Unplug Your Head

Behind the Mask

She hid her face and turned away
A timid grin and gentle blush
Belied the strength behind her gaze
And power in her tender touch

She veiled her heart and built her walls
Of solitude and privacy
But deep within her secret lair
Longed a beast of dynasty

Her gates stood tall, her fences strong
A guise of faintness worn with pride
Controlling dread thru dominance
Negating what she’d cast aside

Her fear unfounded left me cold
I wondered but I dared not ask
Of beauty she refused to see
Concealed so far behind the mask

Then I saw plainly what she veiled
A smile shielding darker pain
A laugh, a shrug, a careful glance
I knew it well, it knew my name

The walls of shielding built by hands
Who hurt and bleed and scarred from years
Of giving, loving, taking naught
But disdain and forgotten tears

Her fright familiar, left me cold
Still I wondered but could not ask
Of beauty she refused to show
Concealed so far behind the mask

I viewed her mirror and what I saw
Was bold and true, divine and grave
Fierce and daring, gracious, strong
Loving, epic, pretty, brave

While I looked on, it warmed my soul
There was no longer need to ask
Of beauty she could never hide
Revealed from far behind a mask

© Daniel E. Barndt ~2013

I Love

I love the smell of fresh spring rain
I love the taste of sweetened tea
I love the feel of soft, soft grass
I love the songs birds sing to me

I love a chilly Autumn breeze
I love a fire burning bright
I love a walk upon the shore
I love a hand to hold so tight

I love to swim beneath the moon
I love to dance out in the rain
I love to wander through the night
I love to love and love again

Of all these things I love to love
Not much could ever be as true
As loving love that loves right back
And so I love to just love you

© Daniel E. Barndt ~2008

Just Love

When the words don’t make sense
When you can’t trust the sounds
When it goes by in a blur
Then you know what you’ve found
You’ve found love

When your friends disappear
When the fights seem so lame
When it all turns out right
Then you know what to blame
Just blame love

When you can’t seem to think
When your breath just won’t come
When your heart skips a beat
Then you know what it’s from
It’s from love

Love is the hurry
Love is the pain
Love is the worry
That you’ve missed it again

Love is the crazy
Love is the trust
Love is the maybe
That leaves you in the dust

Love is the joy
Love is the pride
Love is the happy
That I’m feeling inside

When I’m finally alive
When I’m safe and secure
When I’m singing to you
Then I know this for sure
It’s just love

© Daniel E. Barndt

What Makes A Dead Soul Cry

Three shining stars in the sky looking down on me
And I don’t know why, where or what they might want from me
But everywhere I go I’ll always know what I want to see
Three shining stars in the sky always guiding me

Alone in a room, in a tomb in the darkness
Where no one can go, past a gate and a courtyard
Sitting cold on a stone, on a bone chiseled mantle
Lies the key that is me locked away in a tower

Who knows how to get there, how to be there when I need them?
Someone holds the locket in the pocket of my freedom
Riding through the despair and the nightmares of my treasons
I’m welcomed home with love and from above I learn the reason

What makes a dead soul cry?
A new life to live, something to believe in
What makes a dead soul cry?
It’s not that complicated, there’s only one good reason
Love

© Daniel E. Barndt

Four Of Twelve Become One

June
As Spring removes her gown
Of soft and silky breeze
Summer stands unclothed but
For frosted gust to grieve

September
Soon Summer dons a wrap
Of brightly colored leaves
And Fall remembers not
The truth we once believed

December
Though Fall completes its quest
To strip as like the trees
Sir Winter covers all
With chill and crystal freeze

March
When Winter bites no more
Bringing him to his knees
Spring blossoms beauty ’til
Once again we are appeased

© Daniel E. Barndt

The Last Tree

A beautiful monster stands in destruction
His home now a desolate plain
The last of his kind
A terrible crime
Resisting the toxic, wet rain

As tall as a house, stronger than stone
The humans destroyed all but him
His beauty, they swore
Was worth one more war
Nothing survived but the whispering wind

Destroying each other, do we really care?
Polluting the air and the sea
Don’t think it’s true?
Don’t believe what we’ll do?
Why don’t you ask the last tree?

© Daniel E. Barndt

The Children

Children in the streets playing with toy machine-guns
Innocent minds thinking of destruction
Children in the streets killing each-other with fake blood
Innocent minds against innocent minds

Hand-grenades and razor blades
Death seems so far away
Killing toys for little boys
What’s the price we’ll have to pay?

Children in the streets turning war into a game
See the hate in their innocent eyes
Children in the streets life and death is all the same
To their innocent little lives

Tommy-guns seem like so much fun
When death is so far away
Blood and gore you can buy in a store
Now life is the price we’ll pay
To understand the destructive man
I know a child you should meet
To understand death in demand
Just watch the children in the street

© Daniel E. Barndt

‘Cross The Sky

As the sun begins to fall
I hear a distant, hell-like call
Not of terror nor of pain
It’s a sleepless voice, quite insane
It echoes deep within my head
Sounding not unlike the dead
And as the moon creeps ‘cross the sky
It asks me if I want to die…

As the stars shine through the night
My mind feels heavy, my body light
Floating toward a land I own
Floating past my earthly home
The voice, still distant, seems so clear
Something grips me, something near
And as the clouds sweep ‘cross the sky
It asks me if I want to die…

As the sun begins to rise
I feel the pain within the cries
Weeping for an untamed love
Denying that it’s had enough
The sounds vibrate then fade away
For darkness is where they must stay
And as the light spreads ‘cross the sky
I whisper, “I don’t want to die.”

© Daniel E. Barndt