The last. Feb 13, 2024
For naming defeat as delight.
From ward opal white, we adjourned overnight,
For burns—
Uninurned, under ster·i·le light:
A body blown-circuits and missignals rife,
Moans man near to death; little deaths; little life.
For naming as progress, a failing.
In black forest, tossed, and lamenting the loss,
Of compass embossed both by cardinals and cross:
She, whirled unasked unto world unmasked,
Last long pardons herself for a future pre-casked.
And she suffers that forest…
From ward opal white, we adjourned overnight,
For burns—
Uninurned, under ster·i·le light:
A body blown-circuits and missignals rife,
Moans man near to death; little deaths; little life.
For naming as progress, a failing.
In black forest, tossed, and lamenting the loss,
Of compass embossed both by cardinals and cross:
She, whirled unasked unto world unmasked,
Last long pardons herself for a future pre-casked.
And she suffers that forest…
[introspection, vignette, horror]
Waking in the Iron Lung Oct 31, 2023
gauzed and glaucomic;
dazed and dystonic.
with rats in the cage on his chest;
with rust-bitten ribs ripped apart at the breast.
breathing unbidden. flesh-bolted bedridden.
there's something inside. pumping inside.
like drowning through scalpel-cut gills in his sides;
a rousing dread chaser to bleach-based mai tais.
revive—
autopsied alive.
dazed and dystonic.
with rats in the cage on his chest;
with rust-bitten ribs ripped apart at the breast.
breathing unbidden. flesh-bolted bedridden.
there's something inside. pumping inside.
like drowning through scalpel-cut gills in his sides;
a rousing dread chaser to bleach-based mai tais.
revive—
autopsied alive.
[halloween-2023, horror]
spinning existential Oct 20, 2023
little windmill at a standstill,
of prairie once, now precipice.
Man's brittle anvil cracking downhill:
its faults reflect in clenching fist.
No, not enough to just exist.
a century in pirouettes,
saw giants pass and kin outspun.
this, an injury in steppe vignettes—
to watch, removed, while all undone:
the earth machined into a gun.
and here you'll fall. and here you'll rust.
fears unresolved, and undiscussed.
so sing of windmills, sing of walls.
you're more than “will.”
life's more than “must.”
of prairie once, now precipice.
Man's brittle anvil cracking downhill:
its faults reflect in clenching fist.
No, not enough to just exist.
a century in pirouettes,
saw giants pass and kin outspun.
this, an injury in steppe vignettes—
to watch, removed, while all undone:
the earth machined into a gun.
and here you'll fall. and here you'll rust.
fears unresolved, and undiscussed.
so sing of windmills, sing of walls.
you're more than “will.”
life's more than “must.”
[america, solipsism, grendel]
Copycats in Reflections Oct 16, 2023
there's a jet black cat born blown of glass,
whose crystal slits in sockets brass,
reshatter fresh each time she's passed:
icon breaking eye contact.
there's a water naiad slaughter pond,
where whispers rise through self redrawn,
in waxing wines; black, butchered swans.
eidolon, omen: siren song.
there's a stranger's face in the glasshouse pane,
a twin among late-sprung wolfsbane.
a shadow waked; shade walking twain:
your boyhood home– perfumed butane.
whose crystal slits in sockets brass,
reshatter fresh each time she's passed:
icon breaking eye contact.
there's a water naiad slaughter pond,
where whispers rise through self redrawn,
in waxing wines; black, butchered swans.
eidolon, omen: siren song.
there's a stranger's face in the glasshouse pane,
a twin among late-sprung wolfsbane.
a shadow waked; shade walking twain:
your boyhood home– perfumed butane.
