Grave Men

Tree trunks of marble

were both bench and table

grape vodka bottles

lay shattered on graves

where sweetness was missing

where a courtyard was stolen

by the weeds of demise

whose stems raised the dead

Heartened by hops, their spirits and song

Heartened by hops, their spirits and song

Pamphlets are drifting

like leaves through the walkway

misleading those waltzing

in thinking it's fall

the wind has grown bitter

purely pernicious

dismantling the gated

one gait at a time

Heartened by hops, their spirits and song

Heartened by hops, their spirits and song

My voice was unwelcome

bruised by the bourbon

that opened the alley

then curved it in curse

for being too upright

aseptic and uptight

I was run out while finding

a plot for my verse

Heartened by hops, their spirits and song

Heartened by hops, their spirits and song

Forgive me, my grave men