Friday, May 14, 2021

The Impossible, by Amory McKeever




 All my apologies

we chose this mission

or it may have been chance

a reaction so classified

like two epoxies

bound to collide


We tell no one

take it to our graves

bury me with secrets

deep under covers

the killer sweetness

that our bodies crave


There's a reason

we haven't been speaking

every moment we savor

stolen from somewhere

or hidden from someone

but that's not fair


Because love is the most

dangerous weapon

paves the road to hell

with dreams of heaven

and the enemy hides in

a single bombshell


Just moments away

from exposing the truth

secret agents betray

I can't take it

won't simply move on

that seems so cliché


We know where it's leading

So I'll self destruct

give in to the pain

and as I lay bleeding

do me a favor

burn this after reading


***

Friday, July 24, 2020

That Sinking Feeling, by Amory McKeever

(image by nonparanoid.deviantart)

At least the water isn't fake
It can be touched, it can be tasted
It smells of the Salton Sea
and like that faulted little lake
the one that shakes your reality
you get swallowed by the quake

At least the water tells the truth
It doesn't let you up for air
just to steal away your youth
It won't shower you with compliments
and build upon your confidence
while secretly the opposite
the whole time you're being used

At least the water doesn't lie
It doesn't fill your lungs
then pretend that you have time
It won't swell up inside your chest
wearing a smile and a dress
taking your last breath
but not kind enough to let you die

At least the water is honest
It won't put your faith in a future
then reveal itself a false prophet
She said you couldn't live without her
and hook and line you bought it
so when you're signing your farewell
this is exactly what she promised

Friday, May 8, 2020

The Lycan, by Amory McKeever

Odin and Fenris (1909) by Dorothy Hardy

Who wins is the one he feeds
the gentleman or the beast
the calm and quiet surface
or the tempest underneath
While the man sets the table
a darker half looks to feast
the unfortunate delicacy
will be the one he needs

The mask a few layers thin
pretends to be a mortal man
yet wilding under the skin
it hungers to bite the hand
Destroyed from the outside in
still they'll never understand
it's the prize he cannot win
he can never be the plan

The monster wants to pull it
unzip that façade like a suit
slither out of that frail knit
to take his place among the root
A former personality split
now becomes the master brute
with no hope or silver bullets
the wolf who ate is absolute

Sunday, April 5, 2020

Breaking Point, by Amory McKeever



This is not my first time
in fact I wish it was the last
Honestly it never ends well
though I'm having such a blast
Alive again with a racing heart
a smile that can warm the sun
Spinning my wheels and I'm ready to start
counting trophies that I haven't won
To feel this way just once
would be enough to wear me out
yet there's no way I want to fall asleep
and I am pleading from the mouth
As quiet as I possibly can
I whisper the message in your ear
Something I've never said before
something only your soul can hear

This won't be the first time
not even the second or the third
I've been down this path before
where the lines are broke and blurred
Sinking again with a breaking mind
a pain that could dim the sun
something that takes a hundred lifetimes to find
was found and lost all in one
To feel this way just once
would be enough to sell me out
but the price is much more steep
and I am bleeding from the mouth
As loud as I possibly can
I say exactly what I mean
when you're slipping through my hands
I'm trying hard not to scream

***

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Viviane, by Amory McKeever



His life was not a fable
when he saw no heroes left
with no loyalty around his table
his heart was taken in a theft
Gone were the dragons of legend
and missing the maidens of virtue
they didn't exist he reckoned
The path grew ever more narrow
as his Camelot disappeared
A knight of a nameless barrow
and the emptiness he feared

But when all that is left was rage
his chivalry hanging by a cord
a goddess reaches from the sage
and handed him her sword

Her eyes like a storming sea
that no seafarer could resist
Her love and sorcerer to be
stood silently bewitched
This enchantress brought to him
empowered and refreshed
a kingdom peering through the scrim
renewed with riches blessed
She said to him where Arthur failed
surely he would succeed
Where the strength of steel is frail
the true power is to lead
People she said, may tremble before a brute
but they will follow an ideal
Give them something to believe
and you'll never defeat their zeal

So with that he took her hand
and went boldly into the lake
Gazing deep into her emeralds
a new world he sought to wake

image: 
Lady of the Lake by Gary A Lippincott

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Infomercials, by Amory McKeever



In this dark jungle of cement
turn on my high definition life
Away I go on a princess cruise
but only in my waking dreams
My body sits in its own bruise
and my minds too numb to scream
Atrophied from years of coma
yet it wanders around pretending
Imagined angels take me home
lies like this are patent pending

Strap in for a make-believe trip
All wired up to be let down
Connected to this t.v. drip
in a computer generated town
Swallow another fake reality
with every energy drink sold 
All made up of logical fallacies
side effects are dying old
Addicted to living at all costs
Reverse mortgage on my soul
to cure the incurable loss


image cr: Boosterdesigns

Monday, July 29, 2019

Unprepared, by Amory McKeever



Lying under all this skin
phosphorus and oxygen
lungs that ache to breathe again
escape from this dungeon within

Carbon cages of magnesium
calcium structures deep beneath
this tired wrinkled sun-dried sheath
would break themselves for Elysium

Cease to beat that central muscle
that pumps the pain with such hustle
to every appendage I would sever
just to avoid that cruel forever

An endless element of cobalt blue
a life left barren without you
stoke the furnace that melts the ore
and craft the shells for this war

It turns out I was unprepared
for her methods that went undeclared
She came in like a Trojan horse
and slayed me with her intercourse