[halloween-2023, reflections]
Swan Dive In The Mall of America Sep 29, 2023
inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale
skin pale, impaled: fucked male-hangnail—
pinned butterfly lungs to pocket timescale.
inhale, exhale, surreal fairytale:
a rabbit rots snagged by her gray cottontail;
a scab-bitten tongue, candy-razor coattailed.
inhale, inhale, he chokes at “betrayal.”
in fountain below bastard balcony rail:
reflection, infected, soon red fire sale.
his family, his blood, yes his blood countervailed.
derail. derail. breathe out and de-rail.
his body ablaze, broken, burning cocktail.
to crash parting ways as supine, sanguine sail.
from hell's heart harpooned, made maroon as the whale.
inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale
a pausing. a palsy.
a popped richter scale.
new balcony born, in a shriek, comet tail—
he streaks from the ledge in explosive exhale.
skin pale, impaled: fucked male-hangnail—
pinned butterfly lungs to pocket timescale.
inhale, exhale, surreal fairytale:
a rabbit rots snagged by her gray cottontail;
a scab-bitten tongue, candy-razor coattailed.
inhale, inhale, he chokes at “betrayal.”
in fountain below bastard balcony rail:
reflection, infected, soon red fire sale.
his family, his blood, yes his blood countervailed.
derail. derail. breathe out and de-rail.
his body ablaze, broken, burning cocktail.
to crash parting ways as supine, sanguine sail.
from hell's heart harpooned, made maroon as the whale.
inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale
a pausing. a palsy.
a popped richter scale.
new balcony born, in a shriek, comet tail—
he streaks from the ledge in explosive exhale.
[halloween-2023, horror, death, vignette]
Whalefall Jul 17, 2023
"(n) occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor … these carcasses can create complex localized ecosystems that supply sustenance to deep-sea organisms for decades."
Arise, descend, leviathan.
Be billowed and bloom, be baleen balloon—
And soon,
Retire with tides. Rend— rescind lion skin,
Thou Charybdis kin, thy Nemean's flensed.
Then vend: fin, carbon, collagen.
Descend.
Rest here, sleep—
Sleep where sleeper sharks reap.
Host hagfish in hairy slagheaps, medusal upkeep.
Great ghost of hot-vents and cold-seeps,
Boast barrow plumbed thousandfold deep, in fathoms 6 feet.
Yes, deep. Decades abyssally deep,
In darkness tartarian,
Baptized Centenarian, Capsized Pescetarian.
Cetacean
come carrion.
And the trireme of time sails on.
And Ishmael's wish, whale —foregone:
The great shroud of the sea, rolls on.
Surrender. Be stony.
Thy splendor in bricks fired bony.
Here rendered hallowed in hollow Abyss:
A cathedral of coral. Living endless.
Arise, descend, leviathan.
Be billowed and bloom, be baleen balloon—
And soon,
Retire with tides. Rend— rescind lion skin,
Thou Charybdis kin, thy Nemean's flensed.
Then vend: fin, carbon, collagen.
Descend.
Rest here, sleep—
Sleep where sleeper sharks reap.
Host hagfish in hairy slagheaps, medusal upkeep.
Great ghost of hot-vents and cold-seeps,
Boast barrow plumbed thousandfold deep, in fathoms 6 feet.
Yes, deep. Decades abyssally deep,
In darkness tartarian,
Baptized Centenarian, Capsized Pescetarian.
Cetacean
come carrion.
And the trireme of time sails on.
And Ishmael's wish, whale —foregone:
The great shroud of the sea, rolls on.
Surrender. Be stony.
Thy splendor in bricks fired bony.
Here rendered hallowed in hollow Abyss:
A cathedral of coral. Living endless.
[nature, vignette]
Firebird Jun 05, 2023
there you rot in feathered flame—
the ashen shell of father's name.
in corner throne, in dark domain,
an acrid heartbeat, blackened drain.
you leach the color out of life,
and pray in death again you'll rise.
whatever Fate has canonized,
may you burn, before you die.
in plumage proud, Apollo's ward,
on cirrus cloud, the Firebird,
who thus avows in whispered word:
"i will burn out, leave unsmoldered."
and from your cell you smell that sky—
and taste the wind of Cretan night.
before your turn you, waxen, fly.
well may you burn, before you die.
the rest of us, who shed our shells,
will eke out lives beyond your spell.
and though we see the parallels,
we flare for warmth, not to rebel.
you winged born, and flame came by,
but phoenix none: of serpent sly.
with petrol spurn, in sulfur writhe,
and you will burn, before you die.
