Ascend

My dear madam

Rest indeed

Descend into quiet solitude

That I might dream of a golden babe

Touched by the Gods

Rendered invincible as Achilles

Blessed with the beauty of Helen

Elevated to Olympus

Far away from the River Styx

Where I often dwell

Communing with Dis'

Riding the Minotaur

Divining the song of the Harpies

I who have addressed dead kings

Played the roles of the thespian

I hold doubt above all

I ponder the prince or queen who floats in utero

The keeper of the future 

Carrier of my immortality

For the beginning of this new life

Portends the end of mine

Bits of me shall go forth

Ride across the sky with the child

Ascend to its pinnacle 

My wholeness turns away

Bound as it must 

To fade into obsolescence and disuse

The day my bae is born is the day I see my own death I proclaim

No one but Charon ferryman of Hades hears me 

©kcasady2015

Niche

My dear sir

I fear I put you in jeopardy

But 'twas no mistake

The story needed telling

Secrets fester and ooze

Tis better to air them out

Set light upon them

Warm them 

Deaden the rawness

Shrink the rent in your soul

Allow the truth a bearable place in your psyche
A rolling marble finding its niche

Loosening grey matter as it settles

Shuddering then quiets 

Stars scatter over parking lots

With your first steps home 

Prepare for an eternity of assaults

Vow to remain immutable 

Adhere to your truth

Waver not under great scrutiny

Now my dear sir

Slide your key in the door 

And go henceforth

©kcasady2015

Dis'

My dear madam

You tell my story

You take me down a very dark path indeed 

You illuminate my terror

Lay it bare

Cause me to reconcile

Come to terms and surrender

The light is where you are

Its glow purple and blue 

Draw me to the hottest part of your flame

Pluck me from the thorny dark thicket

Relieve me of Dis' embrace

Use diamond shears to break my bonds

Golden cords to pull me free

Bind me up with purple silk

Surround my soul with your scent of lavender

Sweeten my fermented nostrils with vanilla

Fill my gnashing teeth with cloves 

Allow me to return

To regain my vigor

And once again trod my path

©kcasady2015

Glade

My dear sir

You take refuge in an ancient harbor town

Girded by mystic breakwaters

Whose timeworn antediluvian stones cry out with grayness and myth 

You come alone

Piloting a small boat across sassy waves

Drawn by water nymphs and island sprites

Whispering breezes into your tired ears

Edging you away from visions of your new squalling babe

Promising you restful salvation and release

You fall asleep in a glade tickled by faerie ferns and pussy willows

Dreaming of life's continuum

Floating above it

Surveying its nooks and crannies

Taking it all in

You know the universe as God does

But you wake up in the hoary arms of a thicket

Bearing only the pinpoint knowledge of a mere speck

Imagining the faded cries of a woman in childbirth

The putrid mass between her legs

The demon chasing you from her side

You ran and ran

Now only silence closes in

As you lie

In a glade

Beyond an ancient harbor town

Surrounded by mystic breakwaters

Whispering despair into your ears

©kcasady2015

 

Misshapen

My dear madam

You wear a crooked crown

Don a tilted halo

Whichever you choose

Neither suffices

Both sit misaligned

Askew upon your head

You correct the lopsidedness

Twisting and adjusting

Manipulating each circlet

The mechanics defy you

Upon examination

No shortcomings sally forth

You inspect your skull

Feeling round and round

Probing with tender finger tips

Moving aside cowlicks and curls

You find nothing

One thing remains

Herein lies the solution

Your mind is misshapen

Buckled by overthinking

Bulging with indecision

Warped by ambiguity

Exploding with vagaries

Yet I wait to cull the unpleasantness

Guide you by my hand

Soothe your jaded mind

Set it straight with my heart

Even it out

Once again

Laying upon it your golden coronet and brilliant aura

©kcasady2015

Retraction

My dear sir 

I am a shameless wench
Intruding upon you
Desirous of your person
Wishing to know each detail of your life
Do you brush your teeth twice daily
Do your socks always match
What do you eat for breakfast
How do you take your tea
Selfish of me really
I cede you no mercy
I grant no quarter
But you pay no heed
And rightly so
You go forth
Pursue your life
Oblivious to me
Yet if given the chance
I'd bestow upon you my riches
The best of show
My spoils and plunder
Would that I knew sorcery
Could cast a spell
Infuse a potion
But 'tis fantasy
The stuff of magick
So I relent
Leave you to yours
Move on to mine

