POISON LEAVES (PART TWO)
Poison Leaves
Part Two
By
James Calemine
...
Hanging of An Innocent Man
Sharp silver needles enclose a vacuum of lies
Binding words weave endless ties.
Tenfold lotus where a vision manifests
Unspoken innocence transgression may suggest.
Thrashing a guilty man at the town’s gallows
Hanging his feet in waters so shallow.
Asking him for parting words of forgiveness
He only wanted love and pardon from his mistress.
Dark bag over his head sucked close to breath
Rope squeezed his neck, introducing death.
Dead man swaying in the breeze
Sheriff’s deputy broke his knees.
Crowd wandering home with a thirst
Another life ending with a jerk.
Everyone silent a death’s penumbra so swift
Decaying heart worried sick.
Evidence points on contrary
Truth emerges soiling a soul’s purity.
Wrong man dangling
Over a guilty man’s haggling…
...
A Rising Sun
Jackals in the shadows
Swans in the mist
Penetration of the spirit
A snake smells fish
Early morning demons
Wine soaked actions
Hatred for the innocent
Welcome diabolical passion
Peace with yourself
Faith in God above
Cast evil away
Only walk in light of love
…
Mortality
Water splashes on the page
Reminding me
Nature holds no regard
For what man believes important
…
Wine on her lips lending a kiss to linger
Resting in green grass on naked blankets of breeze
Unspoken glances allude
Broken silences in alliances we weave——
A face in my mind I can’t remember upon sight
Dialogues and dramas conjured to pass
Lips taste of frankincense and myrrh
Boulevard of broken dreams mold wisdom’s cast——
Stories unfold while events align to occur
Unexpected consequences reveal
An instant in a lover’s arms lost
Mysterious love no spoken word may conceal——
Faded alibis and wandering moods
Eclipsed by kiss scented spring dew.
…
Time, A Dream’s Epitaph
Shadows of mind view windows to the heart
Celebration of time soon falls apart.
A midnight train whines a sad song fading
Forgotten faces once touched seem pervading.
Infinite soul declared at final judgment
Allowing sheep to pass faith as substance.
Troubled future flashes glimpses of tomorrow
Black hearted roads infect with poison’s sorrow.
Unleash yourself from chains of command
On your trodden feet stand.
Harlots remind a nearby passion
Hypocrites talk out of their neck and call it fashion.
Lonely dreamer revels with wine in his hair
Silver tongue maiden offers sin’s sweet flair.
Curiosity stirs within my brain
To taste her honey never offered again.
Unknown roads lead to music of the moment
In realms of wisdom face our own torment.
Her rhythm burning my skin in the sand
Offered her rose, led me by the hand.
No boredom only dullness of the mind
Stranger’s flattering tongue with hearts so unkind.
Crevices of man’s conscience in vanities bleak repose
All his squandered chances sadden him you suppose?
Madness in cities with scents of blood and greed
Fools steal what’s useless to cast off what they need.
Cleopatra filled a heart with desire
A deceitful prince infected her with fire.
Wicked winds play tricks on a guilty man’s mind
Stabbing his wife, an evil path he’ll find.
Celestial birth for a new chain of coincidences
Playing jack o hearts dying instances.
Apple of my eye becomes a seed of imagination
Eyes of my lover gaze with lovely fascination.
Love’s memories injected in time’s bloodstream
Sweet lunacy on her lips, carnal secrets dream.
Beauty’s collage of days and hours spent
Pursuing his mistress’s elusive ancient scent.
Lonesome pilgrims travel on memories path
Mocking the unknown and speaking with wrath.
III
Barefoot Reckoning of An Island Native
Saint Simons abides by a biblical forecast scrolled in the heavens…ignoring a slow voice of ruin. Ghost winds cast disturbing breezes weaving mysterious silences lingering from long ago. A gray tapestry of rain falls into the sea as an unpredictable terror rolls in broken floodgate waves. Deadly electric shards flash without warning in the southern sky. A dangerous tide rises…
An isolated island under a storm of decay since greedy infidels stake all claims for currency. Nature never regards what man considers important…
A miasmatic breeze pervades marsh grass as Spanish moss dangles from sprawling oak groves overlooking the muddy coastline. Verdant overgrowth exists among oak, wax myrtle, magnolia, sassafras, orange, pine, Muscatine, holly, sparkleberry, sycamore trees, and palmetto pines, casting scents of the season. Japanese maples awaken in a morning mist. These flat wetlands possess silent secrets revealed long before any storyteller may tell.