you wasted spark.
the ashen shell of father's name.
in corner throne, in dark domain,
an acrid heartbeat, blackened drain.
you leach the color out of life,
and pray in death again you'll rise.
whatever Fate has canonized,
may you burn, before you die.
in plumage proud, Apollo's ward,
on cirrus cloud, the Firebird,
who thus avows in whispered word:
"i will burn out, leave unsmoldered."
and from your cell you smell that sky—
and taste the wind of Cretan night.
before your turn you, waxen, fly.
well may you burn, before you die.
the rest of us, who shed our shells,
will eke out lives beyond your spell.
and though we see the parallels,
we flare for warmth, not to rebel.
you winged born, and flame came by,
but phoenix none: of serpent sly.
with petrol spurn, in sulfur writhe,
and you will burn, before you die.
you wasted spark.
[vitriol]
Tint of Timshel Apr 23, 2023
You wake like disaster in feelings so vivid—
A longing, a failing, some stabbing elation,
Nameless, but tinctured: an emptying livid,
Flames fast to your breast in burning evocation.
Emotions, like colors, bespeckle their spectra,
As pins in a map or coordinate plane.
From cynic's celadon to amber Electra,
The tongue's sacrifice: imprecise sobriquet.
You yearn to discern such sensations uncharted.
Defined and demystic— in linguistic proofs.
Your stories and poems, flowing full or halfhearted,
Preach patrons as sheep to a shepherded truth.
But language and logic are Abel and Cain,
And readers reframe every word colored vain.
A longing, a failing, some stabbing elation,
Nameless, but tinctured: an emptying livid,
Flames fast to your breast in burning evocation.
Emotions, like colors, bespeckle their spectra,
As pins in a map or coordinate plane.
From cynic's celadon to amber Electra,
The tongue's sacrifice: imprecise sobriquet.
You yearn to discern such sensations uncharted.
Defined and demystic— in linguistic proofs.
Your stories and poems, flowing full or halfhearted,
Preach patrons as sheep to a shepherded truth.
But language and logic are Abel and Cain,
And readers reframe every word colored vain.
[East-of-Eden, language, emotion]
Florida HB 451 Mar 26, 2023
Florida HB 451:
The house bill that will call for all history to be guiltless. Portended by "HB 7 2022"
I. Afore
Blackened brick-bound rib cages.
Makeshift kiln which redacts.
Where once were turned pages,
Now pages turn black.
While those wielding gas cans,
Cry firebug! first,
Over de-Stonewalled Jacksons—
White worlds reversed.
II. Afar
A great bailey of fire,
That drives through the land.
Bleating, eating entire,
Our Earth from their hand.
Rainbow-forests fall,
All misquoted in ash,
Which with whiteness appalls—
In its innocent act.
III. Afire
The libraries burn.
But fire, through fire, can turn.
The house bill that will call for all history to be guiltless. Portended by "HB 7 2022"
I. Afore
Blackened brick-bound rib cages.
Makeshift kiln which redacts.
Where once were turned pages,
Now pages turn black.
While those wielding gas cans,
Cry firebug! first,
Over de-Stonewalled Jacksons—
White worlds reversed.
II. Afar
A great bailey of fire,
That drives through the land.
Bleating, eating entire,
Our Earth from their hand.
Rainbow-forests fall,
All misquoted in ash,
Which with whiteness appalls—
In its innocent act.
III. Afire
The libraries burn.
But fire, through fire, can turn.
[vitriol, america]
Rallying Swell Mar 23, 2023
The churn and slosh of a marshaling— awash,
With builds to brigades that crest and disband.
Ever-frequenting gyres gestate, hatch in hodgepodge,
Of indolent jellyfish kissing the land.
Missives marched nigh over night's open ocean,
Predict pandemonium—quiet then quelled.
These ripplings rain-ruptured reverse rapture-motion,
Surge sulfurous, suspended in rallying swell.
Time, trapped, uncorks violence. Vesuvian.
A vision visited on world wet-powered:
A wave-wall so wrathful: wyvernous-leviathan.
Water-xenolith yawning wide—Zero-hour.
