After Midnight: The Muse, Raw and Uncut

By Kurt Philip Behm

After Midnight
the Shark Bites

A voice intrudes
the darkness spites

With every thought
death confirming it's there

Denied in this moment
but a presence now shared




In the early morning hours
a raw voice
woke up inside me

At its own pace, and delivering
in paired lines,
it forced itself onto the page

The words it spoke inside my
head, as couplets, came alive
and danced

To a music, only the early
morning hours
could play

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481738781

Kurt Philip Behm

Best selling author and renowned poet, Kurt Philip Behm, has been writing both poetry and prose since 1971. In this sixth installment of his historical fiction series, The Sword Of Ichiban, William Broderick Simpson III (Cutty) takes a radically new and dangerous approach to turning the tide of World War 1.

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After Midnight

The Muse, Raw And Uncut

KURT PHILIP BEHM

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©

2013 by Kurt Philip Behm. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/11/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3879-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3877-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3878-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013906437

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

AFTER MIDNIGHT

The Muse, Raw And Uncut

(2011 - 2012)

After midnight

the shark bites

A voice intrudes

the darkness spites

With every thought

death confirming it’s there

Denied in this moment

but a presence now shared

Writing itself, and coming at times of least expectance…

The spirit formed

direction strayed

The voice cried

eternity preyed

The couplets came

the couplets went

The present charged

redemption sent

After Midnight

The group selling safety

a policy owned

Limitations of sorrow

deductible known

The ring of all fear

with destiny unlearned

Raised candle enlightened

no ends left to burn

The forgotten ones rerun

forever first tier

A play without audience

approval without cheers

Reverence without deity

home wasted again

Blind infertility

contradiction amends

The darkness that heals

one born in the tomb

The rustler of abject

placater of wounds

The benign intolerance

root at the bend

The space without reference

christening portends

The threatening consensus

balloon never filled

Right turn never taken

going over the hill

The once preying huntress

now crouched stalking sigh

The raptors soliloquy

where meaning has died

The beggars all kings

the coffins nailed shut

The proofs in the putting

the angel a slut

All walking is fast

all running is done

The meager among us

abandon the sun

Cartoon incarnate

the captions reversed

Language is damned

translation now cursed

The being inside you

the crescent alone

The moon still in hiding

nothing left to atone

The presents wrapped twice

indecision now reigns

The heaven bound chorus

in liars refrain

The many among you

all sheets in the wind

The trouble if worth it

must lift from within

The silence has stopped

return what you fear

All excuses now exit

what you least want to hear

The river is up

the desert rolled back

The caddy shack empty

the dice game on track

The wages you thought of

the money you lost

Now paying for nothing

the greatest of cost

Your mind swings back dearly

head never so high

Your legions of mercy

a final goodbye

No mothers give birth here

yet triplets are born

Falling out of intention

all critics to scorn

The blood runs much deeper

than ever you knew

The towns burn much brighter

yet the ashes are few

The cradle is empty

the cats in the barn

The baby indentured

the crops sold the farm

The pleasant undressing

of all from before

Now lies there upon you

as you hide on the floor

The snap of the willow

breaks at your sound

As destiny broaches

Antigone found

You try, and you try, and you

try then again

To make what can’t happen

your very best friend

The majors a colonel

the generals in jail

Salutes never matter

when rain turns to hail

The partners have split

the halves are reborn

The message cemented

celebration forlorn

Amen to your brothers

your sisters cast out

The hour is short

co-creation in doubt

The blessed among you

the blessed in deed

The rousing reception

the thing that you need

If only it happened

in only that way

If only it happened

then maybe I’d pray

White lies to the mention

black hearts in the back

The pirate unmasked

the union is jacked

Felonious memories

of life on the hill

Brings tailored emotions

from the moonshiners still

The crater is empty

the future is gone

What before is now after

and the moment is long

The ring on your finger

all hollow and round

The wand that you pray with

makes nary a sound

A case that’s now hardened

the fruit over ripe

The jury still out

the canary’s in flight

The brains in the bosom

all feet to the fire

A gunfight is coming

politicians all liars

The robes on the statue

hide what you want to believe

The cloaks on the dagger

what you use to deceive

The grass in the meadow

the dirt on the mound

And time matters little

when measured by pound

The seven inceptions

the deadliest sins

The regent inspection

the absence of kin

Empty cars on the highway

the trailers of night

All follow each other

having now lost their sight

You bring it together

then take it away

You say that you mean it

hands folded to pray

A benediction of denial

a communion of one

Salvation just words

damnation has come

The rose in the thorn bush

the pricker of pairs

And is it all worth it

does anyone care

The army returns

as the enemy sleeps

The deal has been made

future centuries weep

Beginning what started

when the ending was sure

The trip to our ‘future’

