The H(a)unted

The H(a)unted

She frightens me
and not because she's so strikingly beautiful. 
No. 
What I fear is she might be so suitable 
for me her presence could comfort my spirit 
and uneasy soul like the prayers of a cleric.

But I want for no absolution;
an ablution to cleanse me of carnal pollutants 
that spread from my loins to my head to my bed 
littered with the petals of roses of red would surely suffice.

Free me from the vise 
of the thought of her buttery thighs in my life. 
I'm distraught...
almost caught in her crosshairs of love. 
One shot through the heart is what I'm most scared of...

-HymnAgen 

Crushin'

Artwork: Andrew Nichols

Does She?

Percussionist

Didn't I?

Didn’t I?

Share those

deepest parts

with me…

Those parts

where thoughts

take shape 

and emotion is drawn

from the chasm

of forgotten dreams,

from whence

beauty and art
tend to vent like steam.

For I wish to feel

the slip

in your tectonics.

Endure the rumblings

and grumblings

accompanying the sonics

of your citadel walls as they fall,

and your heart cries out

in a clarion’s call

of, “Hear me!”

But have I not

always listened?

Did you not beseech

I put an end

to my petitions

to share the weight

of your

undeserved burdens?

Those you tried to hide

with veils of “I’m all right”

and “I’m good” curtains?

Did I not?

- HymnAgen

Bated

Bated

Hovering over
anticipation
the label of "tease" 
her accusation
'though I am the one
upon hands and knees
in worship to Hathor's deity
long-savoring my fulfilled
supplications

- HymnAgen

Pain Relief

Pain Relief 

I am imprisoned by the religion 
of Black manhood...
Drowning in the stereotypes 
of masculinity... 
Choking on the pride 
I was trained to never swallow...
Repressing the expression 
of the feelings within me...
The written word has been my savior
from my fukked up paradigm...
Relief valve for all the pressure 
manhood builds inside my mind
preventing me from bursting 
in psychotic episodes,
slowly easing hurting 
with each pen stroke of my prose...

-HymnAgen

Two, Afraid

Two, Afraid

I am

a dichotomy -

a prose writer
who struggles

with honesty.

I push
and I pull
betwixt light
and dark –

tug of war
between spilling
and hiding
my heart.

My affliction
is omission.

I withhold.

Cannot relinquish
all the contents
of my

conflicted

soul.

So I mete them
like rations.

Austere
with my passions.

Frugal
with expression

as with ink.

Too concerned
with what
prospective readers
think.

‘Though
in the blink
of an eye,

thoughts
I do not supply
might have saved
a tortured soul
from the brink
of a precipice…

calling them back
from the edge
by feeling

they are not alone,

but my selfishness
won’t let them
into my dome –

allowing them
to teeter

because I’m too afraid
to allow any one
reader

to see

everything

that

I am…

a dichotomy –

a prose writer
who struggles

with honesty.

I withhold.

- HymnAgen

Sweet Tooth

My Muse