my life has value
more than your godish rainbows
& your dogma trees
we love who we are
if it’s all the same to you
this ain’t your babel
the stormfront at your table
don’t you know, is all on you
know the breath in me
blow a kinder rainbow on my cheek
show my life respect
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
now i see that i
add not a jot of value
shall i lay me down
let them press on with their days
fruitful afore & after
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
the eyes that skew away again
from what i have known all along
betray i’ll never be one of them
a stranger to their bonny world
their monuments hold to gravitas
even when living memory fades
as i maunder these streets alone
dust sieves through my pantomime veins
a thousand years ago today
the only space i’ve left for feeling
when i realise that no one’s waiting
that their light is all yet not in all
then i’ve never felt so far away
well, it’s not always been suffering
they tap me whenever i’m of use
yet their smiles mask the expiry date
a time to back off, to know my place
& i see that their sun too has left
will not anchor me to my shadow
that their moon with its pinprick halo
will not grant even slenderest grace
a thousand years ago today
the only space allowed for feeling
when i realise nobody’s coming
that their light is all yet not for all
then i’ve never been so far away
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025
nothing but regret
is this how we truly are
i think i feel us
enclasped in this tested life
have you forgotten to breathe
today was better
but we’re so very old now
grief soaken eyes now
has pain dimmed your sight
trauma lines your folded bones
the horizon’s dreams
banish away sun’s last light
can we forgotten aright
today was better
but you’re so very cold now
closed soaken eyes now
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025
left behind
made level with the ground
this here is the zone of alienation
where our fleece was seared away
down to tender demon skin by
the afterburn
never were we made faithful
in your estimation
threaded instead down to the bone by
a tension of splayed tendons
hung out for worm & shame as
an afterthought
innocence is overrated
we guilty revere nothing
yet somehow still we yearn to fly
made to unspool here for why
have you ever feigned to care
fain have we not followed you true
& so our anima taps another vein
to scry beyond the sky for when
providence might let our carcass die
left behind so
make room for we in our dead life
afterburn so
torched earth abide our scattered bones
an afterthought so
let’s be real, call it empathy on fire
innocence is overrated
we guilty revere nothing
yet somehow we will learn to fly
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
unbolt me 