Messenger, Be Gone

By: Gus Victoria

Tortured messenger beyond the shade of knowledge

You toil in memory to keep alive

That which best is forgotten.

A spark here sets aflame

An inferno of regret

That casts dancing shadows of doubt

To play on the face of the fateful beauty

To whom we’ve given all.

We drink the wine of joy

Soured to despair

Poured by unsteady hands

Into a chalice made

Of once-broken glass.

We drink deep,

And dare not sleep,

For dreams wake

Demons thought slain

That we cast out in vain.

No messenger,

Best be gone,

Leave be the tattered memories,

Leave be the shattered future,

Be gone,

Be gone,

I drink.

Ode to a City, Oh City

Your sun sets on a gaudy stage

The moon rises a lantern

To reflect my rage.

History hidden untouched

Unknown and unseen

By citizen-thieves of a kingdom deprived.

Bourne on tired chromatic wings

Born empty, child of silver,

Aborted dream

Of the deified Dreamer.

You call from a shallow grave

That once was a crib

To a legacy without inheritance,

To a lie surrounded in dust.

On the Steps...

By: Gus Victoria

On the steps, velvet-lined and incense-infused,

Of that grand cathedral I left a shattered dream

Split a loving heart,

Spilt all that Fate’s chalice had for me saved

And knew not the crime

Until the sentence was carried out.

I battered in tenderness the soul that cared

And no, for neither were we spared,

Engulfed in each other

Ashes in the breeze

As the wind changed.

Dreams became memory,

Joy was misery unknown

And sadness an old coat.

We struggled against the storm of passion

And the uncertainty of tomorrow,

We fought the shadows of doubt

And the light of reason.

We burned in the flame of love

Until we were no more,

Consumed together,

Cinder and ash

On the steps of our wedding altar,

On the steps of St. Patrick’s

Chasing the Fairy #12

By: Gus Victoria

A ghost,

A spectre,

A feeble soul

Besmeared and befouled

Searching,

In toil shattered,

For a cosmic partner;

A soul not lost

In mind complete,

Joy near beheld,

Physical pleasure

Is known

Before all ecstasy

Is fully realized,

Plaintive cries

Thrown to the wind

In climactic embrace

Do little to bend

The iron will

Of selfish indulgence.

Tears of Strength

By: Gus Victoria

Cry!

Cry, no more…

Tears of strength

Shed bear no weakness.

For the distraught

In Misery’s bosom held

Hold not long there.

Surrounded by love

Given and taken,

Known and discovered,

All strike deep

Into the heart of grief

That seeks to destroy

As death in visit

Charged high

The price not paid

But stolen dearly.

We betrothed to grim despair

Look not upon

The spectre of pallid death,

Divorced instead, we beseech

The mistress in memories found

Of days now gone

That shine as diamonds in the heart,

Stars in the soul, 

Specks of joy

Amid a sea of sorrow

We sail on the winds of hope,

Bourne on the wings of friendship,

To a port unknown,

She as our guiding light,

She as our eternal flame.

Though poor sailors we,

In our hearts she’ll ever be.