eyes in the storm

my favourite gift is a closed one
that moment where nothing is known
that calm before an unwrapping storm
in anticipation of what’s to come

my favourite book is a closed one
that moment where nothing happens
that calm before a reading storm
in anticipation of what’s to come

my favourite lips are closed ones
that moment where nothing is said
that calm before a kissing storm
in anticipation of what’s to come

my favourite heart is an open one
so tell me true, are you ready for war
many shall ride the carousel with me
but few shall choose to stand with me

my favourite casket is a closed one
that moment where nothing remains
that calm after the final storm of
memories of all that’s come & gone

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

let me speak tongues (or take my tongue away)

the mind is a storm
get me out of here
away from the teacup &
its thousand eyed babel stare
let me live & breathe

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023

rainwreck

the morning i came back home to you
there were clouds of thunder behind your eyes
and something told me that day
no raincoat nor lightning rod would help at all

i offered you my rose-coloured glasses
a divergent lens you could pardon me through
i hoped to see your rainbow smile
and a sundog dancing a jig on your nose

but adoration’s spine got broken with words
our kisses tainted by ire and woe on fire
and so the rose-coloured view was cracked
overwhelming the room with a fatal shatter

punctured by the shards of desperate memories
of us never at peace despite love’s prevailing
weak and vulnerable, ever weather-exposed
without imminent hope for a good forecast

and so i pulled at the pieces until they fell away
a trail of wreckage leading out the door
a wet season took its hold over the world
the morning i forsook a home with you

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2021

TATI’s & TONY’s DEAD POET TOUR // At Sea by Sara Teasdale

In the pull of the wind I stand, lonely,
On the deck of a ship, rising, falling,
Wild night around me, wild water under me,
Whipped by the storm, screaming and calling.

Earth is hostile and the sea hostile,
Why do I look for a place to rest?
I must fight always and die fighting
With fear an unhealing wound in my breast.

by SARA TEASDALE (1884-1933)
Public Domain Poetry

TATI’s & TONY’s DEAD POET TOUR // Halloween by Madison Julius Cawein

It was down in the woodland on last Hallowe’en,
Where silence and darkness had built them a lair,
That I felt the dim presence of her, the unseen,
And heard her still step on the ghost-haunted air.

It was last Hallowe’en in the glimmer and swoon
Of mist and of moonlight that thickened and thinned,
That I saw the gray gleam of her eyes in the moon,
And hair, like a raven, blown wild in the wind.

It was last Hallowe’en where starlight and dew
Made mystical marriage on flower and leaf,
That she led me with looks of a love that I knew,
And lured with the voice of a heart-buried grief.

It was last Hallowe’en in the forest of dreams,
Where trees are eidolons and shadows have eyes,
That I saw her pale face like the foam of far streams,
And heard, like the leaf-lisp, her tears and her sighs.

It was last Hallowe’en, the haunted, the dread,
In the wind-tattered wood by the storm-twisted pine,
That I, who am living, kept tryst with the dead,
And clasped her a moment and dreamed she was mine.

by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN (1865-1914)
Public Domain Poetry