SOUL I

Riding the wave of unified sighs
as the general people take to their dreams,
I float down the shadow-soaked roads.

A dense cloud-
sweet,
like sorrow,
flowing,
like honey-
hangs like paper lanterns
over a once-remembered town.

The people have long since crumbled.
Buildings turn their hollow heads
to follow me as I glide through-
they wonder what I’m looking for.

“There is life here,”
I whisper,
and thousands of children run to me,
shrieking with delight.
Yes, there is
life here. Yes,
there is life.

SOUL II

Daylight turns the leaves brown
while it turns my blood to stone.

I break the glassy night;
I take to long-forgotten streets.

This empty town smiles at me
with fragmented teeth.

I’ll rip her rotting flesh to shreds
if only she will return the favor.

The silence is laughing, or
perhaps that is me?

I am here, darling;
I am home.

I am ready to crawl
back inside my coffin.