Gently stroke my hand

Once more in your dreams

Then say goodbye forever

As you walk into the night…

I feel like a stone

Dropped into a well

Never to see your face again

Behind your subconscious veil…

My crime simply to be free

Living without judgement

Too much for this world 

Piety sought above mercy, grace, forgiveness…

Virtue the rotten fruit

Of the new freedom proclaimers

Enslaved by their ideology

Foaming at the mouth at the dissident

The once bullied now bullying

Will I die a nameless number ?

Yet my love I miss you

Same old pain again

Just a poor simple poet

Who never played the game…

Feeling closer to the outsider

The outlaw, eccentric, insane!

Always a loner even in the crowd

Deep inside my silence 

Really shouts out loud…

I loved you so my darling

Perhaps the last I ever will

As I sit upon my pale horse

Observing from this hill

The battle that rages inside me

Reality versus what I feel…

Will my ripstop camouflaged heart

Ever find love again?

Returning to the desert

To give it time to mend

So touch my hand just one more time

Before you vanish out of sight

A memory , ghost, a fading scar

A shooting star that surely burned so bright……..

Mark Bolton, July 2023

@urbandandyldn