Tag Archives: death

Beans – an Elegy

Oh to have your plaintive voice
Interrupting our virtual meetings again.
Those expressive meows, your speech with humans,
To distract and entertain once more.

But your cuddly, soft paws
will pounce on the keyboard no more.
Your sentinel spot, standing watch o’er your human,
lies vacant.

Thou eater of cat grass,
which took a week to grow
Thou master of the bowls,
so earning the pride of human souls,

Into the night you’ve gone,
Walked on through that door—
Fare thee well, until we meet once more.

© 2021 H.K. Longmore

Fetal

Curled up in a ball
Wrapped up in a hammock
Swaying in the salty breeze
Saline stained cheeks turn salty red
Red ball dips below the water line

Or, buried in the sand
Naught but head
Protrudes from mock grave
Sand a bearable weight of being
Brings calm to anxious limbs
Deepens once shallow breaths

Huddled ’round a 55 gallon drum
Fire burning low
Fingerless gloves the compulsory style
Company sells tragedy cheap
But Rails sing a compelling song
To be part of the wave

Buried in thoughts of death
Unbidden
He seeks new life

©2021 H.K. Longmore

Monster

Ages have passed
Since I faced this monster last.
Enshrouded by his shadow,
Dark thoughts filled my chateau;

Imagery of death or cage
Filled the breadth of each page.
Monster driven away, gone at last,
My wounds I left in the past.

Free for three-quarters of a score,
Now I hear his distant roar:
My scent has reached his page.
Enraged, he rattles his cage.

His shadow engulfs the meadow,
Darkens my porch, touches my door.
I tremble as my struggle I recall;
Knowing he seeks to even the score.

So I cling each day to the bright souls
Who know only happy care-free me.

© 2016 H.K. Longmore