lullaby for a lost soul

francis booth

© 2011 by francis booth

Contents

lullaby for a lost soul ...................................... 9

empty tomb ................................................. 11

meniscus ....................................................... 12

the storyteller’s assistant ............................. 13

asleep at the switch.................................... 17

alone in the zoo ........................................... 20

chain of souls ................................................ 22

in plato’s cave ............................................. 24

passacaglia .................................................. 25

voices ............................................................ 30

thief ................................................................ 31

skeleton ......................................................... 32

bloodwords................................................... 33

flesh ................................................................ 34

dreadful night .............................................. 35

the absent teacher ..................................... 37

offering .......................................................... 38

towers of silence .......................................... 40

evolving ......................................................... 43

forests of meaning....................................... 45

the lost waltz ................................................. 46

nightstorm lament ....................................... 47

tunnel ............................................................. 48

karma ............................................................ 49

nunc in horror mortis ................................... 50

stigmata ........................................................ 52

frosted spiderweb ....................................... 53

river of no return .......................................... 54

scarecrow songs .......................................... 56

sunyata .......................................................... 58

gone beyond ............................................... 59

iron in the ice ................................................ 61

the final favour ............................................. 62

midnight masses .......................................... 65

still ................................................................... 72

carapace ..................................................... 73

fall ................................................................... 74

the language of the dead ........................ 75

abney park ................................................... 77

bardo ............................................................. 79

nosferatu ....................................................... 80

map ............................................................... 84

exit .................................................................. 85

wrath .............................................................. 86

nostalgia ....................................................... 87

siva ................................................................. 88

winter ............................................................. 89

feastrites ........................................................ 90

the rhythm of the river ................................ 93

eternal light................................................... 94

failure ............................................................. 96

autumn leaves ............................................. 97

safety ............................................................. 98

the party's over ............................................ 99

lullaby for a lost soul

lullaby for a lost soul

a life left behind

abandoned in sand

shipwrecked on shore

washed up by the waves

harbour lights on a starless night

the empty sky

the endless lies

storm-haven safety net

the morning’s catch

riding the rising tide

languidly lapping the sea wall

all the time in the world

empty tomb

poppy memories

seething with ancient sorrow

fields of the fallen

meniscus

blooddread

blackred mere

molten meniscus

viscous with

the still warmth

of lost life

the storyteller’s assistant

the storyteller’s assistant

silent witness

helpless helper

in the wings

tearing tickets and passing props

trapped in the terrarium

under a fading sun

bounded

by the narrowness of the narrative

never knowing where the arrow will fall

as the story twists and turns

like a rat in a dead end maze

as the unsaid threads unwind

waiting and hoping

for the happy ending

for the fat lady just to sing

one more time

powerless

over the fate of the protagonists

never able to reward

good with good

or evil with evil

not to requite love

nor revenge pain

delay death to the living

or restore breath to the dead

or deny the dark designs of destiny

to vanquish the victors

or give victory to the vanquished

eternal observer

actor acted upon

but never asked to act

asleep at the switch

asleep at the switch

passed out on the parade ground

lifebloodlines coursing

through chiselcarved channels

in the charnelroom cobblestones

chased through conduits

cascading through canals

gullies gouged in the guttering

tunnels troughed

veined

drained

siphoned

sluicing through sewer straits

surging in streams

red cells

running in rivulets

rushing in rills

trajected direct

through tidal tributaries

flowing free

