Lyrista

The split in the walls of Time
Widens, and you walk through
Corridors, eons, new…
Why can’t I come with you?

Up towering heights you climb
Seeking infinity
Far, in a sky-black sea…
Left here on Earth is me.

And you hear the centuries’ chime
Caroling, one by one,
Tolling our Time’s now done:
Hope that is left…is none.

For now that you’ve vanished

M, I’m
Pining in this bleak place,
Dreaming about your face
Lost—untraced—in space.
1981

Retort to Time

The crispness of your knife goes snick!
Cutting up my dreams like celery,
To make hors d’oeuvres that you, Time, pick
And gobble till you’ve swallowed me.

But while you cut, your blade will knick
Hard upon my iron bone;
It trims me to the very quick
But still, my skull will dull its hone.
1992

From a 23rd Century Text

The gates of Time yawned back,qq
And let the Western seas attack,
Hurling tidal waves
That turned the towns to graves.

Atlantis sank before
And then the California shore
Settled out of view
Below Pacific blue.
11-01-91

Bliss (2)

The kiss of Time corrodes
Bronze Venuses to flaking rust,
Time’s transitoriness erodes
Marble aphrodites down to dust.

But Love’s caress slays Time.
Eternities succumb to Love’s soft sigh.
And nuptial church bells ever chime:
God’s clarion echo heard on high.
09-29-88

H. P. Lovecraft: Friend Out of Time

(1890-1937)

What need to add one more
Tribute to the roar
Of shrill posthumous praise,
Nostalgic, loud in these latter days?

It s all been said and said:
Paeans, now he’s dead;
But like so many, I’ve
Wished I’d known him live.
01-01-80