10 More Haiku

     A wood burning stove

Open book and smoking pipe

         Dark October sky

_____

  Well worn wood guitar

Sits slient and unmoving

     It waits to play me

_____

            Memory of youth

Smell of pine trees and soft earth 

         Time does not exist

_____

            Gentle waterfall

Humble, darting minnows swim

     Beneath spring blossoms

  _____

       Seaside summer day

     Eager now to go explore

       Childhood never ends

_____

        An Autumn forest

You cannot count the colors

  Woodsmoke on the breeze

_____

        Empty winter land

Follow footprints in the snow

      Far away from home

_____

      Holding close a child

Turn toward a distant sound

       Stand beside a man

_____

    Tangles and riddles

Mind is looking for a fight

    An empty doorway

_____

      Running out of breath

Collapse into the warm grass

        Life will continue

_____

The Runners

There are no friends here now

Only mercenaries with knives out 

Concrete faces 

belied by darting eyes

And the sour smell 

of fear among the crowd

Night brings no relief 

Only sweat soaked troubled sleep

Thin stretched dreams of release

Behind the secret we must keep

Heavy falls the night where 

Waking is the nightmare 

Screams are silent 

And the silence screams

And no sunlight finds its way there

It was raining on the night we ran

Broken ones with broken plans

I could hear your breath behind me

Feel the dried blood on my hands 

Falling snow and moon lit path

Moving patterns of shadows cast

Flares drift down above the trees 

And the dogs howl at our backs

Heavy falls the night where 

Waking is the nightmare 

Screams are silent 

And the silence screams

And no sunlight finds its way there

Ghosts of War

Ghosts and gray and cold machines
Living in a lifeless realm
Memories and remembered dreams
And what's real I can't tell

Thoughts remain of far off pain
But feelings fled me long ago
Was freedom worth the price I paid?
Will I always be alone?

And Free is just a word to hold
In a world where the strong survive
But we can't choose and don't control
From the moment we're alive

Where the weak are
crushed and broken
And tossed out with the trash
The innocent are playthings
To be moulded by the lash

Resistance brings reprisal
But surrender kills a soul
Is there even hope in hiding?
There's nowhere left to go

Stripped of all but who we are
There lies a courage still within
And the war is not yet over
Even when the fighting ends

Warren Scott 2020
#poetry