Category Archives: TONY’S POEMS

mark 8:36

every last piece of evidence
dissolved as i lay there in silence
the gold rush of my youth had gone
with nothing to show for in my pan
they steeled their bonds with stagecoach power
left me to rot in riverbed dreams
built their nations on monied towers
groundhog foundations all the way downstream

who cares that i’d had better angels
who cares that they were both now gone
who cares that i’d compromised my self
who cares that i’d vainly strove to fit in

& just like that, i saw men raptured
fond memories, their bullions in tow
they were headed for headier climes
as i died face down, the dead of noon
was fortune a living catastrophe
i was simply forced to decay through
a treasure refined for all but me
rippling away, spangles downstream

who cares that i’d needed dnipro
who cares that i’d gambled george town
who cares that the world could only take
who cares that i could now only break

every last bit of evidence
just like that, had raptured away
the gold rush of my youth was gone
my bones left behind to clot in dreams
the world had taken all it wanted
the little that i’d held in my hands
the fulgurate clumps long picked clean
by bream, the rest long washed downstream

who cares that i’d puddled down under
who cares that i’d puddled in ukraine
who cares that i’d struggled for it all
who cares that i’d done finally fall

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

maggots are gutting america

there’s nothing left to see
in that vale of vile fenestration
there’s nothing left to say
we did you once
we’ll do you twice

only you are to blame
the hearty molestations
of our collective indifference
are the consequence
of your consent

you dare to lift reproachful eyes
against us
you put your fist in the mouth of truth
hoping to silence us forever
but what is truth
apart from what we say

had you have known better
that hope is a curse
a curse of diminished returns
then would you have demanded
we to add a braille of tears
to your perforated skin
no, we’ll stab you again & again
& again with joyful contempt
crying bitch

you looked up to us, fool
as well you should
until our sun & stars finally stole your sight
truly, what are you doing here

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

nigredo moth song

you are the clinging taken flight
ev’ry night at behest of gaslight
a shadow’s veil o’er pale lea
froing ev’ry where with ev’ry care
a full-wing’d catastrophe

expell’d from skeet cocoon
& still not yet fully bloom’d
unaliv’d to breathe again
into hallow’d dustings of lung & wing

the flame, they say, casts a treacherous spell
but you’ll scudder through like you always do
prevail somehow, wee gossamer soul

you are the feelings all at once
all fronts abandoned to the hunt
to dire thunder afore the dawn
ev’ry care to ev’ry prayer
to ev’ry thready need to mourn

but dusk can ne’er negate joy
tho’ you feel not yet fully bouy’d
forsake all the haggl’d horrow
in begotten age of thrum & wing

the flame, they say, casts a treacherous spell
but you’ll scudder through like you always do
prevail somehow, wee gossamer soul

the tide does heap perilous weight
its freight upon you a cragging hate
dragging the air from your charcoal frame
ev’ry prayer scries ev’ry where
hying too close to dark waters again

traject’ries erratic as night is long
are you feeling too much all o’er again
will you be a conclusion forgone
you surely cannot be the only one

the flame, they say, casts a treacherous spell
but you’ll scudder through like you always do
prevail somehow, wee gossamer soul

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

hysteria

fie, oh fie for shame
god neglects to dry the tears
of fae, fie for shame

fain would fae grow tall
with all that dotage entail
when time doth reap all
the envigored life assail
turneth youth to rufous grail

fie, oh fie for shame
that void would swallow all tears
of fae, fie we fall

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

we were glossolalian

did you know this song was written for you
for my halves both & what we heathen were
we didn’t need always hold us inside
for three to abide
each breath’s suppression of rising horror
foretold our last for to rot in our shells
still in these spaces we let love abide
while we could abide

& the treetops swayed throughout all our days
now their roots reach down into our decay
the nourishment of our fading in dirt
& the love inside
all dogmas & empty puffery spent
& the former lives we laid wreaths upon
enkindled to the last our chosen tongue
tra la la, tra la la
tra la la la la
tra la la

did you know this song was chiselled in clay
each note an impression of quelled dismay
a triptych of anthems named for the day
for three to abide
all we wanted was renewal here now
clear hearts to drum away the chill of now
for to see we three through to noonday stride
while we could abide

& the treetops swayed throughout all our days
now their roots reach down into our decay
the nourishment of our fading in dirt
& the love inside
all the blue grey craters of the moon say
there’s no man in the sky or dreams to weigh
just enkindled nullifidian tongues
tra la la, tra la la
tra la la la la
tra la la

& here in the earth we three will abide
tra la la, tra la la
tra la la la la
tra la la
treetops unearthing the love deep inside
tra la la, tra la la
tra la la la la
tra la la

tra la la, tra la la
tra la la la la
tra la la
tra la la, tra la la
tra la la la la
tra la la

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025