Awakened at last, the sea's ancient vanguard strides levelly toward land.
With builds to brigades that crest and disband.
Ever-frequenting gyres gestate, hatch in hodgepodge,
Of indolent jellyfish kissing the land.
Missives marched nigh over night's open ocean,
Predict pandemonium—quiet then quelled.
These ripplings rain-ruptured reverse rapture-motion,
Surge sulfurous, suspended in rallying swell.
Time, trapped, uncorks violence. Vesuvian.
A vision visited on world wet-powered:
A wave-wall so wrathful: wyvernous-leviathan.
Water-xenolith yawning wide—Zero-hour.
Awakened at last, the sea's ancient vanguard strides levelly toward land.
[abecedarian, nature, Yeats]
mortificatio Jan 18, 2023
We didn't move you
You stayed in the garden you loved
And when spring came we waited
And when, finally, something grew
Hellebore
A single bloom, it grew from you
Rising through your teeth
You stayed in the garden you loved
And when spring came we waited
And when, finally, something grew
Hellebore
A single bloom, it grew from you
Rising through your teeth
[nature, vignette]
To be Dec 23, 2022
There's power in concision—
The fragment fells the phrase.
The unsaid; The omission;
The sentence set ablaze.
There's power in concision—
The scream's silent encore.
So, Hamlet, then, decision!
A life cut short, means more.
The fragment fells the phrase.
The unsaid; The omission;
The sentence set ablaze.
There's power in concision—
The scream's silent encore.
So, Hamlet, then, decision!
A life cut short, means more.
[language, Shakespeare, death]
Marine Snow Dec 06, 2022
A gull of crushed wing: rolling, keeling, capsized.
By whitecaps which snapped much as bear-traps to mice.
So above sees gray halos: that feathery light,
Whose rays wraith through graves made of waves licking night.
And cradling low, gasps as memories drown.
Spasmic flailings erode with the waves crashing down.
So salt-saddled eyes shot burgundy, bleed.
Phantom faces dissolve down now ten-hundred leagues.
Then in the dark, feels pin-pricking eyes,
Yet sees Satan's sable: unoriginal night.
In cold never known, but for winterous woe.
When last all around, falls particulate snow.
Then beak bucks for breath,
And our gull swallows death.
By whitecaps which snapped much as bear-traps to mice.
So above sees gray halos: that feathery light,
Whose rays wraith through graves made of waves licking night.
And cradling low, gasps as memories drown.
Spasmic flailings erode with the waves crashing down.
So salt-saddled eyes shot burgundy, bleed.
Phantom faces dissolve down now ten-hundred leagues.
Then in the dark, feels pin-pricking eyes,
Yet sees Satan's sable: unoriginal night.
In cold never known, but for winterous woe.
When last all around, falls particulate snow.
Then beak bucks for breath,
And our gull swallows death.
[nature, vignette, cold, death]
Heart Shake Nov 16, 2022
There's an oak labeled "loved oh so dearest,"
Whose core at last cracked under weight.
So it leans low on those it holds nearest—
Defined dourly now by its shake-weakened state.
But tree bark conceals what disease marks inside,
And so only oak ever knows it has lied.
Its disease diagnosed…
or perhaps self-prescribed?
Whose core at last cracked under weight.
So it leans low on those it holds nearest—
Defined dourly now by its shake-weakened state.
But tree bark conceals what disease marks inside,
And so only oak ever knows it has lied.
Its disease diagnosed…
or perhaps self-prescribed?
[nature, introspection]
Derealizations in the Mirror Nov 04, 2022
There's a balance here you're still perfecting,
A subtlety of brush and nod.
Though mirror's glass dagger, dissecting,
So cuts hard edge of bones set broad.
Now glides the brush in breathy sigh,
So gilded face may pirouette,
Re-emphasize maternal eye—
Yet shadows seep and liners let.
For through that frame: your palindrome.
And others claim that you are he.
Of world there as cast in chrome,
Whose life's lived whole in mimicry.
I have the gift of slipping back,
And viewing life behind that frame.
We breathe deceived by sense-feedback,
And float our days on surface, tame.
