug,
and looked up to see the light turn green.

Her curls and heavy head fell into the crook of his elbow
as he stepped on the gas.

Hurtling into the night,
he wondered if he should have lied.
Her warm fingers
at the end of her upper arm
gripped his forearm
as he gripped the wheel.

She wept very softly,
because she knew.
She knew some day in middle age,
when his action and doing waned,
he'd face that empty darkness,
that darkness being pushed around the car by the headlights
that darkness that rushed in behind the rear window
behind their bodies,
he'd face that empty darkness,
and she wouldn't be with him...
because in a month
or maybe a week
they wouldn't be
together.

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