"5 Am"

"5 AM"
by Amber Run

We run into a dark room
And we spasm to the sounds
Of a copy of Morrissey
Or the blues of the deep South

And the drugs will only hide it
The feeling never really goes
You won't find love at the bottom
Of a glass seat home

We've got work in the morning
But it's nearly 5am
Is this really what we envisioned?
We won't be 21 again

And in the haze you see colours
And problems suddenly make sense
But the way you've been going
You'll be in an early grave

And you don't know what you've got
until it's gone
And you don't know who to love
until you're lost
And you don't know how to feel
until the moment's passed.
I wish you'd live like you're made of glass.

"A Grain of Sand"

"A Grain of Sand"
by Robert William Service

If starry space no limit knows
And sun succeeds to sun,
There is no reason to suppose
Our earth the only one.
'Mid countless constellations cast
A million worlds may be,
With each a God to bless or blast
And steer to destiny.

Just think! A million gods or so
To guide each vital stream,
With over all to boss the show
A deity supreme.
Such magnitude oppress my mind;
From cosmic space it swings;
So ultimately glad to find
Relief in little things.

For look! Within my hollow hand,
While round the earth careens,
I hold a single grain of sand
And wonder what it means.
Ah! If I had the eyes to see,
And brain to understand,
I think Life's mystery might be
Solved in this grain of sand.

"A Moment of Happiness"

"A Moment of Happiness"
by Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi

A moment of happiness,
you and I are sitting on the verandah,
apparently two, but one in soul, you and I.
We feel the flowing water of life here,
you and I, with the garden's beauty
and the birds singing.
The stars will be watching us,
and we will show them
what it is to be a thin crescent moon.
You and I unselfed, will be together,
indifferent to idle speculation, you and I.
The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar
as we laugh together, you and I.
In one form upon this earth,
and in another form in a timeless sweet land.

"To a Certain Citizen"

"To a Certain Citizen"
by Walt Whitman

Did you ask dulcet rhymes from me?
Did you seek the civilian's peaceful and languishing rhymes?
Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow?
Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand- nor 
    am I now;
(I have been born of the same as the war was born,
The drum-corps' rattle is ever to me sweet music, I love well 
    the martial dirge,
With slow wail and convulsive throb leading the officer's funeral;)
What to such as you anyhow such a poet as I? therefore leave my works,
And go lull yourself with what you can understand, and with piano-tunes,
For I lull nobody, and you will never understand me.

"Two Heads"

"Two Heads"
by Ellena Kilgallon

Two heads at a desk,
Your hair in knotted curls,
His black sheen hunched over a laptop.

Someone whispers a joke
And you're laughing uncontrollably,
Brown masses shifting
From one shoulder to the other.

I hear your laughter
And I see his glances.
I see it all from the back of the room.

He is unmoving, hiding behind
The blackness of his hair.
His words are compelling, conflicting
With his robotic voice.

How do you not hear him, see his twitching smiles?
How do you not see his eyes?
They follow you even while closed.

"A Hero"

"A Hero"
by Robert William Service

Three times I had the lust to kill,
To clutch a throat so young and fair,
And squeeze with all my might until
No breath of being lingered there.
Three times I drove the demon out,
Though on my brow was evil sweat...
And yet I know beyond a doubt
He'll get me yet, he'll get me yet.

I know I'm mad, I ought to tell
The doctors, let them care for me,
Confine me in a padded cell
And never, never set me free;
But Oh how cruel that would be!
For I am young - and comely too...
Yet dim my demon I can see,
And there is but one thing to do

Three times I  beat the foul fiend back;
The fourth, I know he will prevail,
And so I'll seek the railway track 
And lay my head upon the rail,
And sight the dark and distant train,
And hear its thunder louder roll,
Coming to crush my cursed brain...
Oh God have mercy on my soul!