just say goodbye

just say goodbye
and move on
turn the page
close the book
burn it
or add it to the others
we never read
just say goodbye
and let everything go
watch it fall
or don't
it doesn't matter
because the wrong things
aren't meant to last
hold the bitter
I'll take the sweet
forget everything
I will not respond
I will not engage
I will not write a solitary word
for I can feel goodbye
in your words
and this silence
move on
keep walking
and put distance and time
between us

a question asked

I defend myself with words
punctuated with borrowed wisdom
from minds with original thoughts
my beliefs are composed
of actions and inactions
but enlightenment eludes me
I fumble and claw at ideologies
that have wrestled kings to their graves
who am I to fight this noble battle?
I care not for odds
or for the soldiers who fight beside me
I care not for honour
or the greater good
for I know I stand alone
an outsider
who was born to not belong
so ask your questions
decipher my answers
then unravel my life
but I can not be known
for the key to my mystery
is missing
and locked within
my sardonic smile

tabula rasa

I yearn for the ignorance of my youth
for there is too much weight in my thoughts
my soul has absorbed the suffering
of a thousand lies
and my eyes have seen more
than my heart can hold
where has my naivety gone?
where is the easy trust
and the blind obedience to the state?
now I lay beneath the sword
living in the moments and echoes
and savouring the sunrise
then smiling as I hear the thread break

the soul

a soul is silent

it is the flesh that is loud

a soul is bright

it is the world that is dark

what lies ahead

if I could map my heart
I would navigate around the pain
that you have yet to give me
I would plot a course between your first smile
and your final goodbye
I would raise sail and blind my eyes
from the man who replaces me
and I would steer towards
the darkest storm
and the sharpest rocks
oblivious
of what awaits

in dublin

if I had not returned
not remembered a promise
not walked back
not turned right

not turned left

if I waited one moment less
or one moment more

I would not have seen

your smile
I would have not heard
your voice
I would not have learnt
your name

and my life would have been
colder for it

how to forget

delete every text
delete every email
tear up your poems
erase the unfinished letters
save nothing
pour water on your heart
steady the pulse
dream her out of your nights
remove her name from your lips
cover her face with darkness
drown her voice with silence

and then forget how to smile

the valentine

unrequited love
returned
unwrapped
but the rose is still sent
and the words still written
brave
futile
gestures
have always been my thing
and I like to think
they always will

room 487

there's a knack to the key cards
green and I am in
red and I'm just an idiot
in a hallway
it's a different hotel
but the room is the same
I unpack nothing
I switch on the TV
but I don't listen
it's just background noise
for the emptiness
through the glass
I see another city
and as darkness falls
the same noisy lights rise
nothing is new
nothing surprises me
I smile at my reflection
caught between
a room and a skyline
stay there I tell myself
for neither side
has anything to offer you

mornings should be

to awake

within a woman's arms

to breath and inhale

her fragrance

her sex

to turn and by a single touch

arouse the longing

that has so long been mine

to taste

to consume

and be consumed

then to lay spent in each other's arms

content within the symmetry of love