WINTER’S TONGUE
BY JOSIAH TRIPOLI
WINTER’S TONGUE Written by Josiah Tripoli Illustrated by Josh Tripoli & Rebekah Lewis Table of Contents 1. The Lonely Road 2. The Merry-Go-Round 3. Ensoulment 4. Status 5. Winter’s Tongue 6. Midnight Slippers 7. Dreams, Adoring 8. Flattened 9. A Night Like This 10. You 11. You II 12. Warm-hearted Zombie 13. My Pet Snake 14. Ode to Eyes 15. The Fight to Feel Better 16. Candlelit 17. Ode to Legs 18. Deny My Dear 19. Admire your Smile 20. She’s a Star 21. Angel Face 22. White Radiance
The Lonely Road
On this lonely road I walk alone To walk with you Is staying home On this lonely road I stand alone A friend in mind Is but my own
On this road Do hover trees Above, of which I cannot see Horizons warm With tinted leaves Do fall and scatter With my dreams
On this road I walk Is vast and vacant No audience Nor acquaintance
On this road I walk to dead ends Or climb above And make amends
Change perspective Risk the perfected Perception Of what I hold With affection On this lonely road There is no exception The only one I know Claim my own The lonely road To where’s my home
The Merry-Go-Round
I wish my world spun ‘round Like the merry-go Life complete could be Just the typicalI want to marry a girl I want to travel the world I want to find what I’m worth I’m still kickin’... and I’m still breathing, of course
Ensoulment There was a man with a hollow soul He filled with a heart of withered woes Detached his life from friends and foes To evade the crashing highs and lows Thrills and passions thus enclosed
The hollowed chambers, paper-thin Enveloped, deep within The seed of a soul Too deep to grow The man dug his hole
He filled the void with glitter and gold To avoid the hand of love that pulled Only once he hit too low Certain of where nowhere goes Trapped in his own Self-pity and woe He dug deeper
Deeper, down to his core The man unearthed the seed of a soul The tranquil warmth of it’s hold He nourished a love that felt old Eventually breaking the mold And the roots began to grow Grow into his beautiful soul
Status
StatusTakes a toll On every Bright young addict It really is quite tragic, See a story stay so static Trendy and fanatic Play along, Building habits-
The continue of this practice, In trying to be happyIs truly not proactive Little things don't hold the weight Of waiting for what happens No need to build or patent To present a form of magic
Every tool you need Begins with you and me
Winter's Tongue
On a cold night I felt it Eerie and vacant No tattering or bustling of cycles or steps No disturbance from the retreat of shadows in their nests A dampening bleed Only figments on the peripheral of consciousness Laid 'cross winter's dry tongue ‘Cept the hollowed shrieks of outside stress A feverish cold No stirring the still of my mind’s bereft... Mundane by the ceil on the glove It isn’t quite anything That conceals me Unable to touch A quarantine From five other feelings Though it feels me and guides me like sin Spare this one I feel it in the tempered gust of the wind Illustrious That still has no burden or bend But color and word On the already warped sense of time that I’m in Who escape the bubble I hear only whispers on the nerve in my brain This feeling is trouble Telling me strange, this feeling is strange So fatally subtle The silent drum of summoning derange
Midnight Slippers
Quiet my footsteps Quiet they may Bridge through the traffic Of nighttime and day Now darkness fallen I wade through the stress My midnight slippers... Do the rest
Dreams, Adoring
Daunting, my dear The culprit of fear Bestowing with grace On fructified plates My fortune, my fate A facade of hell As a picture of heaven Lacking morality A distorted reality Mortality lost The sporadically black Glitches, golden Gorgeous, alike Daliesque visions In motion, vivid
A partially lucidic Blossom of wisdom Grasping a virtual Essence of heaven And the beauty of a life Complete and deadened
Please, ignore me
Darling, she dare So, it seems A holy endeavor My eyes would bleed In reality To see such beauty As perceived Heaven must wait To adore me My daunting dear
Flattened
A starship Shown in the quiver of night Psychedelia scales to skyscraper peaks And erupts Gushing a spectrum Coexisting Rushing through my veins
The guttered breeze Indicts My face to pavement for what sins Only God may lend These trickled tears unwept And only then would these eyes have slept
A Night Like This
My mind expands As the pale walls condense Nothing but my thoughts on a night like this Growing roots from a stagnant core Inching closer To the door Capacitating whispers From a silhouetted figment Created by the tension Of the nails down my face And the corners of my eyes Dripping with angst Confounded complacent Ripples down my spine Lost in the moment Consciousness fades
Inflict my self-conscious With nightmarish tales Where whimsical creatures Still, somehow, prevail Escape me, The troublesome Variant ways My mind portrays Nighttime and day Here, Lies The truth Desirably, may the illusively, ambient Somber display Show me the way
You
Sightly poetics Are of only What’s shallowed With a skewed virtue; How your sight, so clearly, dims mine, Submits my eye, It’s a lie... You’ve given me -Blame of putrid bearing, Barren breath, a scornful smile, and a dismal frown How, your ever Miserable grin, never -Seeking deliverance from the bounds of grey, Among the black, confined, Tormented by the verities, you ignore, latent neath your brow, Whisper the harmonies, you need, -Still, all to hear the piercing shrieks, From pale eyes’ pursuit- to taunt me, -Ignore- me, disparage me
You -hypocrite-, you scoundrel As you too, crawl to the shadows, to dignify nothing, ...and in a moment steady, the brevity lingers, heavy -On the high tide, I am my highest, still adrift While the pull, Of the spiteful anchor, Held steadied, on my spirit, The clutches of which normality denies, You are my current demise Under our shallow black cloaks, We can’t feel us drown... -for here, am I, but the same, Whom yearn for the cure I am you For you are my curse
