Voiced // SHORT SERIES: Isabella III by Thomas Rivet

My lady of the sunshine, Isabella, soon began to wander

the rustic whereabouts surrounding our empty abode. 
Silence crept through the unsettled lands;

waters ceased to flow, birdsong felt banished, only the winds 
breathed down our spines.

There was a presence - au contraire - an absence.

Isabella said nothing.  She would only murmur to me; 
invariably ending her utterances with an adorable giggle.  
Her cheeks would refine, 
turning red - matching her palpable ruby lips.

She seemed detached; Isabella stopped bathing, but would return 

drenched from the nearby marshland; mumbling profanity. 
Isabella was swirling into severe psychosis.

"Gods! Gods! Forsake not - forsake me not,"

Isabella, in impulse, exclaimed from our stone balcony,

with no one to hear her despair.

THOMAS RIVET

Voiced // SHORT SERIES: Isabella II by Thomas Rivet

Isabella spoke in soft tongue; 
she could lullaby the fiercest of predators.
Her words, however, could poison the last man's blood to fatal lengths.
Without her callous charm, her and I would have never been royal lovers.

"Cursed you - you wretched warrior - to the depths; to the abyss with you,"
she would reiterate to herself, as she stood in the shady corner of our bedroom.

I witnessed a glimmering tear, as she strenuously heaved her pride apart.
Isabella fell to her knees, incomplete.

What was I to do? Seek help, or let time heal all wounds?

THOMAS RIVET

Voiced // SHORT SERIES: Isabella by Thomas Rivet

"Take me yonder,

and I shall call it home"

Isabella cried in desperation.

Isabella now despises me;
have I become a tame man?
It cannot be yonder,
although tempted to wonder ...
what other reason 
for this irrational treason? 

THOMAS RIVET

Voiced // POEM: Anger by Thomas Rivet

O thunderous sky
why do you sting
and side with lightning?
Are you angry,
are you in discontent?
Clouds; your Brothers,
your grayscale blankets,
clothe you and feed you droplets
of Earth's freshest
sources and streams.
O thunderous sky,
cease your rumbling,
halt your bolts,
veer your volts,
tell what's wrong
and welt not
Our big blue dot.

THOMAS RIVET

Voiced // LESS: Silence by Thomas Rivet

There is something about silence 
that renders me 
speechless.

THOMAS RIVET

Voiced // POEM: A Frolic Alcoholic Once Told Me by Thomas Rivet

A Frolic Alcoholic Once Told Me
A frolic alcoholic once told me,
"when times are glum,
have a glass or twelve of rum,
until your toes and fingertips go numb
and don't even bother leaving me some,
for it grants you release and freedom."
He added,
"and I could do without,
for my words are slu-urred
and delve from three dozen years (or about)
in and out
of bars and pubs along my ordinary route,
and thirst-quenching bouts of existential doubt.

He stumbled and tumbled; 
turning back to face me,
bowing in drunken glory.

THOMAS RIVET

Voiced // POEM: Catch My Drift by Thomas Rivet

Catch My Drift
"Catch my drift,"
Ocean said to
clumsy coast.
Clumsy, as it be,
it would miss. Boast,
the wicked wave would,
as it knew it could,
not that it should.
Ocean paid the price,
as his solid neighbour docked
and became its bed rock.
Now Ocean is alone;
nothing to hate, 
or humiliate -
except its
sudden, 
sodden fate.

THOMAS RIVET