Poetry by Joseph Armstead

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Poetry by Joseph Armstead

Joseph lives in Oakland, California. He's the author of several horror-dark fantasy novels including Nocturnes and Neon, Painmaker, and The Screaming Season (all available at Barnes & Noble Online, Amazon.com, WINGS ePRESS INC. Online, and at Double Dragon eBooks).

Disciples Wandering the Wastes

The bricks in the wall of the City speak
listen and hear,
in the cold roughness of their voice,
the clarion call
to a Gathering,
here today,
the hollow prayers to desire,
the raging lust for Order
in the face of a desirous Chaos,
these are the things
that fuel the engine,
out beyind the fringe,
in the Grayspaces,
in the bosom of Limbo,
out there in the dark.

The bricks in the wall of the City speak
and their words
paint a picture
of all the nightmares
behind all our dreams.
It is a grimoire of treachery,
a Bible of The Unmade,
and so we pray to the Maker of Things
Unshattered,
and wait like blind albatross
for a storm to come.

The bricks in the wall of the City speak...

A Shadow Across the Membrane

Something
in the universe
is vibrating
like a broken
tuning fork --

-- the sound,
buried deep
in the dark matter
of the Void,
is hypnotic --

I sing along,
mangling the tune,
bleeding the music...

Earthbound,
trapped in the dirt,
I am diseased.
And I'm not asking for your opinion.
And I'm not asking you to remember me,
I'm little more than the wisp
of a lonely spirit
begging
for a bright miracle
to light the inky vacuum.

Something cold and heartless
is broken in the universe
and I'm trying to hide
my Emperor's robe of scars.
I'm a shadow
trying not to be swallowed
in the dark.

-- the Void,
buried deep
by the dark matter
of endless sound,
is hypnotic --

I'm not asking for your opinion.
I'm not asking you to remember me.
I'm just praying
for a bright miracle
to light
the well of night.

All work is property of Joseph Armstead.

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