Scene 282: Stage in Life

What beautiful feathers, glitter,

and paint that adorns your masks.

Yet under all that weight,

surely your teeth hurt,

forcing those sounds through the plastic

cannot be an easy task.

Tell me, do you sleep well?

Or does your mask suffocate even your dreams?

Peel back the paper-mache

just a bit

and look at the undiluted light

Scene 281: What's Found Outside the Lines

A coal in the snow

oh child, are you lost?

Your flakes are out of place

with all that snow around

Though of course,

that makes you no less special

You look like a chocolate chip

in a mountain of vanilla, in fact

A surprise, a change,

but you break the harmony

Oh child,

behave.

In the snow, or even in life,

there's no excuse for that behaviour

Scene 280: Luck

Under the blue leaves

of that purpled tree

sigh the red seeds

of serendipity

Scene 279: A Road Quite Taken

Since then I have never looked

at the drapes upon the wall

Oh behind that royal cloth

lies so many hideous things

Beyond the pane there is nothing

but blinding fires

The stinging breath of the sky

so heavy upon your neck

And the unfinished shapes on people's faces

curving unnaturally, never to make a circle alone

Yes, indeed, the glass remains

as my only protection from it all

Let the drapes dangle, hugging each other

so that I may take a road quite taken

Scene 278: Little Salvation

A drop of water in a fire

while you stand on an ice cube

and the furnace burns below.

So quickly does the smoke blend

the steam so quickly swallowed

and you sell another finger

for another ice cube

Scene 277: Together

We

are made

of only

one

thing.

Scene 276: Price of Memories

We keep the stubs in our pockets,

and the trinkets on our shelves

to breathe in the traces

and remember the faces

Oh, dear one

though you will always live on

it will only kill me to do so

Scene 275: Half-Eaten

The apple fell in the night

oh, what a shame

that the red was split

by white ants.

Their little legs

crawling up hers,

no net to catch them.

Only them

and the half-eaten fruit

with its seeds on the floor

taking root.

Only them

and a half-eaten fruit

Scene 274: Requiem of the Forest

The forest blues

all over the floor

what a mess

Green hair, so

drenched

and slumped legs

The sounds stop

oh so serene

seemingly

High on the blue, dusty mantle

can't the lemon smile

once in a while?

Scene 273: In Between

Winter falls unnaturally in autumn

with the snowflakes on blossoms

yet it's such a beautiful sight

the red leaves

and white flakes

whirl about

like an emergency.

Oh the flakes, not melting

land on the leaves

and clump, sprinkling like sand

and freezing fall over

like dew in the morning

Scene 272: The Lines

There's dust in the air

lined with cinnamon

oh

the difference

is not the matter of color

Scene 271: Wallpaper Narrative

The paint was a bit bawdy

and peeling at the ends

yet

if nothing else

the wallpaper on the floor

sold millions

Scene 270: Through the Teeth on the Wall

Your face fell in the sand.

Immovable

Oh darling,

how do you expect that wall

to hold up in front of you?

There's no mortar, no glue,

no glitter or frills to hide it.

Just the wall,

jaded grey

with your face painted on

Splattered

like the streets of New York

Couldn't you think?

Caked in that grime,

even Canada would be better

Scene 269: The Family Pet

Yes.

We'll throw you a bone.

If you wear this leash

Scene 268: Walking in the Grass

A string of steel

then

a pour of rubble

empty and hollow

What a sleight of hand

that your tricks can hide

in the dirt

like a snake

The trip

and breath wired

so bated and taut

as a mortician's tie

Who would see that

the string that held us,

would be the same

as the rope necklace

Scene 267: What You Found in the Dark

A loss of inspiration

a spiral of stigma

in the hollow silver,

whispy, whirling,

like a dancer in smoke

at the end of the Marlboro.

Oh, dear lady,

feet upon the sky

pulse through,

and equalize the inside

and the sky

until dreams

take their places in the stars

Scene 266: Service

The faces in the rain,

what a shower

of clear petals on the sidewalk.

Scene 265: Escape at Home

A dizzy whirlwind of colours,

shades of Malibu,

tones of spirits,

lighting up the room

lighting up faces,

so red and cheery

they laugh

with you.

Jack and Brandy run through their veins

and they feel their passion

the mixing,

the warmth.

Scene 264: Garden of Forks

And the leaf dangles

on a hinge

creaking like a gold door,

so rich and heavy and full of treasure.