There's an ease with which I pass between,
And dive, entangled, through that veil,
A cool sets as nicotine—
Ahab not I, I the whale.
From realm of memory and time and place:
This window paints your pretty face.
A subtlety of brush and nod.
Though mirror's glass dagger, dissecting,
So cuts hard edge of bones set broad.
Now glides the brush in breathy sigh,
So gilded face may pirouette,
Re-emphasize maternal eye—
Yet shadows seep and liners let.
For through that frame: your palindrome.
And others claim that you are he.
Of world there as cast in chrome,
Whose life's lived whole in mimicry.
I have the gift of slipping back,
And viewing life behind that frame.
We breathe deceived by sense-feedback,
And float our days on surface, tame.
There's an ease with which I pass between,
And dive, entangled, through that veil,
A cool sets as nicotine—
Ahab not I, I the whale.
From realm of memory and time and place:
This window paints your pretty face.
[reflections, automaticity, gender]
The Final Coming Aug 02, 2022
A response to Yeats on the end. See: The Second Coming
"Turning and turning" —a gyre drags me.
From Fountains of Great Deep afire, bursts sea.
A beast; a Charybdis; a name: Blasphemy.
Night Unoriginal, thus anarchy?
A forest of fire-purged identity,
In bedding of burning leaves, detritus— See:
Amoebas in love leaping erratically.
Their cells' riot quells, forming one from many.
Vision virulent— Spiritus Mundi:
A rose blooming backward while water upstreams;
The best are impassioned in their apathy;
And things fall apart in reverse: interweave.
I stand in the light of a last setting sun,
And all in the dark will, enwombed, become one.
"Turning and turning" —a gyre drags me.
From Fountains of Great Deep afire, bursts sea.
A beast; a Charybdis; a name: Blasphemy.
Night Unoriginal, thus anarchy?
A forest of fire-purged identity,
In bedding of burning leaves, detritus— See:
Amoebas in love leaping erratically.
Their cells' riot quells, forming one from many.
Vision virulent— Spiritus Mundi:
A rose blooming backward while water upstreams;
The best are impassioned in their apathy;
And things fall apart in reverse: interweave.
I stand in the light of a last setting sun,
And all in the dark will, enwombed, become one.
[Yeats, nature, response, death]
Branching from The Channel Jul 15, 2022
Inspired by Hardy's poem. See: Channel Firing
Arose the howl of wakened hounds
From snow, a foul forsaken sound—
That wound as wind itself did wind
And wounded skin with piercing bind,
As ropes so bite (wove round an oak,
Which grows despite compounding choke,
And aged falls forever scarred,
In tourniquet of wire barbed),
So too did Sin's descendant's cries
Cut through my skin and soul abscise.
Arose the howl of wakened hounds
From snow, a foul forsaken sound—
That wound as wind itself did wind
And wounded skin with piercing bind,
As ropes so bite (wove round an oak,
Which grows despite compounding choke,
And aged falls forever scarred,
In tourniquet of wire barbed),
So too did Sin's descendant's cries
Cut through my skin and soul abscise.
[Hardy, cold, nature, vignette]
Chemical Remains Jul 10, 2022
What little left there was remained
As solvent's solace sickly strained
(by catalyst or flame maintained):
precipitate alone undrained.
So—
What will I had to wake was waned
'til coated soul in shroud made stained
in solid insol. ink fine-grained
With wafted scent of love I feigned.
This solute shield has since sustained
No gram of self. Powder profaned—
Foul potion by power enflamed
and effervesced unascertained.
The lightest dust of snow in rain.
A product of my brain trepanned.
As solvent's solace sickly strained
(by catalyst or flame maintained):
precipitate alone undrained.
So—
What will I had to wake was waned
'til coated soul in shroud made stained
in solid insol. ink fine-grained
With wafted scent of love I feigned.
This solute shield has since sustained
No gram of self. Powder profaned—
Foul potion by power enflamed
and effervesced unascertained.
The lightest dust of snow in rain.
A product of my brain trepanned.
[chemicals, introspection]
My Heart in Motion Jul 01, 2022
A frail thing, no more, no less,
I felt in me a door to test.
