Girl With A Pearl Earring

You sit beside me

And place your hand upon my knee

I feel ill

As you attempt to be comforting

I am only an instrument

On the canvas of an image you’ve created

Powerless and useless

To all but you

And those you allow me to see

You watch as I’m broken

And remove words from my lips

Before their chance to be spoken

I am your servant, your desired

But I am unworthy of your admiration

My eyes, ripe for the penetrating

It is I who will fall

Pure, unbeknownst to all

Raped only in this heart

By the greed and loneliness of your aging skin

You’ve taken me

In the only way you could

And although I’d have given more

My apathy sways either/or

As my memory is far less detailed than yours

The intrusion far less than the fear

The blood far worse than your voice

Stinging my ear

And these, these so-called gifts

As if to be treasured

I recall only one yet to measure

But I’ll take them the same

As I played along with this game

The image you have

Where far more than that

Could have lay in your hands

We exchange stares goodbye

And re-enter real life

Canvas empty

ⓒ 2005 Shawn Michael Quinn

Winter's Love

You, my powerful Goddess

Drunk with winter’s love

I ache to smell the beauty

Of your bare skin

As I watch soaring from above

Eternity shines like the dream

Whispered by the light of our moon

And leaves me needing your stare

For the sweet deliriousness

It’s able to produce

If ever my shadow stills

Like a deathly water beneath a boiling wind

Please swim through my thousand black springs

To show me all that I am

This delicate boy who worships only

These true moments of love under stormy skies

And drive away the bloodied and bitter lies

So together we can recall our time and why

ⓒ 2005 Shawn Michael Quinn

In The Way

You come out at night, that's when the energy comes
And the dark side's light, and the vampires roam
You strut your rasta wear and your suicide poem
And a cross from a faith that died before Jesus came
You're building a mystery...

You live in a church where you sleep with voodoo dolls
And you won't give up the search for the ghosts in the halls
You wear sandals in the snow and a smile that won't wash away
Can you look out the window
Without your shadow getting in the way?
You're so beautiful, with an edge and charm
But so careful when I'm in your arms
Cause you're working, building a mystery
Holding on, and holding it in
Yeah you're working, building a mystery
And choosing so carefully..

You woke up screaming aloud
A prayer from your secret god
You feed off our fears, ad hold back your tears
Oh you give us a tantrum, and a know it all grin
Just when we need one, when the evening's thin
You're a beautiful, a beautiful fucked up man
You're setting up your razor wire shrine
Cause you're working, building a mystery
Holding on, and holding it in
Yeah you're working, building a mystery
And choosing so carefully.

Panopticon

There are some things

I’ll never speak of

There is a part of me

I’ll never elaborate on

In here

Everyone should use this right

On some level

I will, and I do

This is mine

This is the closest

Anyone will ever come to it

No matter what

The oceans within

Have hidden springs

With lives unlived

And only one gift to give

ⓒ 2005 Shawn Michael Quinn