Watch Tower

I stand watch
My enemy, laying siege
To cracked and weathered walls

I stand watch
My prince and muse, stricken and ill
Fighting off invaders within

I stand watch
My princess, so meek and kind
Struggling in her own sickness

I stand watch
My queen, beautiful and tattered
So tired, yet somehow so strong

I stand watch
My kingdom, weary and worn
The very foundations shaking apart

Come fire, come fury, come hell itself
I stand here, braced for impact
I stand here

I stand watch

Door

Some days barely seen in passing
Others dominating the skyline
Like an ancient fortress of stone

Still ever present and silent
A fixture of mystery

The shape may deviate
and the speed which it opens
may vary with the rap of time

Still ever present and silent
A fixture of mystery

Will today be the day
Maybe tomorrow, the next
or 46 years from 13 minutes past

Still ever present and silent
A fixture of mystery

The day will come
When the keys of eternity
Unlock the last great hasp

The ever present and silent
Fixture of mystery

When I step across that threshold
and forever fall through the final door
I pray with all my strength

My father is there to catch me

My ever present help
in the face of such mystery

The Guff

Surveying the landscape
looking, seeking, searching

This foreign territory
albeit inviting
offers no path, no beacon, no direction

Paddling in a river void of current
Visibility, translucent at best

6 stars follow 2
Through the haze of grey
Into victory or the void

Suspended in mystery
Life in the Guff

No More

How did I get here
acutely aware
yet obtusely insulated

My hands are corruptly sterile
my life, falsely sanitized

Blinded by the speed of static
to the hurt and pain
that lies bleeding
outside my creaking door

With each passing moment
a soul cries out
a soul dies out
Silenced by the silence

I can't go on living
in this bleached, wretched way

One soul cries out
one soul dies out
no more

Grace

A life once recklessly driven and tossed asunder
Broken into nothing but jagged pieces of pain
Grace stepped in to clear the debris

As the storm of the century destroyed this feeble, fragile ship
Leaving the paper thin sails ripped and tattered, lifeless in the chaos
Grace supplied a heart shaped umbrella

Narrowly escaping the shackles of the valley of death
Only to turn the corner and face the ghosts of the past
Grace spreads its wings of gold and silver to quietly lead the way

A restoration of the condemned
A gift undeserved
A pardon among thieves

The blueprint for love
The environment of peace
The road map to humility

Grace

Obscurity

We wrestle with obscurity
A matter of what matters
In an endless ocean of existence

Will our best thoughts evaporate
Our strongest words discarded
Greatest works forgotten
If ever

Will our very existence be something of substance
or simply become significantly insignificant
While some feverishly toil and others falter
We all struggle to create finite moments
Drowning in an infinity of infinities

Spoon

As some walk on a guided path
Others simply slip and tumble
Though fight as they may
Nothing breaks the fall

At times the free fall slows
Only but to give way
Another cliff
Another crack
Another false floor disguising the abyss

While some are born destined to soar
Others are aborted to struggle
Left to sift through the remnants
Of the crumbs fallen from a silver spoon