©kcasady2015

Crown

My dear madam

You took notice

Perhaps also moved by faded majesty

The thought of great bones arising

Seeking solace after half a millennia

Enduring battles modern and bygone

Satiating a hunger long put aside

Military overtones

Buoyed by decorous solemnity 

A falsely rendered despot sanctuously laid to rest 

Grand gestures meant to assuage distant Plantagenets

I reach back through centuries

Entreat a king

Ask a favor

A tract of land

Perchance a title as suited a cousin

Wondering when I am long dead

Will my skull be as his

Long in the cheekbones

Droll eye sockets 

By the look knowing we were of the same blood

My voice cries out

His Highness hears nothing

But his soul echoes through me

Reverberates only once

Ringing my heart 

Encircling it with gold

Leaving a crown

I bow 

Hand over my chest

Grasp it

And toss it upon you 

My dear madam

©kcasady2015

Crown

My dear madam

You took notice

Perhaps also moved by faded majesty

The thought of great bones arising

Seeking solace after half a millennia

Enduring battles modern and bygone

Satiating a hunger long put aside

Military overtones

Buoyed by decorous solemnity 

A falsely rendered despot sanctuously laid to rest 

Grand gestures meant to assuage distant Plantagenets

I reach back through centuries

Entreat a king

Ask a favor

A tract of land

Perchance a title as suited a cousin

Wondering when I am long dead

Will my skull be as his

Long in the cheekbones

Droll eye sockets 

By the look knowing we were of the same blood

My voice cries out

His Highness hears nothing

But his soul echoes through me

Reverberates only once

Ringing my heart 

Encircling it with gold

Leaving a crown

I bow 

Hand over my chest

Grasp it

And toss it upon you 

My dear madam

©kcasady2015

Monarchy

My dear sir

What a solemn day it 'twas

Each word you uttered

Floated above the open tomb

Dangled momentarily

Executed a royal curtsy 

As fitting a dead king's bones

Old and twisted

Rotten and rusted

Now lying in repose

Half a millennia old

Deposed and defeated

Tossed unmarked at Grayfriars

Duly suitable for a villainous usurper

Alleged murderer of young boys

In death slung over the back of a horse

Paraded naked through medieval streets

Alas perchance by the very creature for whom the bard would later have him beg

A horse, a horse!

My kingdom for a horse!

But your sonorous voice

Refined and melodious

Gave lift to the man

Syllable upon syllable descended

Benevolent sprites alighting

Each finding a delicate rib to cleanse

Ancient familial sinew bound you to him

Your eyes perhaps his eyes

His genome camouflaged in a strand of your hair

Concealing your tenuous royal roots

History's fragility held in your hands

Its continuum halted for a moment

You reach back through the ages and perfidies

Touch for an instant an ancient life

Pull it into wholeness

Return to it its dignity

Your soul rests against his

Forever bound up

You fall silent

Your given words spent

©kcasady2015

Noise

My dear sir 

Rest now

Lay ye down

Take a breath and survey your world

A babe soon arrives

Sending you topsy turvy

Scurrying after paraphernalia 

The likes of which defy logic

That play with your tired brain

Spinning it in circles

Hurling it up and down the remains of your childhood

Holding sway over your essence

While in your sleep a tiny hand greets your fingers as they lay on her swollen belly

And you dream of winged flight

Apollo casting a golden shimmer 

Drizzling sunlight across the azure vault

You share your soul through viscous waves fluid with new life

Lulling you as you drown amidst lost sources of creation

Deep within the well of God's girth

As you drift along the River Styx toward the silence of long sleep

Over you go 

Falling into dark rest

Stretched in quiet repose

The halls of life fading into entrails of nothing

And you begin again

Now immortal through microscopic bits of genes and chromosomes

Distilling into cognizance 

Mutating into muscle and bone

Deciding between penis or vagina

But jarred awake you wonder what marvel is this?