Creek Indians constructed timeless abodes with oyster shells hundreds of years before Spanish culture attracted British interest in Georgia’s coast…eroding colossal timepieces in American history.
Slave songs echo in the wind far off, harmonizing, amid silent marshes. The Ebo Tribe, after being led off a slave ship, drowned themselves in Dunbar Creek to defy plantation owners. Confederate soldiers burned down the first island lighthouse, causing nautical nightmares for Union ships. Yankee troops destroyed Christ Church at the north end of the island where midnight graveyard vines wind a serpentine braid among dark penumbras and maddening midnight sounds. Ruined plantations in a civil war aftermath…old, tabby slave quarters and English fortresses stand silent through history’s metamorphosis. A place where spooky field recordings originated sung by singers unknown to a fickle public’s ear.
Old’ Connie Jackson used to tell me, between spits of dark brown tobacco juice, the island airport once served as a field where the negro baseball leagues played…said he once saw Satchel Paige pitch.
Hear a sunbeam serenade under a raindrop’s truth, cleansing illusions settled from dust years and layers of the coastline receding. A manmade disease destroys the virgin lands. Malodorous scents of greed and disregard for the sacred infect humble, hardworking folks. Island arteries long overloaded, clog. The money hounds crave massive monuments for the landscape. They call in wealthy namedroppers to promote illusion. Strangers move in.
Faith keeps the rain out. Bleary storm sonatas worry residents with hurricane flood warnings as waves roll in…keeping time with an eternal hourglass…
…
A lavender sky rolls away,
Deep red clouds yawn a sunset;
Dusk dawning hides the moon,
Each morning tends to forget.
Seams of night and day fuse
As night drips to black out the sky——
Deep colors fade to shadows,
Light retrieves revenge at sunrise.
Birth and death all in a day,
Monotonous illusions bear away clues;
Daily slumbers of a hidden sun,
Fevers of sleepless moons.
Rain skeletons remain in virgin sand,
Sunbeam revelation of each day at hand.
…
Signs of the Bible
In street and stream
Catastrophe waiting in the wings
Amid scents of decay and greed
Promise for the future
Within a seed of a day
Tattooed flesh under the moon
A bleeding sunset can’t wash away
Unlucky omens
Torment the wayward mind
Strange occurrences reveal
Cryptic actions of time.
…
Subtle color,
Barefoot feet
Light across leaves
So discreet
Filling in time
Marsh River
Sand dollar wading to find.
…
Ocean revelry
Compass needle
Meditation upon still water;
Narcissus drowned in the fountain
Upon waves of swift destruction,
Ear of sea shells
Calibrate distance and depth
Twilight soul,
Sunset prophecy
Weaving shadows of fate
Midnight lightning
Flashing moon glow magic.
...
Undertow
Booming shores awaken a birth
Moonstruck, strange tilts of earth
Ghost ships float towards ordained docks
A guilty captain pondering eternity’s clock.
Happenstantial history sways with a tide
Many a sailor lost and drowned on drunken pride
Nautical nightmares lost in a storm
Pink sky morning leaves the coastline dreamer forlorn.
Unspeakable mysteries conspire a fate
From coincidence everything relates
Gold bracelets and rare silk for hire
Few can live this electric wire.
A biblical fog descends on Sunday morning
Storm clouds blacken and threaten with warning
Light rain falls, awakening a nightmare dawn
Smothering water touches a sleeper’s leg with a yawn.
Quench an undertow desire in gravity for the deep
A creeping wave drowns drunken souls into quiet sleep.
…
Dew drop fresh grass
Sweet shine sister
Soft flower blowing
Blueberry summer kissed her
The valley of wine
Pretty eyelashes shine
…
Gospel chants echo
Ghostlike marsh——
An old Indian wood flute,
Palmetto trails
Winding towards dark waters.
A landowner’s duel…
Dreaming of Spanish fleets
Rum-inspired intentions
A new colony of invention.
…
Poison worlds,
And languid listeners
Wait for golden mists
Triumphant whispers.
Revealing a secret
Evolution of days
Wading deeper
Transcending maze.
Quintessential equinox
Lunar fascination
Prey upon bones
Weeping intoxication.
Birdsongs
Nightingales
Sailboats
Shimmer tales.
Sand bar saloons
Drunken stars
Pretty girls
Distant guitars.
