The ventriloquists are upset
I do not respond as they wish
after all they’re family, since
I do not say I love this place
I fail to speak words of consolation
Empathetic phrases won’t arise
unless I choke
With what I do not tell them
they are full of doubt
while I dine on emptiness
We starve for differing reasons
I must learn again the choice of
neither battle nor broken bone
That my song offers food, and
wine of everything that is true
Not this xylophone registering
the flat tones
of dust amid the chorus of ghosts
©All Rights Reserved
‘Dark Earth 
– “Rabelais and Hieronymus Bosch look out of dark chinks in these poems…”…’‘The most unique set of poems I have ever read…
“Silence Louder Than A Train
– ‘Highly recommended…’‘”… one would be hard pressed to do better…’‘”…savagely introspective..”
’‘Dean’s books will someday be required reading…”
