He raged to live
        Flamboyant, aggressive, strident
        African-hatted, cowboy-booted
 
Seeing himself Warrior
                           Hunter
                           Seducer
  
        A swaggering drunk
                                            on campus
   
        Reading his wild verse, booming the words
        His audience in thrall
                           Sadist
                           Racist
                           Bigot
                           Anti-semite
                                            and genius
  
Master of Metaphor
Falling from the catbird seat
                           Lost to alcohol and failed aspirations                                            of kingships and glory
   
                                                            Falling
    
                                                                  Falling
       
                                                                        Falling
   
gone

As I step out into the night,
I wonder what might come my way.
For you see I must stand as a light.
To guide the ones, whom have lost their way.
Through storm or calm I must stand.
Never yielding to what might lead me astray.
The shiny shield you see upon my chest,
Is a symbol of honor to meet the test.
It was given by all of you.
I am your servant this is true.
But sometimes I need a word of encouragement.
Job well done.
To raise the sprit of this humble one.
The law was written by God.
Handed down to man.
All we can do is what we can.

Sun dips behind peaks
Long shadows cross valley floor
A long night ahead
  
Orange fades to dark blue
Venus kisses crescent moon
Cool air turning cold
  
Scintillating sky
Majestic Orion awaits
His secrets abound
  
A wanderer calls
Saturn glistens in the lens
Long awaited sight
  
Streaks pierce the black sky
One, then two, then many more
Leonids arrive
  
Twilight in the east
Stars flee from approaching dawn
A night's journey ends
  
[*Meteor shower that occurs each November]

From a Renaissance hill in Italy
           Eagle-perched above the Arno,
           He wrote of mythic heroes --
  
Of Demigod horsemen whose blazing guns
           Tamed the West,
  
Of missioned doctors with surgical hands
           Making sick men well
  
Of secret agents, averting war,
  
Of Yukon teams sled-running wilderness ice,
  
Of young swordsmen, blades against Borgia,
  
Of crime-solving detectives in skyscrape sin cities,
  
Of race track touts, muscled boxers, lost lovers,
  
Of castled knights, and pirates mad for treasure.
                  All these as Brand,
                           and Challis
                           and Morland
                           and Baxter
                           and Frederick
                           and Silver
                           and Manning ...
                   Hiding behind these pulp-clad names
                           Until war claimed him
                           A shell fragment stilling his heart.
           The keys now silent,
           The stories told,
           The heroes at final rest,
                           with him,
  
In Italy.