the caged heart...

little bird

little bird

how do you chirp

far too captured

too enraptured

to wander forth

to flee the door
to close the door

little bird

little bird

how do you chirp

far too captured

too enraptured

to wander forth
to fly to soar

to love and more

life untried

locked inside

the dreams you make

the dreams
no one can take...
.

would you like to hear the words spoken?

your eyes screamed...

your eyes SCREAMED at their killer

come then and take this empty life!

brandish now your gleaming scalpel

slice open my waiting beating breast

without you my soul can never rest

your eyes SCREAMED at their killer

you who had stolen my own heart
come then!  take my life!
kill me!  kill me!  for i cannot be your wife!

your eyes SCREAMED at their killer

searched the bleeding caverns of my heart
beseeched my soul to stop to turn ‘round
but there was no other way i had found

your eyes SCREAMED at me
as i turned
to flee

us

~

would you like to hear these words spoken?

from islands and highlands...

from islands and highlands
from shores of emerald green

from mountains high with rushing streams
they came to live their life-long dreams

leaving behind the place of their birth
traveling here in a third class berth
                   
they brought with them the crest of their clans
from the lovely lands where it all began

danced their jigs and told their tales of yore
of life and love on those far shores

here they lived and here they died
for a better life they truly tried

and so it is that their own offspring
now long for kilgary and dancin’ the fling

yearn to return to the home of their hearts
to live their dreams right from the start

on islands and highlands
and shores of emerald green

~

my paternal grandparents

clarissa caroline mcgalliard [1884 - 1972]
and charles gilstrap [1884 - 1946]

the marriage of ireland and scotland

would you like to hear the words spoken?

been so long...

been so long since the sun did shine
in this little ole’ heart of mine 

body’s all tired an’ depressed

makes me think its possessed 

pregnant spirit bout to burst

beginnin’ to see it’s a curse 

ain’t had no lovin’ in such a long time

just hope i ain’t gotta turn to no crime 

don’t know which is worse

love hunger or spirit thirst 

neither one ain’t no good

but you know i done what i could 

gotta wash away all this glum

need me a little jamaican rum 

slip on my red dancin’ shoes
step on out in life all new 

git me a bite of somethin’ sweet

have me a little suga’ treat 

gonna do more’n what i can

an' git me a good-lovin’ man!

would you like to hear the words spoken?

blue velvet dreams...

i wonder of you
when you are not here
with me near me

when you are
not to be found
to be seen

i wonder of you
on those nights
in the darkness
of my own devices

 

when there is no
light seeping through
the blue black velvet
of my thoughts of you

no beacon of life
to show me the way
to help me till the light of day

no gentle caress upon my breast
no sheltering from the storm
of sleepless nights without your cradling softness

i wonder of you
of where you are
with whom you share yourself
those nights
when you are not here
with me near me

when the blackness round
rushes into my dreams
like melted licorice sticks
smoldering there till
light of morn

i wonder of you
of where you are
if the other misses you
when you are here
as much as i miss you
when you are there

if she thinks of you
when you are here
as i think of you
when you are not

if her thoughts twist
into turmoil in your
absence as mine do

if her heart sings
in exaltation of your
presence as mine does

if her dreams
drift in waves
of blue velvet
when you are near

as mine do

i wonder of you
.
.
.