Watching Clouds

by B.F.O’Connor

I’ve walked this road so many times
I know most every tree
My heart is wary, strength all spent
could someone set me free

The past is gone, as is my joy
my heart is on my sleeve
Missing you tears at my being
as I have learned to grieve

I avoid the sun, so I stay inside
sorting through our memories
My tears still fall like summer rains
The hurt just will not ease

So many things that were not said
with you still at my side
In dreams my heart still tries to mend
the hurt that hides inside

every single night I take our walk
around the west farm lane
I pause at places that remember you
And suffer my own private pain

I watch the clouds from our meadow log
just like we used to do
life has stopped, I’ve been consumed
I want to follow you


Copyright © 2022 B.F.O’Connor

Shattered

By brian francis

Soft moments
Hard breathing
The world spinning ’round
A simple promise
About forever
Shattered on the ground

Oh I believed in the graceful touch
I deeply yearned for it oh so much
I know now it wasn’t meant to be
The way it was always told to me
Angels dancing in a clouded room
Demons casting their depressing gloom
Falling from the great heights of love
Shattered on the ground

Hard lessons
Smooth talking
You’ve made me the clown
Heart broken
Lost feelings
Shattered on the ground

Copyright © 2021 brian francis

Zombie

By brian francis

Here I stand beside your grave,
unwilling to release you still.
Remembering you, hauntingly clear,
smelling you, and feeling you close.
The chill of fall is upon me, damp
and cold, are these lonely nights

I find myself tending our memories,
tending them like a garden;
nurturing them with my tears.
Listless and sorrow-filled
I wonder through yesteryear,
cherishing what I had once been:
whole, happy, united with you

Now here alone in the drizzle
I stand beside your grave.
Blinded with grief, longing release,
wanting to follow you,
to find where you are hiding-
to embrace you just one more time.


Copyright © 2021 brian francis

Providence

By brian francis

Oh his cloths are torn and ragged
And his face is worn and grey
He does not look into your eyes
Instead he turns away

He makes you feel uncomfortable
Just seeing him around
He doesn’t ask for handouts
But he doesn’t turn them down

He once wore ties and leather shoes
And drove a fancy car
He once went home to a child’s arms
And wished upon a star

But everything that comes can go
And everything that lives can die
And every man with happiness
Can soon learn how to cry

He sits there in the summer’s heat
And shivers through the winter’s cold
A shadow of the man he was
Lost deep in despair’s hold

Copyright ©2020 brian francis

Afterlife

By brian francis

If someone would have told me how hard it would be
to wake up every day without you by my side.
Or if I had simply realized, the depth of the pain
The despair I’d endure no matter how I tried

maybe I would have been ready for the loss of that day
and the ensuing masquerade: “I’m alright.”
the pain endured months and years still an open wound
still a veil of tears shed alone in the night

I know their good intentions those who’ve loved us both
I’ve felt the warmth of their love everyday
but nothing could replace you or heal this broken soul
not the tears I shed or the words I pray


Copyright ©2020 brian francis

This Valley of Despair

By  brian francis

With every day I wake at dawn
Remembering that you are gone.
And life by nature must go on,
So my tears wash away the loss of you.

Coffee still warms my soul
Starting out a new day.
The rituals remain unchanged,
Yet, wholly different.
The birds still sing their songs;
Their pitch, too sharp it seems.
And the shadows of the oaks
still creep across the lawn,
but, I do not see them in the same way.
somehow my heart is missing and out of touch.
somehow I am floating in a strange place all alone–
even, while others dart around me concernedly
trying to do their loving part in filling the void.

When at night I sit alone, waiting for bed,
I find myself spending time wondering.
Drifting through memories of you.
Maybe filling the void is how I should think.
Can you fill a black hole?
But then worry of forgetting haunts me.
Your face your smile the sound of your laugh.
I will no longer hear these, I know!
Yet, at times it seems to echo
From the walls that surround me.

I am still missing you with every breath…



Copyright ©2020 brian francis

Together in Spirit

by brian francis 

Time has passed since you’ve gone
Life just isn’t the same.
I sit alone to watch the dawn,
yet, your memories remain.

The path now seems more uphill,
the pace now slowed to a walk.
Your face, your touch I remember still.
Oh, just to hear you talk.

My time has come to walk alone
Yet, your presence I still feel.
In the memories of life we’ve sown
Our love is still so real.


Copyright ©2020 brian francis