Our Memories, Our Atmosphere

Forgive me if I cannot see
My eyes are lost within my sleep
A dream laid out in front of me
A picture gone so suddenly

It appears I cannot breathe
This sensation smothers me
A tragedy, a quantum leap
From life to love a fall so deep

This pressure will exhilarate
Asphyxiate, intoxicate
Our memories we reinstate
The only things the heat can't take

Take a measure of our days
And hope the memories will stay
A ticking heart bleeds time away
Beating out this Summers day

Forgive me if I cannot see
The sun's light overpowers me
From blindness comes a prophecy:
A love affair, an urgency

A tragedy, a quantum leap
To the sky a climb so steep
Up there our memories we keep
We find the persistance these moments seek

And because they are so far away
Unlike day they cannot fade
At night we see the stars so bright
Our memories turned into light

Forgive me if I cannot hear
Lost in sleep it would appear
Dreaming memories so clear
Suspended in our atmosphere.

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

Our Beautiful Peril

I remember your voice say to me
Each sound fading as they are cast
That you think this love is dangerous
That this feeling will not last

You say that we are walking a line
Over which I will surely fall
The sea beyond is a love affair
Swallowing one and all.

We think of our beautiful peril,
This edge is tall and bright.
What lies below is dark and so we
Drown in perfect night.

One night, we shall watch the sunset,
Embracing sweet chichè,
Though the night shall grow cold and silent
We see clearer that way.

And our love will be a passing shiver
As my heart sounds its single beat
Through the winter air a spine grows
And down it our shivers meet

And though these single moments do not last
A spark is lit in our minds
Through this a fire spreads
Our memories aglow in time.

You think I cannot love your fleeting smiles
This beautiful peril I can't adore
But hearts aflame can be seen from miles.
I need my eyes and nothing more.

I think I cannot keep these brief encounters
Locked in a secret box
Let us embrace our sweet peril
And our hearts we will unlock

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

We, Carrion To The Gods

Keep forward, my dreams
Drawing memories in straight lines
Our bodies may turn corners
But nothing can change our minds.

Turn me over to your side
Try to move me where I lie
I want to see your face some time
Not the vulture's eye.

We carry on to the Gods
After you lift me up from here
Our lines must come to their ends
But I sense they will stay near

In that cafe where we met
We discussed past lives
Memories then, they so remain
Slowly fading with time

Shout your name right now
Is that who you are?
Rather it is our memories
So why do they seem so far?

We, carrion to the Gods
Shall meet our end together.
Though we know not who we are
Our love is true forever.

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

What Sigma Means (Elementary Mathematics)

The sum of your square inches,
A ruler to your skin,
My eyes as fast as in my sleep,
With so much to take in.

If I could take a part of you,
I would take the sum.
No point living lives with broken pieces.
A half is one half of one.

And if I could take you anywhere
Walk briskly to my dreams.
A landscape unlike Earth or sky
For you and I to see

The lakes of silver are swept aside,
By the moon's eternal tide.
Our grass will be the greenest,
For this garden has no sides.

This tide is inescapable
For the moon always glows
Forever night within my dreams
We've still so much to know.

And embracing the darkness together,
We look up to the sky.
So far away are those little things that,
Distance is measured in time.

And God will take a protractor
From his castle in the sky,
This parsec on which we meet
Is the same on which we die.

And when you're there, I will teach you.
This is what sigma means.
The sum of your square inches and
The sum of all our dreams.

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

11

Measure distance in miles if feel the need,
I will measure mine in the seconds till we meet.
Years from now we will be together as one,
Now we spend months in our heads, us two as none.

Spending days assigning you names in my head,
Far as I know it's already been said.
And I could spend seconds saying your name,
But I could waste years doing the same.

Different lines cross their ways.
Stay with me this minute as I say -
"Blood flows two ways with one heartbeat,
If we both walk backwards, will we finally meet?"

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

10

You can't do this, you can't do that; with you it was always drawing lines.
But if you think you're so true to me, try drawing the line on which time flies by.
You'll feel the agony of the ticking clocks, thoughts set in brass, paths bound to time.
And as those hands near twelve, the arms they're on will hurt you till you die.

Take a step each heartbeat, our lives just paths, our paths just lines.
See the people walk their paths, see them meet, see them pass by.
Where you will walk tomorrow, where we will meet and at what time.
These details set before us, our steps fixed on paths, until the time we die.

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

7

[This is where I fall in to the trap of the "teen poet". I'll skip over most of this material]

What happens when your answers are for
Nothing that you ask?
When dreams are kept far from reach
Or locked up in the past?

When things around you seem to slip
In and out of view,
When everything is damaged
And arrive long after due.

It seems as if my thoughts
Are just the carcasses of old,
Running vicious circles
As they’re nurtured and retold.

And all I seem to run for
Are the things I cannot see,
The things that lie beyond my reach,
The things I cannot be.

What happens when the world just seems
A question to be asked?
But your voice is just a whisper of the
Words locked in the past.

And all the things you run for
Are the things you cannot see,
Oh why oh why do you all ask
For things I cannot be?

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

6

[I post chronologically, so, currently, you may see my gradual descent to angsty drivel, but of course, if you think these are bad, think of the crud I haven't posted]

The world now lies silent,
And all its members numb,
The past is not so distant,
As my dreams might have become.

Yet I still hear devices in my head
Trying to find the sum,
The sum of the battles I have fought
The battles I’ve lost and won.

Memories are loud and clear
As if to quell a sound,
The sound of people walking paths,
Paths to which they’re bound.

And if the world is just a planet,
And we all orbit round,
I feel I’ve reached the point at which
I’ve lost more than I’ve found.

As I write this,
I’m well aware,
That people cannot hear,
The sounds of their own voices,
And the truths that may appear.

And I’m writing this,
From word to word,
Because I’m well aware,
I’m well aware of the things we lose,
No matter how much we care.

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

5

[On gravity, from 2004. I prefer these old ones to newer stuff because it got all angsty and rubbish. I'll try harder in future]

See him;
See the lines on his face –

In the light,
They are cracks;
Casting shadows on his skin,
Dark and hollow,
Like his eyes.

And all the scratches,
Through work and through strife,
Are a thousand memories,
Warped and torn;
Aching for life.

Through darkness,
They reach;
In the night,
They whisper;
Turn his mouth to bone.
Silence his speech.

If you could see him,
When he was young,
When he was tall;
Chasing the moon,
Chasing his dreams.

And his eyes,
Now dull and dry,
Were alive;
Through them, he could see –
He loved her.
He longs for her.

For now she had returned,
To the earth from whence she came,
And he too,
was sinking.
His heart, his scars, his bones,
Were victims of gravity,
A long way from home.

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d

4

['Waiting']

Leaves will wither
And trees may die
Whose trunks have lived
A thousand lives
And still I will be waiting here
With empty hands and eyes of fear
Waiting under a silent sky
Feeling old with thoughts gone by.

Trees may die,
And rain will fall,
And I’ll be here,
Waiting still,
And the sun will rise,
The clouds may lift,
But here I am
Still waiting –

Waiting in the cold and rain
With empty head and heart of pain
Still waiting here, in the cold,
With eyes of fear and feeling old.

(c) A s h l e y M o g f o r d