martin elbin

There's an old fine layer of dust
That covers everything
From all my shoes to ceiling lamps
And garbage in between.
...

some say i've wasted many years
some say i've lost a step
but i say they are just confused
and broadcasting their fears.
...

From the manger to the tree
God the Father waits for thee
first laid down in hand and timber
so that written words remember.
...

cobblestones are roads well traveled
many many years ago
rounded off by cart and footfall
weathered smooth by rain and snow.
...

The first gray days of fall recall
the memories of the winter,
of days when autumn's golden leaves
are tossed by breezes, frosty cold.
...

I saw a stranger in a mirror
That I wasn't looking at
From the corner of my eye
I didn't know I looked like that.
...

green chairs are lined in soldier's ranks below the table's flowers
as sentinels before the gate, the narthex and the towers.
worn tiles, carpeted the floor with filthy years misuse,
and doorstop's gasket can't control the door's fatal abuse.
...

Walkin' down the endless rails
with water in my shoes
i find a way
to spend the day
...

This world is grey and green
Between the steep cut walls
Beneath a cloudy pillowed sky
And cold is how it seems
...

camped once when i was just a boy
was lost as lost could be
seemed months i wandered on my own
but angels followed me.
...

we pine away for years gone by
we pine as days slide past
we pine for lost forgotten loves
and broken hearts, at last.
...

turn, and turn the wheel rolls
the clock of time turns daily tolls
on steady beat and moonlight comes
heartbeating's thump and pulse and drums.
...

Among the knurled and knotted wood
surrounded by the wild and scrub
of land baked well by summer's worst
there passed a tree, considerately spent.
...

Reflections in the looking glass
are there before we see
they never try to criticize
or work to insult me.
...

How many days are left to me
now that the years have left the tree
and since the fall has come to pass
when will the sap dry up at last?
...

Nails and palms all cracked and creased with too much use
and calloused, bleeding, worn and tattered with abuse.
Beyond these blades all dried and still
collecting dust from having very little help to be a fan,
...

...

on the edge of january
toward the light of something new
are the hopes of bright tommorows
and investments overdue!
...

Some bred to life out in the woods
before the city's gray had spread
where paths were trampled bits of earth
made by ancestors long since dead.
...

Drag across the sandy ground
between palmetto bush and scrub
beat down by heat and acid cinder,
falling, falling all around.
...