Stone Soldiers
Topic: Poems for Zaz

Stone Soldiers

 

shot through the black dream

of goodness and light

sky scattered teardrops

in the hollow-eyed night

we picked up the saving

in a cold falling down

through the broken-iced secret

they just watched us drown

 

we were stone soldiers

and masters of fate

here to help a loving

come so little, come so late

 

it just broke all our pieces

down onto the ground

like a trail of edgy tears

on the sad way out of town

still they died their hands clenching

little pearls of despair

finally run out of ways

to make the care they should care

 

and we were stone soldiers

masters of love

just like a Jesus-child

wings like a dove

 

just shut out the lights for now

go ‘round and lock the door

those kids that used to come here

won’t be back for more

we keep closer counsel now

in each other’s eye

we are the thing we want to see

where angels cannot die

 

but we were stone soldiers

and masters of night

born to tangle tiny dreams

in giant streams of light

 

back then, we were stone soldiers

and masters of the grave

holding back the dying light

with someone left to save

 

and now, we’re stone soldiers

spun around our own new stars

unmade for each other

beyond any battle scars

 

stone soldiers

angel babies

 

tommy for Zaz

Nightbird
Topic: Poems for Zaz
Nightbird

you're a little star
cutting through a dead black night
pouring out your light and life
in every corner of my heart

you're a whisper
so softly in the stones themselves
hinting at the buried dream
just aching for a touch from you

you're a raindrop
falling on the parched ground
thirsting there for tenderness
cooling on my dry cracked lips

you are beauty
shining like a prison break
filling up the cold barred room
with something to believe at last

you're the woman for my man
I don't need to understand
the world

you're a melody
playing in a schoolyard
dancing children everywhere
can't help but sing along

you're a nightbird
wisping through the streetlights
up above my midnight dreams
teasing me to fly away

you're a teardrop
running down my sad cheek
welling from inside of me
dying to pour out on me

you're a warm fire
lying there beside me
drawing me to hold you close
against my winter night

you're the beating of my heart
I know we can never part
we are

you're the last word
in everything I ever wrote
the poem of a dream come true
singing always in my head for you

you're the first breath
drawn in every shining world
filling up the sighs of hope
with passion for a dream of peace

you're the love that must go on
and the dream that's never gone
for me

you're a nightbird
soaring

tommy for Zaz

Angel Of Death
Topic: Poems for Zaz

Angel Of Death

 

when the sky cracks to black

          from a glass-beaded blue

and shakes down the stars

          like a hot falling dew

and tears are like diamonds

          all over the ground

and mouths that are crying

          just swallow the sound

 

when I can no longer stand

I’ll reach out for your little hand

cross over that great black divide

to walk once again by your side

I give you my very last breath

you are my angel of death

 

when sickness and sadness

          lay down on the floor

as fingers of light reach in

          under the door

fallen down in the shadows

          washed away in the pain

love lies bleeding out

          like the last of the rain

 

when I can no longer write

I’ll weep out our song in the night

at your feet lay my emptiness down

shadows of echoes torn from their sound

I give you my very last breath

you are my angel of death

 

a man steps where he steps

          before and after the falls

he hears what he hears

          no matter who calls

he sees what he sees

          through every last tear

and he loves who he loves

          without any fear

 

it’s been such a long lonely while

since I’ve seen that sweet loving smile

put your lips to my lips tonight

lift me up into your loving light

take the love in my very last breath

my beautiful angel of death

 

tommy for Zaz

Disappearing (This Is Our Song)
Topic: Poems for Zaz

Disappearing (This Is Our Song)

 

The hardest part is how the pieces fall away

and memories struggle only partly made

and little holes appear where real used to be

as toward our loving we must fade

 

It doesn't matter that we look across a void

toward the only arms we want to know

This place can't hold me long, I'm lifting to your light

and like a shooting star I'm gonna go

 

I know I'm disappearing with you

I know it won't be that long

'til the only thing left here

is this song

 

I used to think the tears would wash me away

Now I lift my eyes in hope for them to start

and you reach right through me like an angel in my veins

I can feel you beating in my heart

 

I know I'm disappearing with you

I know it won't be that long

'til the only thing left here

is this song

 

It doesn't matter that we cross a universe

We are the home we're bound to know

This place can't hold me now, I'm lifting toward our light

a shooting star I'm bound to go

 

I know I love you forever

I know our dream is that strong

and morning bells are ringing

and morning birds are singing

everywhere we are...

this is our song

 

tommy for Zaz

I Could Not Smell Your Hair
Topic: Poems for Zaz

The pain that you suffer

     in the time you have lost

returns like a story

     on the winds where you tossed

and whispers so sweetly

     in your mouth full of sighs

and drains you so empty

     of the tears in your eyes

 

Tomorrow is a shadow on a road that is not there

Today never happened

because I could not smell your hair

 

So write it up and down

     cut a cross upon my chest

and make a bed of thorns

     to lay my shattered heart to rest

Tie my soul to heaven's gatepost

     a tattered banner in the stars

to keen of love just taken

     beyond healing, beyond scars

 

Tomorrow is a shadow in a night I cannot bear

and yesterday can't make me

because I cannot smell your hair

 

My time is washed behind me

     and in front there is no light

I stand in my same footsteps

     where you left me on that night

 

I'm just a hollow echo of the song we used to share

and our angels all stopped singing

when I could not smell your hair

 

so burn my corpse a daybreak

send the smoke to heaven's air

all the angels started dying

when I could not smell your hair

 

tommy for Zaz

The Long Sweet Fall (Tears for Zaz)
Topic: Poems for Zaz

I can't remember if it was snowing

or if the night was even cold

All I could see were your beautiful eyes

and that soldier sadness in your face

 

You looked straight at me

and I looked straight at you

like coming home for the very last time

There was nothing for us here we needed to find -

just each other

 

And it all went into that long sweet fall

in that half-light of love that should have always been

Sighs here in this shadow of heaven

filling up the last of the night

 

And then they lined up all around us

and just ran us straight into the ground

Angry for losing their senses

Hurt with that thing that they could not feel

 

And then the stars hung their heads

and the broken moon dropped tears

all over our holy ground

until nothing could hold back the flood

 

And it all went into that long sweet fall

and their half-opened eyes couldn't take the light

as they ducked into the shadows of heaven

just beyond our sorrow burning there so bright

 

And my Zaz and I went into that long sweet fall

Laying back into the arms of forever

Carried up over all the shadows of heaven

to rest where worlds spin so softly in unbroken skies

 

Now every step I take is just a long sweet fall

like the tears running down my cheeks

I know the midnight is lifting in heaven

as we rise to make a morning for our love again

 

I swear I heard your little feet run across the kitchen floor

but the dog still sits alone looking at the door

I swear I smelled you on the pillow, felt you move next to me

but it's just the curtains sailing up on a midnight breeze

 

tommy for Zaz always