On failing hinge it gave as pressed
Another inch at my behest.
In coma, crept, to ego's crypt.
From soma, slept, as inward slipped.
Still spinning there, though paralyzed,
On carousel, a soul astride.
Since voyeurs part I played— so spied
My boyish heart, inlaid inside.
A zoetrope, each life-slice mine.
With lowly lope, galloped equine.
It lumbered round as slow as rain
And throbbing dropped like cheap champagne.
Then falling far I failed to feign
All apathy, as was my game.
A powder flash of memory
Put pictures past periphery.
Til splashing I through warmth like wine
From laugh to cry as grape to vine.
A door ajar. Undraped designs.
And cliché love at last— divine.
I felt in me a door to test.
On failing hinge it gave as pressed
Another inch at my behest.
In coma, crept, to ego's crypt.
From soma, slept, as inward slipped.
Still spinning there, though paralyzed,
On carousel, a soul astride.
Since voyeurs part I played— so spied
My boyish heart, inlaid inside.
A zoetrope, each life-slice mine.
With lowly lope, galloped equine.
It lumbered round as slow as rain
And throbbing dropped like cheap champagne.
Then falling far I failed to feign
All apathy, as was my game.
A powder flash of memory
Put pictures past periphery.
Til splashing I through warmth like wine
From laugh to cry as grape to vine.
A door ajar. Undraped designs.
And cliché love at last— divine.
[introspection]
An Ego-alien in Human Clothing Jun 04, 2022
Is this pretending or can this be living?
Catch phrases like colds I've contracted from friends,
Prescribed life unending by men unforgiving?
Brains broken record as I spin their commands.
Is it solipsis or bigger than me?
Clay from the womb—a flesh fresh to be filled,
Ads and emotions leach from numb TVs?
We, mold-machined golems, thoughts gassed and distilled.
This wraith in reflection, it's he I've become?
Plot-plagiarist with my script in his fist,
I, routined robot, with see-through cerebrum?
O' Player, O' Bard, harken: method act this!
An intrusive idea: the wheel wrested left—
I wake in his blood and I scream "I am blessed!"
Catch phrases like colds I've contracted from friends,
Prescribed life unending by men unforgiving?
Brains broken record as I spin their commands.
Is it solipsis or bigger than me?
Clay from the womb—a flesh fresh to be filled,
Ads and emotions leach from numb TVs?
We, mold-machined golems, thoughts gassed and distilled.
This wraith in reflection, it's he I've become?
Plot-plagiarist with my script in his fist,
I, routined robot, with see-through cerebrum?
O' Player, O' Bard, harken: method act this!
An intrusive idea: the wheel wrested left—
I wake in his blood and I scream "I am blessed!"
[automaticity, reflections, introspection]
A New Arrangement May 10, 2022
Like a junkyard of roses
(From trash clamber buds)
With waste, decomposes
Come biblical floods,
So a garden fate-blessed
(And painfully bred)
You raise from the mess
We made of your head.
A Dream you'd sown seeds in
(We withered away),
Grew American Eden,
Where smog smothers day.
Dead blossoms don't bloom
(And you don't open up).
Now rains rush the tomb,
Spilling Covenant Cup.
Effulgent futures finespun—
Drowned. Deadheaded. Undone.
So when thunders sound
(And we're praying for change)
You let life cut down
Flowers "Fate" prearranged.
Because every day
And every night
You arrange bouquets
In our disposal site.
(From trash clamber buds)
With waste, decomposes
Come biblical floods,
So a garden fate-blessed
(And painfully bred)
You raise from the mess
We made of your head.
A Dream you'd sown seeds in
(We withered away),
Grew American Eden,
Where smog smothers day.
Dead blossoms don't bloom
(And you don't open up).
Now rains rush the tomb,
Spilling Covenant Cup.
Effulgent futures finespun—
Drowned. Deadheaded. Undone.
So when thunders sound
(And we're praying for change)
You let life cut down
Flowers "Fate" prearranged.
Because every day
And every night
You arrange bouquets
In our disposal site.
