Tragedy In Antiquity

Good morning, all. I have been thinking much on history’s many people. I find it easy to remember the events, the macro, so to speak, but it can often be difficult to fathom that every individual person that has ever lived was in fact a person, that they loved and hated and joked just the same as now. I try to think of them. Even if I can’t remember their names, I try to remember them. To not let their stories be forgotten if I can help it. They existed. Try not to forget.


Aegyptus

An ancient Pharaoh rests in her tomb

Dreaming dreams of her Kingdom’s doom

Before her death it did so loom

But come to pass it did so soon

Great commandments of a God

Covered now in sand and sod

Her people, their Pharaoh, did they laud

But now you’ll find but just facade

Dead and gone

Ghost and a pawn

She never did so see the dawn

As coffers drained and blood was drawn

O Cleopatra, last of the Pharaohs,

Bite of an asp, or so many arrows?

On a path that suddenly narrows

Sleeping now in holes and barrows.

Your Love, Marcus Antonius, Mark Antony,

Does he so too rest in sand and sod?

Back To 513

An area code I never thought would mean so much to me. A place and time I never thought would carry such weight. I love this place, I love this city, and yet I cannot wait for the future. So much light comes to me, comes to us. We need only wait. Without further ado, a love poem:


Like The Sea

Feeling full and feeling warm

Lying still in tandem form

Prepared again for the coming storm

Dream again the coming norm

Sit beside and kiss a cheek

My heart, my hull will never leak

There you are, I need not seek

Safe with you, I need not speak

Sleep with me

Wake up to tea

Only hope that you can see

My love for you is like the sea

Old and storied, like the Aegean

Strong and steady, with you, freeing

Off course but never careening

Only to kiss you, am I leaning

Not enough words and not enough stories

You’re the only one who leaves me speechless

Dreaming of Italy, But I Don’t Speak Italian

In your dreams you can be anyone, be anything, do anything, go wherever you want. Why then, in my dreams, am I me? Why then, in my dreams, am I me and I am with you? Not to Italy, not to Spain, but trees and parks in Cincinnati. A place of hills and dreams tucked so neatly into the cusp of the Ohio river. My heart is here and so far away. Perhaps I’ll even find it again.


A Rose By Any Other Name

Decidedly pithy

Not such a pity

Two houses

You and I

In fair Cincinnati

Alike in serendipity

Find yourself a part

An actor, an actress

We’re putting on a play

You’ve been cast

In iron

Unmoving

Fettered by nature

Much like a bronze bust

Perfection in antiquity

Opposite me

If you only you could see

The part you have to play

Maybe then we’ll find our way

Two leads

Pro-consuls of that fallen republic

There abound the seeds

On a path we find oblique

Slanting at an angle

That makes it hard to speak

You Forgot To Remember

Good afternoon. I’ve forgotten something but I can’t remember what it was. Gone and forgotten. Dust and sand blow over the ruins of ancient ruins, ancient kingdoms. Jewels of the west, of the east, of the north, of the south. Petrified fossils of trees the only remnants of great forests where emperors hunted plentiful game. Where paramours sat by long-forgotten sparkling waters, lakes now hidden by the changing of dunes whose phantom iridescence eludes even the most dedicated explorers, so far removed from water these old bones now lie. I like to think that if I dig down far enough, I’d find those nobles hunting great game in their beautiful forests. I’d find those bustling cities overflowing with goods and frenzied merchants. Perhaps I’d even find those lovers still embracing on the banks of that crystalline lake.


Callback

So far, so well

Come and gone

Numb at the base

Tell me again

about the test case?

Today a day like any other

Today a day, just another

Upset your mother

Unseat your brother

How the tides of war shape you

Someday you’ll understand too

Fare thee well

Peer again into the swell

Find a gleaming agate still

Remember those pretty little stones

How those little hands held them

How those shining eyes beheld them

History forgets

But I remember

Every memory a painting

To each beloved, a sainting

Frère Jacques

Dormez-vous?

Sonnez les matines…

Wake up!

It is time to feed the machine.

Another Little Love Story

Guten Morgen, Freunde! Every day is an opportunity for another little love story. Fall in love even more with the person you love, fall in love with the trees and the dirt, fall in love with air you breathe and the little tiny dogs you see walking in the street. Life is often hard, but I’ve said before: You don’t need to harden yourself to match it. Find peace in acceptance of yourself and all things. Find love in your heart where you thought it had left. Be softer and kinder to yourself and those around you. Never give up. The World won’t. Why should you?


It’s A Helluva Lot

Spending months away at sea

Leaving just the baby and she

Thinking to myself about the way they miss me

Hoping happy she will be

Coming home to see her eyes

Reflecting deep blue skies

And her love I need not prise

For with her I won’t capsize

Stepping from the boat and holding her

Hearing the machines choke and whir

And i can say with confidence she’s better than pictures

Sitting at the foot of the bed

Knowing that someday we’ll be wed

Thinking of the life we have ahead

I’ll one day leave this ship and be with her instead

I’ll give up being a sailor and be the one she counts on

I’ll wake up every morning to her smile with the dawn

Knowing when the time comes that i won’t again be gone