Nicholas Keys- Poetry

Poetry:

At what hallowed cost?-An anti-hero at Hiroshima?-

And all the souls that were lost-

And all the souls that are still lost-

A hollow host, a hollow cost, a holocaust-

Halos on the heads of the cast out and caustic,

A singular ghost, a toast in the war room of cause-

Raw devotion, national dissonance,

Concentrate, Concentrate, reach for ambivalence-

The claws-The clause-

Stay up all night,

Waiting for a way to the sunlight,

Blight, ripened struggles, growing withered,

Weathered in the cold, growing old,

Slithering like a feather through the wind,

Homeless, Hopeless, handing blankets out to strangers-waiting for a bus-

4:30 A.M. Houston-Lullaby, After-

Rain, A reign of cityscapes, downtown,

Huddled for warmth, covered faces of parents and an infant,

Infinite, inferno of the lights-

Staying up all night, blinded by-

The street lights-

Waiting for a way to the sunlight-

Old Enough To Drink

Brotherly Love, a way from Philly;

Through Baltimore, yearning for more,

Before the loss of my abilities,

Soaring across a bay’s tranquility,

Exploring the rural and urban communities,

Pouring perceptions into my eyes,

Enamored by the vast open empty ocean of skies,

Idealizing heroes in clouds and a proud sensibility,

Feeling criticized and ostracized-self conscious and sensitive,

Living for the day-Obey! -Obey! Demonstrative!

If only it were easy-To live a life of leisure,

A constant overture-lured into a constant cure,

Drinking for a purpose-A temporary life, a temporary fall,

Stalling stress and Time for another day,

Homeless in the Capital, A way to Washington D.C.,

Washing away the impurities and begging for mercy,

Elderly woman wandering cold, sleeping on a monument,

A territories land falsely sold, an artificial commitment,

On a statue commemorating Columbus,

Dismantle attributes-condemned to always be less;

Out of D.C. to the capital of the confederacy,

Poor in Richmond, Antebellum Aristocracy,

At the whitened house of divided civil democracy,

Keep the union together without upkeep,

Sleeping giant awakens in a modern oligopoly;

To Atlanta-Atlas holding the land and oceans of the earth,

Traveling and giving birth a cityscape and transportation worth,

Drinking bottle after bottle of the short and long cure:

Of dependency, of mediocrity, and of complacency;

Through Birmingham to a pyramid at Memphis,

Blues harmonizing pacifists waiting for the bus of progress,

Heavy hearts and light headed feeling of brevity,

Many wounded souls healed before arriving in Dallas,

At a restaurant buzzed and brewed-coffee and a hot meal,

Outlasting the night, last stop as an outcast-

Fast to New Orleans on a fattened Tuesday,

Swaying with the parades of alcohol and emptied cares-Late-

Into the night on a bus back to Houston,

Stammering drunk-wondering where the stumbling Sun has gong to-

You and only you-A year of drinking-

Sinking ships and falling empires-tired-thinking,

Drunk and Lucky-On my way back to Philly-

Withered reactions, vivid actions, slithering words-

Mention-Attention-To an untimely death,

Daughter slaughtered by fate’s slate of injustice-

Too soon-taken, forsaken noose-forgotten,

Reminds me of her-Reminds me of him,

List the memories-humorous and opaque,

List the places-she could have been-if?

Fists of passion ashamed, blaming themselves,

Coughing as laughter, open home-open wounds

Still bleeding-Still dreaming of a life with her,

Continuation of what could have been,

Who she could have been-if?

Before-The seen and unseen-an untimely death,

An untimely end, withered-

Waiting in a parking lot,

Waiting in a car,

Refusing to take a chance,

Refusing to go ‘far’-

Into the distance,

Into-with/out-

What was sough?-What was fought?-

Dis-Functionable-Disabled-

Waiting in a chair-impaired-

Unable to move-solitary, removed-

Fusing chances with gains-

Pain in a city of the plain-

Poor in Richmond,

Homeless in the Capital,

Sleeping on a monument,

Outside a union station,

Soar into grandeur,

Champion-Salvation-

Old town-new city,

Pitied old-cherished new,

All that I knew,

All that could be known,

On your own,

Lonely road,

Backwards-towards the wards,

Of Heaven’s war,

Of a broken home-

Tears in her eyes,

The lies-whitened cries of innocence,

Mourning clothes in closets untouched,

Untamed and rough terrain,

Tears in her sky,

Clouds above morning-

The eyes of never waking,

The eyes of perpetual truth,

Ruthless destiny-Infinity abused,

The lies-what she said to her,

Her last words-immortal curse-

Chain-smoking cigarettes in regret,

To forgive-to forget,

Set the sun ablaze with sorrow,

Hallow fault lines-earthquake tomorrow-

The Fall-            The Tall-

The Follow-            The Slow-

The Flow-            The Foe-

The Flower-            The Tower-

Unequal distribution-retribution-

Moral constitution-

What is right for one and not the other?

Cover of brightness, hour’s after-

Lover of darkness-slower laughter for a pause,

Here and after-clear and feared-

The Distracter-

Treating a stranger as a child,

Defiled time-apparent parent,

Heir-repaired-And an heir apparent-

Apparitions of a spirit descendent,

Heritage dismemberment-

Would-commitment to suicide,

Should have-submitted to the inside,

Bureaucracy of a wooden would be battle cry,

Outside-The world is vast, cast out-

Last out-

Confederacy-

Contrary to what is thought,

Contrary to why both sides fought,

Civil-War-distracted from what was sough-

Misinformation, misguided inspiration, misguided patriotism-

The way in which they speak,

Is as if she is still there,

Next to them, an exception,

They are the people to remember her,

They are the people to dream about her,

To imagine a hand upon a shoulder,

Boulder fields and rivers of the colder hearts,

Hurt-heal me! Heal me!

Raining-Feigning-reigning-sustained-

Refrain-Trains across countries-Detained,

With/out rights-National identity-

Rational insanity-

Power lines-fences and adjoined property-

Residential-forest-roads of the loading bay of reason-

Join or die-

Why

Either/or-

What for-War-

It cannot be peaceful-

It cannot be-

A knot

A tangled thread-

Join or die-

They said

By whose hands

By those who command

By those who state no choice

By those who silence our voice?

It still feels as if she is here,

I can see her as clear as day,

I know there is no way,

I hope to-Stay-

Sounds of the rails,

Train horns in the distance,

Hail to the tyrant,

Rants for a remembrance-

Pale-sails forming clouds,

God of wind, sins of a windfall continent,

Gaping holes in deserts, an abyss of cohorts,

Colliding hordes of golden horses,

Short time up on the earth’s shattered soil,

For better or worse-

For betterment or for a worsened,

Lightened and hardened heart,

Out of sight, Out of mind,

Rewind the victory,

Remind them of their victory,

Remind them of them of their story,

Let us live until were an infant,

Grow younger-flow from death-

To a light giving expansion,

A-horizon, brief and belief,

Leaves of a weave, threads diseased-