DECONSTRUCTION XLII

all words used in this poem taken from lyrics to the album Document #8 by Pg.99

 

my darling mistake / must I speak of you

only / as a wound? A ghost? // a whisper,

 

a lie? / oh, you suffocating heart / oh, you

poison smile // you are just a dream / a vampire

 

in a black gown / coughing in the rain // for you –

my nightmare / waltzing around the ashes / of youth

 

& beauty // I will count the stars / & every single

sorrow / crumbling in your mouth

 

 

 

Deconstruction XVIII

all words used in this poem taken from lyrics to the album ‘The Underdark’ by Funeral Diner

 

We found

in ourselves

 

a silent sky,

an ugly darkness,

a killing fire.

 

If we kneel

in smoke

& shadows,

 

it is only

to wash the guilt

away from our hands

 

before we collapse

from the heavy weight

of all this bad blood.

 

and we may

be drawn into

soft shrouds

of failure,

 

but we have

sharpened

our daggers

on the neck

 

of every foolish,

hate-filled god.

 

 

 

Deconstruction XXII

all words used in this poem taken from lyrics to the album ‘Mass IIII’ by Amenra

 

so incomplete, this prayer – the scent of incense

& roses burning, feathered light broken & ground

into glass. these ashes painted black on my palms.

 

how i wish to ascend from darkness.

how my heart & my flesh have always been

at war. would that i had the courage

 

to stay these knives, to give of myself

as a sacrifice. to bury my scars in song.

 

 

 

Deconstruction XXIX

all words used in this poem taken from lyrics to the album Bless The Martyr & Kiss The Child by Norma Jean

 

Ignorance laid the future in a casket

& mediocrity sealed its grave. Six bullets

 

to the face of god. Oh tongue – you elegant

leech. You polished silver dagger, slick

 

with blood & fragile as glass. If I speak

of grace in tragedy, it is with a mouthful

 

of diamonds. Roses in a field. Velvet. Gunfire.

The whole world made victim of an endless war,

 

by sentimental killer in a black tuxedo. Created

from flames by a silhouette dancing

 

in a cobblestone street.

 

 

 

 

Deconstruction XXXV

all words used in this poem taken from lyrics to the album Innocents by Only Living Witness

 

So this is how an empire ends – not

in ruin, but in a downpour of Pandoran

 

fire. The dawn sallowed, a righteous man

drowned in shallow water, hands unbound

but with his arms behind his back.

 

All the mountains aflame. All the skies silent

& hollow, teeming with cold gray light.

 

 

 

 

William James is a poet, aging punk, and train enthusiast from Manchester, NH, USA. He’s a contributing editor for Drunk In A Midnight Choir and the author of “rebel hearts & restless ghosts” (Timber Mouse Publishing, 2016). Follow him on Twitter or at http://www.williamjamespoetry.com

Author photo by lauren elma frament