Civil War

We were The Liberators.
Our righteousness celebrated
by being thrust forefencive
of lives committed to our charge.
We became The Liberators
because We were still standing
amidst the spiraling smoke
haunted by the contorted faces
belonging to futures we'd just taken.

Strange.
How those doors,
having been broken wide open,
hang on their hinges apologetically,
witnesses of and helpless to
the breaching of this idyllic place
I remember...
being here,
where He smiled
and once was...
this was...
Once an ice cream shop.
Once a childhood dream.
Now this place has become
a Pompeii poignant memory.
All the cups, cones and splits
replaced by jiggers, rocks, shots
and all measures of spirituality.
Our haven for revelry
Now...
A Misfit's Sanctuary.

I'm lost for the young,
the instruments of a choral
to condone The Day's chaos,
re-living His memory...

Ghosts, Phantoms and Shadowed
out there I wander with The Captain,
Our childhood friend
soft serving flavors
at this very station.
Together We'd grown up,
He further grew so
all the more.
To become a father.
To become a cop.
To become the mayor.
To become the leader.
To stand for this community
and stood before us in service
before the lives entrusted
to his care with out question.

From somewhere out over there
Tonite's victors abound
loud as Life
and wrest me
from my weary stupor...

Back pocket flask full of hind sight
and a razor blade romance with guilt,
resting in a far laureled corner,
perched on a two back-legged chair,
I am Watching
smiling at how now,
were it not so serious,
the laughter would be more contagious
than our weapons of hatred;
Thinking now how
We all have grown
despicable,
We vespers reclining
in this place smelling
not innocently
not of vanilla and caramel
but of spilt whiskey
and beer drenched carpet
set on fire mingling
with that unmistakable stench
from the Vanity
of failure.

Drunk in the ardor of collusion
I'm paralyzed like a fly
waiting for the spider
and my memory returns
to Him
laying face down
in the mud back there
and all I can hear
is my high school crush
silently screaming
because it is she
Who shot him.