City Of Souls

Collaboration with the very talented "The Viking", it has been an honour working with a man with a brilliant mind, and great ideas. Any errors are down to me!

A truck stop on the Souls Highway

My foot and tires find rest on the gravel

Beneath a moon I faintly recognize.

Down this midnight interstate I’ve travelled,

Far away from the City of Souls.

My feet itch, My palms sweat

Faint whisper of beckoning opportunity

Passage of time offering sweet immunity

Where all my ghosts can be laid to rest.

Sit with me, honey, in this dusty light.

Your eyes look heavy in that pretty face.

A sorrow weighs upon your heart tonight;

Let’s have a drink before the highway calls.

Tell this stranger a secret,

And maybe I'll tell you some of mine.

City of old seeped in dust and mayhem

Hungry pavements swallow every love song

Lyrics twisted into the raw bitter end

Sung shallow with empty emotion

Love trapped in colours of rainbows

Bowing in solitude, weeping with loneliness.

I could tell you a similar story,

Of streets that reek of gasoline and rage.

A sodium beacon between Los Angeles and Hell.

Jutting from the desert like a steel Jericho

In this city, gunslingers fell,

In this city, mad ghosts do tell.

I have seen the rivers of freedom

Visionary grasps in beckoning dreams

Gulping sweetness of pure oxygen

I swear, likened to town of Bethany

Where no twisted bitterness exists

No land of heartbroken casualties

They told me all this, of Paradise bliss

Suitcase packed, ghosts I escape

So take me, take me to this place.

I knew an earthbound Heaven like you speak

A port anointed in crystal moonlight.

The energy of the night could strike you blind,

Igniting the purest fires between hearts.

This desert, though, holds no place like that.

No Mount of Olives or waking Lazarus.

I ask, from your ghosts do you truly escape

Or into the arms of demons do you run?

My ghosts track beating of my heart

My demons restless each day after dark

I see you, we share the same cup

And yet,hollow are your bones, eyes of sorrow

Cold is the air, your skin paper thin

What is it my travelling friend that haunts you?

Where do I end and you begin?

Are your memories telling of my extinction?

Extinction would be a blessing

Once locked in that concrete labyrinth.

It is a hub of divinites and ghosts,

Where none are meant to linger.

It is Sheol and Abaddon.

I happened by it in ages past,

Only to fulfill a judgment upon my soul.

I burned to the ground the place I called Heaven

And for this I wander between worlds,

Hovering through the ages.

As for your end, the choice be yours.

For you will pass through this City regardless.

You could live out your illusion and stay,

Forever a spirit when dust claims your bones

Or keep driving through without looking back

To an unwritten future ahead.

I abandon into your words

my nervous hands flutter

beating like wings of a bird snared

slapping sullen bitter air

lights flash behind my eyes

squeezing back the tired years,

I am breathless, I am home

Salty rivers, hopelessly alone

Have I sung my last song

Entering your dying paradise?

Shame burns my pale skin

Your angel feathers dying

land softly at my feet

Don't fear destiny, love.

This chance meeting in this dingy bar

Appeared in the stars ages before,

And unstitched events that chaotically swarm

Close together ultimately in the eye of God.

I'd best hit the road and so should you,

Before the morning gets too old.

Had I met you in another lifetime,

I'm sure my story would've been ours.

But my love waits in another world

Patiently waiting in the ocean moon.

I must escape the first rays of Dawn

Yet toward Dawn's light you must drive.

Two pairs of headlights travel down the Soul's Highway.

Reviews

[MystiqFairy]

I really thought this was beautiful. The wording really paints the picture of the story behind the poem.

[Trublood13]

Took my breath away.

[32w45]

Simply beautiful and captivating!!

[Enid Blake]

We've all experienced this. Good collaboration.

[Kristallo]

I loved this. It was captivating, and very well written.

[Mockingbird]

innovative piece in the form of dialogue. at times eerie at other times gritty. it expresses despair and a sense of isolation. excellent job.

[Divinity Sleeps in This]

This was like many poems combined into one, I did enjoy it!

[Lourisa]

I love this - all of it from the flow, the imagery, the whole idea. Brilliant.

Born as a Gypsy's child, I quickly grow restless after staying in one place too long, and have learnt that no city, state, or country can make you happy, you have to do that yourself.

[moonbeam40]

Pure Genius, this poem has me enthralled, in the very depths of our souls we know this, have experienced this, City of Souls in my eyes is a masterpiece. And goes to the top of my list. Moonbeam.

[Chris G. Vaillancourt]

excellent write