The needle head blows north,

then south,

orienting itself,

as its stem lounges by a finger.

The ants line up underneath it,

looking up,

waiting for that door to crash down,

for that needle to point their way home,

to feed their queen.

And their heads move,

east

and west,

watching the wind,

wrestling with the leaf,

gently creaking.

They wait,

wondering where to go

Scene 263: Return

Posters along the permanent paint,

for now, we live,

under the roof,

stories up,

telling of your prime,

your dreams.

Desks, full of dried salt,

from fries, chips,

and water.

Oh, that hole by the bed

during the night,

so whisked with warmth

that it burst into fire.

For now,

we live,

until we move and learn again

Scene 262: The Fall

The pastel lights paint the grass

little dollops of pink and blue

hop across the blades.

So soft,

the edge of the crinkling

at the tips of those verdant fingers

and careless

that soon

the fingers are browned from dirt

and they bend over

hunched

like men.

Scene 261: Redrawn

We drew the mountains

upside down

the snow caps

trawled on the bottom.

The roots of the trees

grew up

like hands in a church.

Scene 260: Truth

We have always lived in the creases of your heart,

in the valves

riding down the chutes

and climbing up the ladders.

The fantasies you have

are not in your head

but riding the cherry highway.

Scene 259: Ghosts

White stained wine

on the linens of your pillow

from nights of him and her

one and two

that changed.

Those nights,

they changed

into mares

charging across the horizon

fearless,

spiraling others beneath their hooves.

They trample

all over the dreams that grew

in their lilly fields.

Scene 258: Waste

The oceanic blue and green

litters the floor

a sea of desolation

strewn about.

I take a deep breath

and I dive in,

looking

but no,

there is nothing on the ocean floor

but black

Scene 257: On and Off

Shoo,

don't talk

that buzz

that static

is like the garbage you bathe in.

Leave,

your presence is not desired here.

No,

no more.

The candy from your lips

is rotting

and the music

is dissonant and contemporary-

the nostalgia is gone.

You can stay by my heels,

but remember,

garbage goes under my feet,

not in my hands

Scene 256: Hunter

I took a bite of the cloud,

the sky dribbled down my chin,

tasting like raspberries,

so I reached up for my gun

and shot a few more down.

The clouds came crashing,

like tears,

and they were delicious,

sweet and red,

so human and loved.

I love the sounds they made

when I pierced them-

short, surprised, secretive.

They were freed from their comic-strip panels

right down my esophagus.

Satisfied, I wipe the juice off my chin.

I feed what's left of the cloud to my camel

and we ride off,

looking for new clouds.

Scene 255: A Flash

Oh what a flash of colours

running through the desert

bare, smiling, dazed.

And such desires

bouncing

waiting to be released

Oh, what a flash

Scene 254: A Day in the Park

The sky is really blue today

and the wind is chilling me,

as I watch a bird pass overhead.

It lands on a low birch branch,

chirping cheerfully.

I suppose it's enjoying the weather.

I imagine what sort of light it had,

how long it glided,

along the wintering air.

Why was it flying?

On a whim, perhaps? Or maybe,

just practice.

The bird continues to sing,

until it crooks its head my way

and stares at me with its blank eyes.

Suddenly it looks away

and takes off in fright

as a shadow sweeps over.

My heart breaks a little

as I watch the little bird

in the clutches of a falcon.

The predator flies off, talons wrapped

around the innocent,

so tiny.

I shed a tear for it.

Coughing slightly, I gently

try to breathe

But there's a necklace around my throat

warm and lacing

wrapped so tightly.

It won't loosen, and I tire,

my gaze drifting back up

past a mat of hair.

I rest my legs,

once propped up,

onto the forest floor.

It was a silly choice really,

they ended up getting picked up

and dragged along.

Oh, mom will be upset at me.

She had just washed

my uniform.

Scene 253: Collision Course

We fell off the mountain

steep

the wind still

like time

frozen

like our eyes

locked

in the clouds

so blue as the shiver of your heart

Oh wind swept dawn

the cracks sleep heavily

trickling

with veins of rubies

sparkling

like the ocean

so calm as the flicker of our eyes

Scene 252: Wither

There's a touch of cinammon
and a pinch of thyme.
They fight
and the garden cries.
Oh, poor cinammon
you cannot escape.
Your sugar brown hair
and spiced eyes,
they lose
to thyme. And you are left
as nothing but powder
for people to relish in your dust