is promised no more

As love waxes poetic

the writer inside dies

Asking is this what I bled for

all I hear is good-bye

The many have spoken

but one lives within

As they propel themselves onward

down their tunnel of sin

The only entrapment

now left for us all

Is that face in the mirror

those screams down the hall

The names still get called out

as the universe flies

But only orphans will answer

all connection has died

The terms of the prophecy

left shattered in stone

All hope disassembled

what’s left now your own

The building collapses

the doors are all shut

Your dream only enhances

what memory cannot

The places forgotten

the rain on the hill

The fire inside everything

empowerment of will

The renaissance sleepers

dead canvas again

The fixed broken messages

of very old men

The cain without sugar

all heat in the night

Fraternity’s vengeance

no freedom from spite

Delicious refreshment

the culling of one

The guardians all left

the weaker have won

Imagining more

with eyes seeing less

The knowledge malignant

where you no longer guess

A time to begin

and a time that’s now gone

The melody lapses

but still it’s your song

The praise and the benefit

the glory of all

The wiser imperative

those before standing tall

The distance between you

now further than close

The depth that’s inside you

now haunting the most

The bane to the ignorant

the post to the wall

The silver invective

won’t protect as you fall

The fear that you run from

the things that you know

The havens are scarce

covered tracks in the snow

The potion is lovely

disease now sublime

The patient impatient

for the memory of time

And for what you have written

and for all that you said

‘Time’ still was your master

and laughed while you bled

The blistering lapses

you no longer recall

The barn of chance meeting

no horse in the stall

The rubber arrhythmic

the sound is what rolls

The tread pattern leads

to where noise only drolls

You give partial forgiveness

where damage was slight

But you incriminate fully

If you think there’s no fight

The planners and schemers

and those who lay traps

All suicide merchants

forever forced to look back

The timings the thing here

the issues the same

The choice only singular

nothing else to remain

All cravings belie you

all muscles now tight

Desired confusion

that never seems right

Plenary sentences

indulgences gained

The bulls eye unchallenged

re-centered and changed

The bludgeoned and beat down

the ones who won’t die

Only badges of dishonor

left for you and for I

August, September,

then May into June

A ridiculous cycle

that repeats all too soon

Stepping outside the circle

and inside the ‘past’

Letting go of the answers

it’s the questions that last

When the buildings have rotted

and the weeds rule supreme

Your memory inside someone

may still cause them to dream

The higher we build it

the taller we climb

Only lengthens the laugh track

in eternities mime

The diggers find relics

they think from the ‘past’

Heads turned from direction

lessons fly away fast

Other planets are out there

distance measured for sure

In reaching we satisfy

what hasn’t been cured

The sidewalks are parallel

the true path runs across

Eyes fixed only forward

become distant and lost

The colors we think

there to serve us again

Valuing only the differences

in the spectrums playpen

The razor removes

what the growth could not show

The cleaner the tablet

the less that you know

The cracks in the pavement

the magic they tell

The sweet imperfection

maintenance now safe from hell

The floodgates are open

the screen filters out

What now is most needed

trumping loneliness and doubt

The roaring indignity

of life on the street

Is all the ‘time’ preferable

to what most think so sweet

My Grandmother sat there

for many a year

Never moving more than six feet

from her comfortable chair

There she lectured the heavens

and they listened intent

She had seen over their locked gates

without fear or dissent

The way that we challenge

the things that we know

Half-baked under umbrellas

never seeing the snow

The banners announcing

the lies that we’ve told

The charlatan’s payment

our search now on hold

The coming attraction

the tent poles go up

The center ring empty

all fantasy corrupt

The lions and tigers and

elephants gone

The acrobats airborne

in search of their song

The maestro is brilliant

the horn section raw

The composer left orphaned

his message is pawned

The timing is off now

the band marches in