Tuesday’s Bliss

Tuesday’s Bliss

i come to the park on tuesdays
the pond here sings
ripples echo her song

i bring my strings to strum
to play along with her melody
joy resonates in the harmony
of sounds separated by time

on days it rains, I do not stay
at home in the dull and worn
i bathe in the drops and watch
as the song changes

her voice always carried
the mood of the ether
from joy and love
to its end in the abyss

I strum my strings by the pond
willfully ignoring, pretending bliss

11/7/25 – Andy McRae

Paranoia

Paranoia


tossing, disturbed and warm in a disheveled bed
your mind is inching towards a locked chest
within it resides the tome, don’t read the tome.

Your eyes dart open wide, you’ve seen what lies
it’s dark, just too dark
what hides beyond the veil of shadows
black on black, blots of ink become dark gods
there to destroy you, ink blot deities that loath you.

You’re fleeing, into the sliver moon lit room
where shadows dance in corners
corners where dark gods lie and wait
for you to near and meet your twisted fate.

LIGHT!

your mind is shrieking for light, a switch, a lighter
instantaneous thoughts of fire, burn the shades away
engulf the venue in which you all play.

Compromise. you’ll just flip every switch,
light every bulb you know, drive the shadows away
allowing you to flee.

Except monsters come regardless, twisted versions
mimics of love come to tear you down, watch you bleed
you must defend from these false dreams.

blood swirling, brain boiling.
you stand above your wife, your family, yourself
cut and torn, life shorn, and death born.

10/24/25 – Andy McRae

Best Left

Best Left


Once upon a time, I pondered cosmic origins
the divine, beyond my perceivable realm
deep it dwells in the depths of the unknown.

Beyond that veil, do horrors tear at the minds that dare
tread past the safeguards natural law placed
madness born of knowledge, a true lucid insanity

to perceive the dimensions hidden amongst space
to unlock this momentarily lasts until cloaked in death
your eyes doomed to see into realms forgotten
lands of bizarre, caramel and dust.

I pondered these cosmic origins
my reality aches from the burden
hurts from the terror, the dive,
into the forgotten and best left,
we thought had died.

10/21/25 - Andy McRae

Crystals and Vines

Crystals and Vines

hands held, as she whispers in my ear
can i hear the rain cascading down
around us the world weeps
while we echo under stone

in her eyes, that is where it lies
those of that crystalline shine
peering out of a skull filled mine

moments flicker in the reel
i feel those moments tick
in that bark i call my heart

he came from behind
the distance in time, between heart beats
follows an iced dagger in my back

red tangles of vines flow out
as i fall onto her, crystalline eyes wide
fear spreads across her face
in flickers the attacker descends
dagger plunging into her breast

us two soon to be corpses lay
crumpled in piles of vines and bloodstones
hands held, as the attacker fades away.

8/20/24

The Stained Blade

The Stained Blade

she weeps with a sword in hand, for soon the hour will chime
hands will turn and a death will come far too early.

dressed in dark robes, they circle around the nude woman
with not but a great sword, ready to cleave the soul
of the damned man she swore to save
now she must shave away his head
to make the one she loved a member of the dead.

tick, tock, tick, tock
time winding down, she mourns the sound.

then the chime, the fall, head severed by fate.

the stained blade clatters on the floor
as a dagger is formed out of the air
committed a deed she cannot bear
with tears in her eyes of blue skies
she rises an arm once more
with a swing and a stab
now more gore.

a naked form topples over,
two bodies bleed
ravenously does the circle feed.

7/14/24

CONNECTION

connection

i pass by the lonely one with the sky cast in her eye.
days pass by, only elements will change, the story is the same.
cycle through dresses, in the winter, coats, never that look.
wonder lost eye, lacking the luster of the reflected sky.
i can see a smile hidden beyond stone, carved by pain.

one day, in the rain, her eyes in flames, pouring as the rain.
cold touches hearts when the chill water puddles at drains.
i can feel her pain, a sudden connection of telepathy tethers.
her to me, me to her, we panic without sound, in rain so loud.
to raise faces, to catch eyes, to strangers with their own lies.

to ourselves, we say, many things that must never reach parlay.
thus we did parlay, in a moment we felt each other in ways.
my anxiety over dead that lie, and her, the broken days.
eyes, the mixture of a rainy sky and opals rolled in rivers.
in the moment that passed, she looked away and continued.

into another day of hatred and lies, we both disguise.
words that must be said, words with power.
i never saw the sky again.
will this rain never end.
it will when.

the sun rise returns in reflection.

7/7/24

Blue Splashed with Waves of Foam

Blue Splashed with Waves of Foam

cascades spray echoes of my name
I listen for more, ways to open some door
alas, she whispers the directions in code

through the thicket that tears, tangles, then thorns

adrift, amidst bramble and stone
with a broken sway as I make my way
but to catch a toe, on a jagged snag
to tumbling out onto a glade

tiny rumbles froth forth from that brook
her hair was a blue splashed with waves of foam,
long and slender her frame, a dress made from names

for long the dead wander here in their sleep
before she can awaken the lost, the lonely, with lies
whereby a blue stream through a glade, lost in the thickets
dead men realize their demise.

R – 6/7/24

Five Locks

Five Locks

black
surrounding
stars slowly fade
into the void where
they reside.

a crack
begins to form
tearing light across
a faded dark sky.

night dies
the sun has begun
its slow rise.

golden rays
bend wicked shadows
along every edge.

five locks
intertwining forces
with a rise to rapid
flowing red cast light.

warms the soul
bathed in one star's light
only a couple of moments
breathe light so vibrant.

9/30/23 - arm

Sculpture Amongst Wildflowers

Sculpture Amongst Wildflowers

in a field of wildflowers lingers a sculpture
marble amongst reds and blues
hues that vibrate with features well defined.

on a rainy day,
water slides down from stone eyes
for then, when the sun peeks by
the field feels more alive.

erosion is inevitable, so they say
but every day that I witness the grove,
where these wildflowers roam,
life still lingers
from the tips of the finger reaching up
the sculpt' holds, being unmarred,
visibly.

as night folds over
flowers hide, and the sculpture fades
woven into the tapestry of the cycle
spinning 'round the wheel,
when erosion takes
composition grasps.

hollow being I am, I ponder
in the field of wild, does the sculpt'
marble clad soul
mirror hollow or whole.

7/9/23

Is This Real

Is This Real

fingers, reaching out to check,
is this reality, or am I lost
endless cycles of madness
echoes of past slowly fading
as an aging mind fogs
existence variable,
if no memories are there.

so again,
fingers clasp onto this momentary
reality, in hopes of cementing
a flag and pole into this
fathoms rising to steal.

eyes tell me to trust myself
but if my vision goes black
and the world fades
am I real? or lost

fog gathers in the mirror we look
hoping for memories to stay
words stumbling around
tips of letters melt
and endless nights burn.

when all has gone black
current or memory
do I exist? is this real
the pain we share in tandem
binding, yet gone
when we blink
does void absorb.

am I losing my fucking mind
fantasies pale my brain
and existence strains my thoughts
were we all, or were we lost
in a wave of, bubbles of
a collapsing time
soon to be washed away
by the void that carries
and follows every day.

7/4/23