I cannot remember when
my body knew no pain
when a walk refreshed,
and didn't drop nuclear bombs
down my spine and hips.

I cannot remember
moving without a stick
bracing an unbalanced form,
when the ache didn't prompt
every movement, every fall

I cannot remember
a time when metal shards
didn't flow through my marrow,
minutes seem like decades
as a lake of fire ignites the arch

Why am i?

Driving wind screaming
February holds the reigns
Frozen unshod hooves

Gallop for the rains
Atop the hardened frost line
Below pounding trot

A sleeping world waits
Root and spore begin to plot
Winter changes gait

By Izaan Raza, March 2023

Roses were red and violets use to be blue-
The oceans rose and the world was changed for the new-
The future is cunning and all-knowing but you had no clue-

For what came next shook the books of time-
The past forgotten, and the earth was left abandoned-
Nature is destructive and humble-
But time is ageless-

It's going to be a risk wherever you go
They're going to say that you're all show
You'll always be too young or too old
You fall into doubt and the fire grows cold

When you turn the tables, they rearrange
When you figure out the rules, they change
And when you finally grasp it in your hand
It seems to slip through your fingers like sand

I started this off listening to Iron Maiden Symphonic Medley II
Epic Symphonic Rock.
.

Twisting steps of chasse`
maneuvers born of skill
Knives slicing air and darkness
trying for the kill

A dance of death and horror
two bodies 'round and 'round
Knives slashing, letting blood
spill on rocky ground

Stygian blackness interrupted
cries of pleasure in the night
Another incorrigible sinner
sent to bathe in holy light

Assembled over the years,
I was pieced together by many things.
Among them, wounds that pierced me
without blood, but disfigured me for a time.

Scars and abrasions remain,
from loss and from love.
If I’m fortunate though,
another compress will be within reach,
ready to be applied, when needed,
by my experienced hands.

She hears the ding of
the elevator in the hall,
waiting to see the
apartment door open.
In he walks, putting
hat and coat on the rack
scooping her into his arms,
as she gasps and giggles.
Making sounds like an airplane
he swings her around as
her surprised whoops fill the air.
Her favorite time of day...
when Daddy comes home!

Where do I even start?
to pen my life story
so many tides of change
like sands of an unwavering dune

Longing to rekindle.
All that is now past.
of happier times and of love
As it was then, and is now

I retreat to the pangs.
of a silent broken heart
tearful eyes flow like a river.
Reaching for what used to be.

Where can I even start?
to pen the feeling in words
deep reflections of thoughts
with no beginning and no end

I thoughtfully walked, along a pretty long beach
Sea air in my hair; sand under feet.
Admired the view, that I’ve always known
Homed in and then reached, a ship called ‘Home’.
I live and I sleep where the seagulls screech
It’s ideal, idyllic, so I’m always at peace.
Lost without it, but on the beach near the ship
Like a seagull who landed, not stranded, - I found it.
I was told, by a man who was old, to be lonely is only
A feeling of needing, of which the purpose is solely