You survey her sleeping form

Misshapen by impending babe

Crying out with love and horror

You soothe her but long for detachment 

As you remove your long fingers from her fullness 

And drift away 

Solo

©kcasady2015

Los Angeles

My dear sir

Have you squired your new honey about my town

Have you found my city to your liking

It is bigger than London

We rank number 20 to your 27

Sadly we have no truly old buildings

You know

The ones dating back back and then 

back some more

We call ourselves the New World

The Wild West

We knock over 50-year-old structures thinking them useless and outdated

Fair-minded preservationists do what they can against progress and greed

But they fight with toothpicks against spears and swords

My city dallies with frivolousness 

Loaded with cars trotting down

Streets lined with mock Tuscan villas and pretend Spanish haciendas

Our dress screams casual

We take lunches and meetings

You must explore that funky hipster neighborhood in which you now reside

You needn't go far for fun

Your temporary digs put you in proximity to art and food and drink and the beach

But should you desire

A delightful drive up the coast brings you to a small, rundown shack

Perched above the highway

Where you order shrimp by the pound and eat it with your fingers while you inhale the scent of the sea and rub shoulders with leather-clad bikers 

Take your dear one to the observatory

High in the hills where the expanse of my town reveals its splendor spread before you like the attention whore it is

Gather her up and take her to our tiny museums housing grander art than our grandest museums

Immerse her in technology and show her the magnificent space ship that cruised around the earth bearing brave men and women

Twenty five times it took to the heavens

Twenty five times it accomplished its missions

Before retiring in utter glory and exhaustion to its hanger beside the freeway 

But perhaps you and your lovely choose only to lounge about

Basking in each other's auras

Soaking in love and singularity

Becoming of one flesh as the bible says

Either way

Take my town into your heart

Absorb its quirks

Swagger through its pretentiousness

Burn its offerings into your psyche

Leave unsettled and thus forced to return once again 

©kcasady2015

Fakery

My dear sir

I have a bone to pick with you

It eats at me 

Causes me consternation 

I roll it over in my mind

I can find no peace

You sir profess to traditionalism

To keeping with the old customs

To biding with cultural acceptability 

But sir you do me wrong

Indeed you do a great misdeed

Your words say one thing

Your efforts another

A simple announcement of your engagement

Quietly placed

Carefully worded

Coinciding with the requirements of polite society

Mary Post would have approved

Miss Manners applauded

Your nod to proper courtesy causing a ripple of high regard for your appropriateness

And you sir bask in your propriety

Remind us daily of your consonant decorum

But sir 

Behind the sheer curtain of your seemliness lurks the truth

Of an elicit child growing in the belly of your affianced

Casting a bulging shadow over your noteworthy respectability

Raising silent questions of integrity

Of unspoken hypocrisy

And yet all remains quiet but for your cries of privacy

However the fact remains 

A new life develops in utero

And you forgot to wrap your willy

Now you face a new challenge

Truly 'tis no man's business but yours

And no woman's but hers

The details concern me not

But professing to adhere to tradition

While clearly acting to the contrary

Well sir

You wound me with your dishonesty

And snub me with the futility of it

The having of a child brings great joy

Do not hide behind a false facade 

But come forth 

Show a father's delightful face

Share the anticipation of birth

Tell of your plans, worries and anxieties

Bring back your good cheer

Return to your spontaneity

'Tis much better than faulty pretense and calculated fakery

Carefully placed alongside drab and colorless answers

©kcasady2015

Long Johns

My Dear Sir:

I hope you brought your long johns
The cold permeates walks with the hound
She of course dons her Pendleton
I sally forth wearing multiple layers and a hat
Moving our limbs warms us
And towards the end of the jaunt
Our hearts beating fast
We shed scarves and gloves
Letting the chill descend upon us
Anticipating the waiting pot of hot tea

But you sir
Have come expecting to defrost and frolic
To collect accolades
And inspect your newly possessed uber estate
The one with grand views of the sea
Sprawling and gated
Private
Keeping you from the mega suburbia of this land
Noisy with deceiving sunshine
Hiding behind frozen breezes
And crisp blue skies laden with ice
So while the hound and I enjoy our milky builders tea
You might perhaps pour a cup of Earl Grey
Or even throw back a whiskey
To warm your ice-capped bones
Awakened in brazen frost-bound surprise
©kcasady2015