…
Barefoot reckoning of an island native…skeleton sunsets and moonbeam mornings eclipse constellations awakening memories in every grain of sand. Wet stone souls know time spawns a web of complexity beside the ocean. Deep valley waiting wet lipped with waves upon a sun soaked shore. Seaweed breezes cast salt scents amid ancient oak groves. A living hometown prophecy endures those who always claim, “They knew you when…”
The past remains a vapor…a cryptic mist shrouded in history. Faces fade in the paintings of memory. Fruit trees dangerous beyond belief. An onerous burden lingers as dirt roads appear into a sunrise of strip malls. Skeleton chimes echo water wind chaos. Vacancy. Cosmopolitan pretenders and wealthy jivers claim history for themselves. Construction sites breed a traveling rash infecting the island with an ancient plague. Limitless greed spells a fate with salvation dying on the vine.
…
Silver midnight moonbeams
Shining silent mystery deep as the sea,
Generations dreamed identical horizons
A rose of sorrow abides near eternity.
Every day riddles roll beachside
Washing another fish upon a polluted shore,
Soothing sea breezes whisper secrets
Buried under depths forever more.
Quiet musings reflect a seaside soul
Mirror-eyed reflections reveal,
Myriad salvation waits at your door
Secrets of the soul no flesh can conceal.
Creeping water awakens prophetic tides,
Rolling floodgates on the rise.
…
Blood spilling dreams
Fork tongue liars
Drinking sheets of flame
Taste like decay and fire
Serpent smiles
Angel eyes
Sweets between sins
Hard to recognize
Faceless buildings
Litter the shore
Greed and destruction
Reek to endure
Restless tides
Seashell sphinx
Powder skies
Blood spilled ink
…
Demons own scents to sell me
Silver dust illusions float out to sea
Parody in the wink of an eye
Mirages conjure illusions to believe;
Meridians of madness rowing ashore
Gypsy stones floating upon an ocean floor
Casting gold at a mutinous friend
Sinking the boat to save an oar.
…
A Blackfoot beaten path
Under astral calligraphy——
A starlight ceiling
Breathing shoreline antiquities.
…
Prophecy in the news,
Terrorism like a plague sneers
Television epidemic of distorted facts
Born under a sun where smoke disappears.
Memories remain history,
Locusts breed to overcome;
Unsettling panic and terror infect
Unknowing victim’s lives come undone.
Signs in the sky,
Blood red sea, eyes, and moon;
Fear infidels never know
Faithful redemption descends soon.
A psalm for hometown shores,
Revealing an American parable forevermore.
…
High tide sunrise
Dancing dreams roll
Breeze cooling memory
Day in the life unfolds
Footsteps in sand
Like skeletons of rain
Actual mileage
Returning shores never the same
A gull’s flying shadow
Untold secrets under a cobalt sky
Quiet morning song
Echoes remind
Friend’s faces fade
A morning dew under the sun
Thunderstorm parades
Find summer gone
Opposing tides
Weave a tale with irony
Innocent hands
Waving epiphany
A scent from nowhere else
Transgressions remind
Masterful destruction
Nowhere left to hide.
…
Blue sea
Relics on the shore
Hole in the sky
Sunken ships without floors
Painted clouds below
Storm running overtime
Waking moment only a flicker
Yesterday’s baggage cast aside
Mystery hidden under a mask
Fleets in harlequin disguise
Wind blows scents of deceit
Selling truth for lies
…
Green paths a passage,
Towards a rustic temple in these woods;
Gracefully neglected
Weed grown graves
Secret tombstone floods
…
Sunday sunbathers
Witness pollution in the sea
Vultures preying on dying shores
A corpse of deadly greed…
…
Spring Sweet Wine
For the little bird who sings softly
For the little bird who sings alone
For the little bird who sings a tune
No one ever known
The chirping bird flies
Under a clear blue sky
Above trees and grass
Amid sweet light of day
Make a mind wander
From an innocent path it strayed
…
Desolation cowboys
Surfing high noon
Shining through dawn’s early clouds
Pink, orange, and shades of blue
Sniffing breeze with a sun on the rise.
A girl with golden curls and her dog
Seemed content as a fire on a log
When the dog began to bark
The girl screamed shark and
Disappeared into the fog.
A pocket full of notes
Mystery boats
Symbols in clouds today
Opinions float
Hollow men boast
And the wicked can’t find a way.
