Richard Schnap- Three Poems

TOUCHED

It will make you hear
A symphony in the traffic
Passing on the street

It will make you see
The moon wear faces
That keep on changing

It will make you believe
That the machines of the world
Are really succubi

It will make you think
That mirrors are all
The gateways to Hell

It will make you feel
Like you are a character
In the Book of Revelations

And it will make you cry
At a song’s secret meaning
Knowing it will fade



SABOTAGE

She wanted a child
But couldn’t conceive
As if her body
Conspired against her

Like a terrorist planting
A bomb in her womb
To be detonated
By remote control

And the harder she tried
The more she failed
Like she was fighting
A losing battle

Against a foe
That knew her flaws
Better than she
Knew them herself



DECLINE AND FALL

When the man she loved
Stripped off his mask
Revealing the skull
Beneath

She cut off all ties
With the outside world
And fell into the arms
Of sleep

Where she stained the walls
With tapestries of smoke
While collecting trinkets
And toys

Till there was nothing left
But an empty dream
As she woke up in time
To die