[introspection, nature, america, dreams, bright-eyes, change]
Doomscrolling Apr 22, 2022
When all that is good
Or all that felt true
Feels tapped of the heartwood
Of life's yawning yew,
Then novels turn nectar—
Lifeblood substitute
Panacean specters
Gold sap that renews.
I turn off my screen
My face mirrored through
Close eyes, count fifteen
And open page two
Or all that felt true
Feels tapped of the heartwood
Of life's yawning yew,
Then novels turn nectar—
Lifeblood substitute
Panacean specters
Gold sap that renews.
I turn off my screen
My face mirrored through
Close eyes, count fifteen
And open page two
[nature, escape]
Snail Smells Apr 11, 2022
When rain washes way
Down to watery mist
And dew floods of gray
Wallow's whispery wish
The Mollusk Parade
Slips slyly from schist.
A seashell cabaret
Of withheld slimy trysts.
Helicidae exposé for a
Malacologist
Who walked waterways
Sappy somnambulist,
And smelt on the bay,
Nose lifted sunkissed,
Some semblance of May
Some essence of cyst—
She bottled a spray
And named it Contrist
Down to watery mist
And dew floods of gray
Wallow's whispery wish
The Mollusk Parade
Slips slyly from schist.
A seashell cabaret
Of withheld slimy trysts.
Helicidae exposé for a
Malacologist
Who walked waterways
Sappy somnambulist,
And smelt on the bay,
Nose lifted sunkissed,
Some semblance of May
Some essence of cyst—
She bottled a spray
And named it Contrist
[nature, fun]
Nights in the City Mar 06, 2022
The nights around these parts have such a charm—
A stolen fire haunts the city lights.
Your laugh a loss to suit the law's strong arm.
I walk: no blood, no sense, no appetite.
And burning still a single vacant frame:
A quiet hall and doctors washing hands,
No love, no life, a transplant barred by claim.
A second start. New life in distant land.
So when I walk I wield a Warstic bat.
And when I walk I wait with trembling chest.
A life for life my only caveat;
I take what's mine from any idle guest.
Through back alleys bleak or across causeways cold,
I'll do as I will; you do as you're told.
A stolen fire haunts the city lights.
Your laugh a loss to suit the law's strong arm.
I walk: no blood, no sense, no appetite.
And burning still a single vacant frame:
A quiet hall and doctors washing hands,
No love, no life, a transplant barred by claim.
A second start. New life in distant land.
So when I walk I wield a Warstic bat.
And when I walk I wait with trembling chest.
A life for life my only caveat;
I take what's mine from any idle guest.
Through back alleys bleak or across causeways cold,
I'll do as I will; you do as you're told.
[vignette, iambic-pentameter, cold, sonnet, death]
Printer Tones Feb 16, 2022
Mimicking the meter of Hardy's poem. See: Neutral Tones
The ocean sat wrong ahead of me,
An LCD screen, marred with strata of tears,
And all that was real was the rustling of trees;
– This new world had no lungs, and no air.
Would I awake by pinch or a sound
Ripped from rapturous graspings of sleep so strange;
The fog lifts away and this dream I unbound
In this all still –no sign of change.
I walked to my work and gave up the ghost
Floating apace through steel and rebar;
The faces of business blurred engrossed
Through seasickened eyes so bizarre….
Come five, dead walking back home to sleep,
All that I love: the sun, the sea,
Murdered, position re-filled: paper heaps,
And crammed in a space four by three.
The ocean sat wrong ahead of me,
An LCD screen, marred with strata of tears,
And all that was real was the rustling of trees;
– This new world had no lungs, and no air.
Would I awake by pinch or a sound
Ripped from rapturous graspings of sleep so strange;
The fog lifts away and this dream I unbound
In this all still –no sign of change.
I walked to my work and gave up the ghost
Floating apace through steel and rebar;
The faces of business blurred engrossed
Through seasickened eyes so bizarre….
Come five, dead walking back home to sleep,
All that I love: the sun, the sea,
Murdered, position re-filled: paper heaps,
And crammed in a space four by three.
[Hardy, america, automaticity]
