Tag: from the archives

  • words

    [originally posted on sceadugenga.com on August 29, 2020;
    modified September 1, 2026]

    denise, with black & sick-green
    painted nails, rat's nest siouxsie hair
    hefted each of her knit long sleeves
    showed me her arms, each
    etched with words:

    "MAGGOT"
    "WHORE"
    "TRAMP"
    "GROTESQUE"

    in block letters, thinking
    to scare me away
    "i'm ugly, on medication &
    i cut myself.
    see? doesn't that scare you?"
    expecting me to make excuses
    as to why i had to leave

    i smiled sadly, 
    not sure how to tell her
    i'd share her pain,
    if only she'd let me,
    having carried the burden
    of my own

    she drifted away before i might reply,
    an ophelia in the weeds

    Note: I am taking a short break from posting new material and am tossing out a few older pieces as explained here and here. Thanks for your continuing support.

  • only regrets

    [originally posted on sceadugenga.com, September 25, 2020]

    wineglass lipstick kiss
    cigarettes not mine
    the traces left behind

    drunk on her kiss
    "yes", on my lips
    i ached to acquiesce
    but
    haunted by
    my own judas --
    i could never do the same
    to someone i knew

    and so "i can't"
    came out instead...

    she left angry,
    and i was left
    embracing only regrets

    Note: I am taking a short break from posting new material and am tossing out a few older pieces as explained here and here. Thanks for your continuing support.

  • days gone by

    [originally posted on sceadugenga.com, August 31, 2020]

    labyrinthine skyway
    urbanex trespass
    riding the viking city's back
    aloft and above
    throngs and buses
    summer heat

    mills where wheels turn no more
    empty railroad warehouses
    where bums shit, sleep and drink

    mary tyler moore in bronze
    holding court in crystal
    buskers outlouding street preaching
    shouts at the devil in biker leather
    the casual lusty glance 
    of hookers towards cops
    jesus smoking, watching
    unperturbed
    we try to catch mohawk's eye
    — she deftly ignores

    black men in bright
    purple zoot suits
    daring you to enter dick's:
    "are you experienced?"
    next to narrow high windows
    selling fantasy and
    rifle sport record store
    dirty magazines adjacent to
    paperback necromonicon,
    maus and superman
    buck knife wielding rednecks
    who hate the fag you must be
    while the pigs turn away
    ignoring the scene

    bawdy cabaret vaudeville tucked
    behind "SEX SEX SEX"
    because naughty of all stripes 
    belongs to the neon-lights

    sipping at turkish sweet coffee 
    and your java gyro lunch
    waiting for the show
    where a man plays guitar in a
    worn out house dress
    from a second hand store
    and nothing more

    Note: I am taking a short break from posting new material and am tossing out a few older pieces as explained here and here. Thanks for your continuing support.

  • pier

    [originally published on sceadugenga.com, July 23, 2020]

    rank fish and saltwater
    watching the ferry glide
    across the water at dusk
    the fire of the dying day
    dancing on the waves

    Note: I am taking a short break from posting new material and am tossing out a few older pieces as explained here and here. Thanks for your continuing support.

  • crystal tears

    show no steely smiles
    nor crystal tears
    as you ghost dance
    this mortal coil
    bound by razor wire,
    guilt and shame

    [originally posted on sceadugenga.com on July 10, 2020]

  • epiphany

    tok tok tok --
    raven tapping on the
    fog filled street

    [originally posted on sceadugenga.com, June 22, 2020]

  • wraps and chains

    gallons of ink have been spilled
    etching razor blade words 
    into arms wrapped in the rags of
    our stains

    little changed in the years between
    youth and age
    till gagged
    still chained

    [Originally posted June 23, 2020 on sceadugenga.com]

  • your river | a collaboration with tara caribou

    Picture of an audio soundboard
    Photo by Anthony Roberts on Unsplash

    While I was taking my little break from the internet, I wasn’t just twiddling my thumbs. I was not only doing extensive introspective writing (journaling I guess it could be called) and writing in private, but I was working on other creative endeavors as well. One of those was to follow up on a request made several years ago by Tara Caribou, owner Raw Earth Ink (publisher of my book of poetry, galdr, among other fine books) and fellow collaborator on reach (another music/poetry effort) as well as other poetry pieces.

    While we had agreed to do something like this in principle back in 2022 or 2023, one or both of us was busy (or, in my case, musically tapped out) and we could never seem to get our ducks in a row (I’ll take the blame, I’m the one who generally over-schedules myself).

    (more…)

  • stride

    Photo by HARALD PLIESSNIG on Unsplash
    mistwalking the waters
    she strode, one foot before the next
    both eyes set forward
    across that mystic lake
    that raven-haired nyneve with
    her dress flowing back
    flesh pale even against the fog

    originally published 06aug2021, w/minor edits

    I am taking a short break from blogging and have scheduled a few older poems to fill up the empty spaces in the interim.

  • our lady of phantoms

    Photo by Dmitry Vechorko on Unsplash
    were the feral to cast
    chalked white doors
    handprints, handprints
    powder pale worn
    singing us under
    singing us home
    our lady of phantoms
    with one last kiss
    before dawn

    originally posted 13nov2023; the title is the only modified part of the text

    I am taking a short break from blogging and have scheduled a few older poems to fill up the empty spaces in the interim. This poem was originally inspired by the card Mounds of the Tuath from the Oracle of the Morrigan deck.