You II
Aren't you clever You endeavor To think you know What matters or not Critical, destined Is it not? How do you think you'd fare Bared of sacred self? Your destiny dealt What would you do For an applaud or two? Would you deny dignity Settle for the muse of wealth
You gain from the devil's smile? I notice 'spite your shield of truth The ignorance of your cynical scorn You think I would give up a Moment of clarity for you? Am I your pawn? A scapegoat, Your Highness A marginal shadow now... I still feel the shine Nearly diminished Dimly exists in Between the fluent beat Of my heart... Only for this moment
I feel complete
Warm-Hearted Zombie
I cannot fly, but I can bounce high and hover Reach the treetops and hang on Some withy limb Extended from my vigor Sturdy enough to hold a moment On my lash, shallowed To the oceanic splay Of majestic pinks and Vibrant yellows and An orange sun Tranquilly Embracing every cavity Filling with warmth, comforting Only for a while What seems eternal Is nearly nothing Then I fall, even so I fear not
The grass that decorates my grave I apprehend myself unharnessed Able to retract my descent Trepidation dissipates Among the humidity and dust and What's left of spring dew Stifling with golden Rust on the blades Stark in their slumber Like a silhouette Reflects my innocence I cannot fly, but Ascending, I May just hover To the till Or can hold no longer Descend again With the sun, and then Again and again
Hold on to the summer Until the end
My Pet Snake
Two eyes shine bright Tears of tempestuous cries How can't you see? Evaporate to sacred skies The sands of time Remain those whose soak in the sap Preserve your dream Drool upon the ripest fate Do you not see? Spew acidic nectars, forth As it dwindles down the hourglass Rust the golden gates Eroding with your soil and seed A mind to make The falling lash A path to seek Lie dead upon your pile of ash So bend thy knee You walk amongst forsaken trees
Ode to Eyes
The past has gone I am left here Alone and cold and full of fear If only I'd not rushed so much If only love had one last touch My crippled spine My battered knees The shaded eyes that do not see The barks and scowls sting like a whip The cane of which My hand's equipped Away we'd go Around we'd twirl
You'd see my face And I'd see yours The days would last forevermore Memories that fill my soul
You were the core Alas, I die I see the light My pupils burn Ambition’s sight And here I float This familiar place Where once again I see your face
I reaped I sowed The shutters closed My eyes then dimmed The chair's warped pose Those many years Would see the light I'd get you back I'd make the fight My body worn And so my soul Corrodes away
The Fight to Feel Better
Feel better In some hazy daze Away from my reality For trusting in reality Is embracing my mentality 'Tis how I've spent my dime it seems Whose greed and lust deceive me Its rusty dust comes, clogs my air Daring red, denial dripping ‘Tis then, reflect My self-regret Drain in my hands
The bountiful debt A river Drowning itself in depth Come, feel fine Feel better in no time Encapsulate the senses reality denies Awaken from this haze Look out to the light You cannot dream the dark away And still wake up at night
Candlelit
Radiance on the sill Invites about my will I peak into her worldMy body let still How keenly she sitReading old letters Candlelit Fix mine eye To notice her cheek Rinsed by the vent of her lash's critique Recomposing
Habitual pride, Her tears extinguish The room To night The cries within Their leather-bounds Stain me and recede My solemn Dim, of which, My sympathies Do write this verse, Candlelit
Ode to Legs
The past few nights Awaking to Steady thinking About you Awkwardly Propelling Above my heart
They tell me Resting In the peaceful Moonlight, I forget Naturally refusing A mild self-neglect You like to do it anyway
Despite my best intent
Deny My Dear
To write a word or two How I feel about you Is it kind and delicate? Luscious or rotten with lust? Is it something clever and eloquent? Evident of elegance You can harvest on the tip of your tongue for the relevance? I've never felt such a way To utterly display A bitter core In a beautiful way Nor would I disgrace The pureness of a page Or even a line That would fall out of lane
Given the lies I want to believe about you Oh you Oh you A third oh you To emphasize The tainted love that never was Oh you will never know or care As real as the air Is it even there? Are you even there? You may as well Be gone with the wind If such love exists Though, I write of love for you Just for the hell of it
Admire your Smile
If I treat you a rose, would you not bat an eye I can tell by your pose You have something to hide You turn me your cheek, It lies to me Pretends not to see me, How possibly deceiving As ignoring my intention's Your effortless game
Haunting, begrudging, Yet so fun to play If desire's your wish, Save me your burden Give me no gesture nor sign for endurance Let me fulfill you, Drain all my desire, Just you fill me back up with the faintest of smiles?
She's a Star
You caught me staring at the stars You caught My eye As it floated toward the sky I Did not notice I did not care
That you feel That you see The same way As me As I Contemplate Wishing Oh why Can't we be
Angel Face
She, Nearly perfect Her face, a benevolent gift from above Her smile, a visage of heavenly promise
Her eyes are the sun's radiant glow Her soul was the first rose of innocent Eden Blooming Never grow dull
She may be an angel Never, will I know
White Radiance
Distantly, sheComposing Love-lit, Lilac Sun-kissed hair and earthEmbraces good-natured mirthThe maiden
Bare of cloth and fancied breast and birthHer white dress Veils an eye to thee, The virtue 'neath her canty 'meanor To seekHow oft, it whisper, to thee What dreams may come-
The radiance of winter’s tongue
© 2017 Lupoli Collective