…
Church bells chime
Smiling wonders
A chorus of unknown birds
Hot marsh mud
Soaking in the sun;
Sea island scents
Rise in mosquito humidity,
Wandering estuaries
Soul streams
Fish of folly
Sun moats
Mystery boats.
…
Water,
Murky from marsh mud;
Shadow sediment
Upon sand
Scarce rain
Clears the sinking water
With natural affinity
For stillness
Child born unto the ocean
Mysterious imagination grows
Like verdant ivy
Up an old oak tree
…
TIMESTORM
Smell a wicked scent
Within the story,
Losing
Greater sense of glory.
Songs remembered
Time gone by
In a dream
A haunted mind.
Bloodhounds and clues
Double edge mystery
Searching ship of fools
Discovering tainted history.
Debts of the past
Fortune warning
Allowed blues skies today
Tomorrow bad luck storm warning.
…
Stranded in the middle
Yesterday falling by wayside
Musing in midstream
Stepping stone to stone
As if in a dream
…
An insane compass——
Sun washed and weary
Seashell lacerations
Summer hunger
Fits of liquids;
Leather skinned,
Bleach boned and blue-eyed
In watershed time.
…
Dead men of time
Reminders of defeat
Staring eyes ahead
Unsure of what they see;
Infinity holds no prisoners
Wandering souls in doubt
Cast away the wicked
By golden gospel clouds.
…
The Fool Moon
Moments in between
When bones are picked clean
Waters rise on this shore
A fading midnight
Skeleton sunset
Upon a tapestry of the ocean floor.
…
An ominous sea’s rage
Astral coincidence perceives
Phantom winds, a thunderous warning
A land of drowning sheep.
Gray skies grin a lightning smile,
Electric chaos creeps across the sky.
Rivers cry into the sea,
Prophecy drips within telling tides.
Biblical scents leave tastes in the air,
Southern skies breathe and remind——
All God’s grain of sand,
Washed away another year in time
Youthful sands inscribed inspiration,
Drawing longtime symptoms of dissipation.
…
Taste for the flame
A midnight creep
Strange scents
Smelled underneath
at such an hour
Who can tell
Thunderstorm omens
From a wishing well?
…
Seasons of another wind
Reborn again
Majestic showers reveal
What no sky can conceal
Blankets of rust wither
Like sunflowers of winter
Seven stream bloom
A tombstone garden gloom
Silence ties a riddle
Songs from a fiddle
Broken wheel of fury
Words spilled in a hurry
Last minute chance
Midnight conga dance
Days slip by to remind
Grains of regret drip from the sky
…
Georgia spring time on the island under a cobalt sky. Sunday morning gospel rolling in with the waves. The azaleas anesthetic scent sends one reeling through the past amid a sun soaked skin trade during riverside reflections. God’s gift to time redeems this carnavalistic folklore, marking each day’s gift.
A true feast of friends…back porch grace…barbecue smokes rises from the pit. Brunswick stew rumbles in the pot. The local flavors cast a net of black eyed peas, baked beans, sweet corn, Crowder peas, fried okra, collard greens, dirty rice, potato salad, boiled shrimp, smoked mullet, oysters catfish, cornbread, coleslaw, boiled peanuts, homegrown hot sauces, pecan pie, cold beer, and red eyed wanderers.
Born in an hourglass with time already running. A bone flute chimera harmonizes a pastoral scene. Smell a touch of collard green jive amid this golden jubilee. Church bells ring in the distance. A butterfly breathing sounds of rhyme with a loving sister nearby.
Sacred bones buried beneath oak groves. A scent sways through the breeze with musical latitudes. A haunted island preserving the epitaph for the mother to whom it belongs. Nostalgic scents mark another desperate generation’s time. Babylonian essences inspire these latter day pilgrims marching towards an exodus of false revelation.
Cumberland Island visible from here with a clear horizon. A distant flock of gulls scan the sands for scraps. Untraceable hardship for the prophetic loner invites shallow contempt from a local confederacy of dunces. Flashpoint revelation brings sweet peace and time. A soul soaked disciple strides upon glorious shores where mystery serves grace in faith’s action. A womb’s inscription…
Society breeds its children…an inoculation the elderly and orphaned know so well…undercurrents of transition in an age beyond…a sacred veil…mystic breezes…the invisible hand of Jesus…a reservoir…sun crazed amid serpentine gardens…a tightrope between sin and salvation haunts a jubilant soul dancing away from the wayward procession…
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