Shade 24: Portrait of Morningside

The sun is high
The day is cold
The street is wide
The pavements old
The bricks are cracked
The trees are bare
The walls are stacked
The sirens blare
The people curse
The children cry
And none converse
Or even try
They don’t pay
Attention to
What people say
What people do
The garbage piles
Within the streets
It stinks for miles
Like rotted meats
I don’t know why
But there are some
Who say they like
To call this home

Shade 23: Sliver of Gold

The Piper plays for Springtime
His dulcet minuet
That whispers through the air and greening leaves
The bubbling brook will echo
Where the ivys climbing yet
The warm and gentle melody he weaves

The minuet is faint now
But grow it ever will
Until resounding through the world it blows
For now though death is lingering
And the trees are frozen still
The seed beneath the ground slowly grows

Shade 22: Lecherous Gluttonous Sloth

My dreams are not ridiculous
It’s dreaming that you hate
How I could try to strive so high
To change the landscape of my fate
I see your misery on your face
You’ll wear it to your grave
So take it out on my ambition
But I’m not the one enslaved
I will pursue the things I love
It gets me through your day
It’s the reason I don’t hate myself
And you’ll never say the same

Shade 21: The Cupboard was Bare

The surface of the lake is crystal clear
The fertile field is vacant
The whispering wood has no one there
The summit of the cliff is barren
The caves below are deathly still
The canyon floor is silent
The wheel is at rest beside the mill
The river is no longer violent
Tranquility fills the world around
And nothing stirs to wake it
Not even the birds or leaves make sound
And I don’t think I can take it

Lulled into a lurid haze
Need to rouse my lazy brain

Shade 20: So You Think You Can Beat Me In Scrabble?!

You may know more words than me
But I have something that you lack
A homicidal tendency to stab you in the back

I don’t have any consonants
You just laugh, but I don’t mind
I may not let my hatred show, I just bide my time

So get your triple letter score
On a word that is six tiles long
But I have an advantage too: none will miss you when you’re gone

Now let’s put the board away
And drink to your victory
But when I poured the glasses full I poisoned yours, tee-hee!

You didn’t see the Arsenic so
You’ve no need to defend
You may have won at Scrabble tonight, but I’ve won in the end

Shade 19: The Beachwood and the Bellows

The wolf winds howl and prowl the streets
With numbness in their stare
They pale your lips
And fingertips
And freeze you with their glare

The ice gnomes stalk and walk the road
They trudge with chilly airs
And cast around
A cold unbound
That reaches everywhere

The frost witch flies the skies of day
And stings with bitter façade
Through drifts of snow
The winter winds blow
For the Great White Cold walks abroad

Shade 18: Beginning Long Ago

Amidst the Autumn’s crimson sky
A gentle breeze did waft
A journey’s scent has passed me by
Upon the wind so soft

The journey’s path is not chosen in route
Nor is it in valor
But it’s paved in way
By light of day
And bathed in the stars’ silver shower

So blow a trail for me to tread
A road to follow hence
And I will ramble clear of head
And cast away pretense

My eyes are fully opened now
Gazing swiftly down the road
Standing here and waiting for my future to unfold
Whatever paths that it may behold
As I travel down my way
Singing to the break of day