to open sea

alone in the zoo

alone in the zoo

trapped in a cage of darkness

steel bars of fear

pressing in on perspiring skin

eargouging sounds

of crushing claustrophobia

ripping apart the air

as you search blindly for the key

scrabbling and scratching in the dirt

screaming breathlessly for release

from life without parole

chain of souls

chain chain chain

chain of souls

caravanserai of lost spirits

wandering

sandblind

through dark wormholes

groping

towards a mirage of life

no more rivers to cross

in plato’s cave

staring at the stars

from the bottom of the well

shadow cave puppet

passacaglia

the passacaglia of passing time

a slow dance in a slothful trance

of cold romance and love lost

letters etched in bitter frost

of longing unfulfilled

hope killed

by broken will

the broken glass

on the window sill

cracks let in the winter chill

a ground bass flays the frozen ground

the broken consort’s canon sounds

a chaconne of shame

an austere ostinato

on snow dusted fields

the hidden tracks

of tricks and traps

concealing gaps

in the warp of life

and the weft of death

playing a sad story of invented meaning

pointing out

the pointless patterns

portrayed and displayed

relayed

to an audience dismayed

by the dismal din

of discordant chords

diminished fifths

and unfinished riffs

unresolved progressions

and slow regressions

third inversions

final versions

total immersion

in ice cold water

a frozen stream of consciousness

momentaneous being

a faint flicker of seeing

a glimmer of hope in a splinter of doubt

unkind words in minor thirds

a masqued ball in a mirrored hall

a lonely dance

the one remaining chance

voices

voices rising up

from beneath the frozen ground

but no one listens

thief

time the great stealer

breaks in through the cellar door

stumbles up the stairs

silently in the darkness

leaving nothing of value

skeleton

steel framed skeleton

rotting, rusting, empty shell

uninhabited

bloodwords

bloodwords

gouged out of

starflamed

nightsky

glittering like

flamewreathed

crystalline daggers

blazing with angelfire

flesh

the flesh rots so fast

the soul gets trapped forever

deep in the crawlspace

dreadful night

all hope overcome

reason defeated

fear injected

directed

through pulsing veins

throbbing arteries

heartthud

tabla tapping

taiko thunder

silently in the

tombdark

welldeep

gravequiet

dreadful night

the absent teacher

inch squares of gold leaf

on the hollow bronze image

the absent teacher

offering

dusky damask red

offering flower

spurned

crushed

fragments dry as

bloodred

bonedust

pressed in the cracks

of

chalkpale

snowcold

deathfrozen

lips

towers of silence

fold on fold

furled and unfurled

a palimpsest of penitent pentimenti

a paradigm of possibilities

forging a future of fleeting fragments

molten memories in a misted mirror

spider cracks in frosted glass

the imprisoning prisms

deflecting reflections

cleaving the light

violet to red

violence and dread

the fears of the past

and the tears that don’t last

and who knows where the time goes

and who knows how the truth shows

through artifice and edifice

through the chinks and crevices

the wrecks and ruins

of remnants and remains

a raffia raft floating on dark waters

the flotsam of forgetting

on foam flecked seas

washed up by the waves

landed stranded shipwrecked

safe haven on storm sheltered shores

but soaring above

the vertiginous verticality

of seven towers of silence

evolving

firecracked

ashwhite remains

bones shattered

embers scattered

windblown dustswirls

falling and fertilising

forever

the revolving

evolving

expectant earth

forests of meaning

forests of meaning

leaves from forgotten notebooks

uninterpreted

branches of significance

dropping with overripe fruit

the lost waltz

dancing alone

in a wedding dress

midnight

moonlight

edge of the sea

nightstorm lament

nightstorm lament

sirensong in the silence

sea-fret blanket of grey fustian

muffling the meaning

suffocating the sentiment

stifling the song

tunnel

white noise, bright white light

the tunnel ends in darkness

and never turns back

karma

you pay as you go

evil done brings evil back

good returns to good

your debits accumulate

death is no escape from debt

nunc in horror mortis

nunc in horror mortis

ora pro hora nostra

whoresmile heal us

hourglass reveal us

fold back the sands

of time's straight arrow

as strait as narrow

down the final straight

with a limping gait

to the final gate

too little too late

stigmata

passion play terror

the martyr’s weeping stigmata

lachrymae sangre

blood flooding the parched tundra

searing pain of marks of cain

frosted spiderweb

frosted spiderweb

white on black december sky

moonspun miracle

river of no return

but over the cracks

of the

dustdry

bonegrey

earth of life

hangs

blacksweet

fallripe fruit

bloodbloom

hanging

on the beckoning branches

of the wishtree

on the far bank

of the swollen

swirling

river

of no return

scarecrow songs

rivers of silence

flowers of emptiness

scarecrow songs

set in lachrymal languages

seagulls

falling from an empty sky

leaving no trace

the sightless eye of the lifeless heart

sees countless

colourless dreams

dissolved into desolation

destruction

destitution

devastated and despairing

sinking

through six strata of suffering

the scarecrow’s last

sad smile

sunyata

godless temple

soulless tomb

chryselephantine athena

ruled the world

where is she now?

