Derrick Keeton - Three Poems

The Prophet

Prophet
You were worthy to wear the rags of deceased politicians
You were the tatters, blood stained, upon lion's teeth
Beware, the dusk beckons
Dialects cold and heathen
Make the mast fly on May morns' before storms forlorn
Brought brevity to the borne of man, of worn maidens
Loves labored after during wars of unquenchable thirsts
And disasters
Tell the science man to split his atoms humbly
The bombs are all dropped too hastily
Give me smack, give me some remedy
For fighting the creeping pains in me
Stills of the eyes unlike an ocean settled
Now that the storm has passed
Just remember the prophet
Sacrificed in the den of violent denizens
Remember what he wore when he swore
An oath to all of us



Six

Prisoner of the drink
You are the sum of righteousness in this era
For man has lain his torches upon kerosene whetted grounds
Trifle in the midst unsound
Ants scurry, burning bitterly
Dead kings contrite blightly
That the hills be mauled down
And all hear the sounds
Of the crowning of unrighteous clowns



Total Eclipse

I imagine a dawn
Dancing on strings like a puppet
Until God cuts it loose

I imagine a time
When people flew like cranes into nectar clouds
Until one of them committed the first crime

I imagine a rebirth
When angelic clarity reshapes the clay mold
Of our sunken, ivory ships

I imagine eternity
As the closing of man's eyes...
As a total eclipse...



Derrick Keeton is a poet, writer, and painter who lives in Southeast Tennessee where he is a student majoring in English at Tennessee Wesleyan College in his hometown of Athens, TN. His writing can be read at dkwriting.blogspot.com, and his artwork found at: http://www.artist-listing.com/artist.aspx?username=ScannerDarkly.