dharmachakra’s empty centre

gone beyond

I walk through fire

but I am not burned

I float through water

but I am not drowned

I burrow through the earth

but am not suffocated

I fly through the air

and do not fall

I live amidst the mud

but am spotless

In the midst of the smoke

I shine brightly

In the fast flowing river

I am a rock

In the clear blue sky

I am a white cloud

I live in a world of darkness and fear

but am not afraid

iron in the ice

iron in the ice

frozen hulls of rotting hulks

crushed by floating floes

fast in the translucent trap

fish swim freely underneath

the final favour

the dead hand

of disillusion and despair

descends

on your shoulder

dropping like damocles

in the darkdeep

cold arm crawling

like a bloodletting blindworm

cradling your neck

like a noose in the night

gnarled and knotted

like deviltree root

frostfingers flexing

feel your icechilled chest

and harrow your heart

stabbing like scorpion stings

intravenous injections

of potent

poisonous potions

while

inside your ear

is a doubletongued

duplicitous demon

dissembling and deceitful

as the hand hovers

at your choking throat

fulfilling the final favour

midnight masses

mooncold mouths

in translucent faces

glimmering with snailtraces

shimmershifting

drifting

through summerlost reveries

revelling in revelations

silent cerebrations

of little victories

vanquished

vanished

banished

to the cellar of sadness

of mighthavebeen madness

regret and repentment

resentment

a continent of lost content

the cracked cement

of heavenspent chances

backward glances

through memoryglass

misted

by the slime of time

slathered

with the moss

of unrelenting loss

unremitted cost

the cross to bare

your sole

hope of redemption

from sins of remission

a coward’s contrition

in the face of the force

of destiny’s child bride

on a wild ride of wide strides

through avenues

of abandoned hopes

and hangman’s ropes

nooseknotted

rotted

by timeworn terrors

erasured errors

lost in the missed

and never been kissed

on rosehip lips

sealed with a hiss

of slithering snaketongue

hatespun

faterun

firedances

bloodsacrificing lifechances

deepslicing knifeglances

lances of longing

and wronging

songs of unbelonging

to crowds of unknowing

bestowing their curses

in spiteridden verses

nighthidden

unforbidden guests

unwelcomed

blacklight visitors

firewalkers

nightstalkers

midnight masses

yearning to breathe free

still

still faintly beating

maybe somebody will come

before it gets too

carapace

red skin on dead skin

carapace of scar on scar

remembrance of pain

fall

bright coloured flowers

reach for the sun, fail, and fade

and fall, back to earth

the language of the dead

the language of the dead

ghostwritten

in blackletter

engraved

scratched

on dank sallow walls

rust

etched nail deep

into bright metal

spelling out

screamsilent cries

from the necropolis

calligraphies

undeciphered

by the still

living

abney park

scared around the sacred ground

terrified by graveyard sounds

ein jeder engel ist schrecklich

urns and angels, ancient bones.

cherubs grimace from the stones

ein jeder engel ist schrecklich

ivy covered angel wings.

silently dead voices sing

ein jeder engel ist schrecklich

bardo

skyburied bodies

exposed on the mountaintop

vultures overhead

the body reaches the sky

40 days and born again

nosferatu

chalkbone white

fingers curling

lines of alabaster dust

nacreous nails

of bitter almond

parched parchment pearls of skin

stretched over ivoroid skull bone

kohl-lined caliginous sockets

redroot veined rims

surround

pewter-pupilled eyes

blood spiked

cracked crimson lips

bared back

reveal ruby flecked canines

sharp as stiletto steel

aphotic form

ancient bones

silhouetted on silent stones

shimmering

in sunless

stygian shades

of cavernous catacombs

the silent sepulchre

epicene aesthete

twice as old as time

emaciated

exgratiated

insanguinated

satiated

surfeited

solitary

secluded

sequestered

sad

map

the edge of the map

beauty begins with terror

monsters lie in wait

exit

the nearest exit

in case of emergency

may be behind you

wrath

the world turns and turns

and always turns out badly

endless wrath of god

nostalgia

an abandoned park

the empty swing creaks softly

memory’s cool breeze

siva

destroyer of worlds

dancing on the shattered bones

deaf to the screaming

temples rise from the ashes

flowers dare to face the sun

winter

preening peacocks cry

in the silence of the night

winter is at hand

feastrites

feastrites

fleshquaking

fortunebooks foretelling

the passingbell passes by

doppler shifted

blue to red

nightfarer

nightfoundered

jaggy shocks

on ragged rocks

highviced imaginer

incarnated

birthnight brainsickness

diskindly

dishumourously

dissevered

mancipated

in momentaneous mortifications

excantated exequies

of excarnification

in noctuary obtenebration

relumined and revicted

in the pravity

of postluminous perennity

the rhythm of the river

a rhyming timeline

the rhythm of the river

running in iambics

eternal light

flameflickers

firefluttering

stammering stuttering

hammering muttering

disembered limbs play

unremembered hymns

to treebarked seas

in timescaped lees

stormsheltered arbour

in a havensafe harbour

halflights twinlking

with homeflight inklings

pillowsoft pinpoints

nocturnal bright

to eternal light

failure

souldark certainties

hanging in the empty air

failure foreshadowed

autumn leaves

spring forward fall back

autumn leaves a bitter taste

of disillusion

safety

for your own safety

everything is forbidden

or compulsory

the party's over

the clock strikes midnight

no use throwing rocks at god

the party's over