tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41948024949443723902024-02-19T04:20:13.502-06:00Carcinogenic PoetryCarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.comBlogger607125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-29212200116412746692024-01-04T22:14:00.004-06:002024-01-04T22:28:36.382-06:00Bobby "Z" Zielinski - Two Poems<p><b>Who Are We #2</b></p><p><br /></p><p>The time has come.</p><p>The time has gone.</p><p>Dreams of yesterday’s</p><p>fade away through the years.</p><p> </p><p>What could have been,</p><p>if not for what has occurred.</p><p>Given a chance</p><p>would we have succeeded.</p><p> </p><p>Going through life dreaming.</p><p>Was it easier being what we have been,</p><p>instead of being</p><p>what we could have been?</p><p><br /></p><p>To be what we could have been.</p><p>Instead of being what we should have been.</p><p>Did we try to be what we were meant to be?</p><p>Or did we just become what we did not want to be?</p><p><br /></p><p>Mentors and Surrogates along the way.</p><p>Wanting us to be what they have been.</p><p>Attempting to prevent us from becoming</p><p>what we wanted to be.</p><p><br /></p><p>To be what we wanted to be</p><p>meant not being what we were meant to be.</p><p>Preventing us from becoming what we should have been.</p><p>Becoming someone who became someone we were not meant to be.</p><p><br /></p><p>So to be what we want to be.</p><p>Meant not becoming what we were meant to be.</p><p>Or what others wanted us to be.</p><p>Then who are we?</p><p><br /></p><p>Sit and wonder what</p><p>it would have been</p><p>to be someone else.</p><p>Instead of being what we have been.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>WHO WE ARE #3</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">We walk thru the ashes of days gone by,</p><p class="MsoNormal">searching for remnants of who we are.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">We see a shadow upon a wall,</p><p class="MsoNormal">a blurred vision of forgotten years.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Faded memories that fail to appear,</p><p class="MsoNormal">erased forever, lost in time.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Who we were and who we are</p><p class="MsoNormal">were lost forever in the bowels of time.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Visions that reflect moments</p><p class="MsoNormal">of times never had.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Rescinds all your desires</p><p class="MsoNormal">to review your past.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">So why must it be that we're always filled with regret,</p><p class="MsoNormal">searching for memories of who we are.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><div style="background-color: white;"><p><span style="color: #26282a;"><span><i><span style="color: #500050; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">BOBBY "Z" Zielinski is an </span></span><span style="font-size: 18px;">82-year-old</span><span style="color: #500050; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> veteran, original Jersey City 50's Bad Boy High School Drop Out and author of </span></span></i><span style="color: #500050; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Friday Night at the Bucket of Blood</span></span><i style="color: #500050; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.5pt;">. </i></span></span></p></div>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0New Jersey, USA40.0583238 -74.405661211.748089963821151 -109.5619112 68.368557636178849 -39.2494112tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-31571646621153295632023-09-30T17:18:00.003-05:002023-09-30T17:31:59.647-05:00Milton P. Ehrlich, Ph.D. - One Poem<p><b>A Beacon of Light</b></p><p>In the darkness of early morning light<br />I see a scattering of brilliant dewdrops<br />outside my window on the green leaves<br />of my hollyhock wavering in the breeze.<br />They all greet me with a collective smile<br />reminding me how often there is a bit of<br />sunlight in every corner of darkness, like<br />the giant daylily I once saw growing along<br />the border of my father’s big mausoleum.<br />When I was young, I viewed the nocturnal<br />glow of his Lucky Strikes as the only points<br />of light in his gloomy bedroom as he worried<br />about his next day Wall Street trades.<br />Mother never stopped singing to him:<br /><i>Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think,<br />enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink,<br />enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>Milton P. Ehrlich Ph.D. is a 90-year-old psychologist and a veteran of the Korean War. He has published many poems in periodicals such as the </i>London Grip, Arc Poetry Magazine, Descant Literary Magazine, Wisconsin Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Christian Science Monitor, <i>and the </i>New York Times.</span></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0New Jersey, USA40.0583238 -74.405661213.508565984790312 -109.5619112 66.608081615209684 -39.2494112tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-48670069600178342252023-09-23T12:04:00.000-05:002023-09-23T12:04:05.329-05:00Eddie Heaton - Two Poems<p><b>Pilot Episode</b></p><p><br /></p><p>how did we even come to be there</p><p>in the mystical white city of Algiers</p><p>where we eyeballed the sun from</p><p>our seven-storey summerhouse</p><p>as raging stoners ransacked the</p><p>darkness without replenishment</p><p>terrifying from all directions</p><p>in a velvet-lined love-cupboard</p><p>one big bang before the dawn</p><p>overwhelmed as we were by</p><p>the sheer magnificence of the</p><p>desolation we had conjured</p><p>we broke their architecture</p><p>with our mathematics of the</p><p>mind and state-of-the-art</p><p>extreme specifics some as</p><p>young as wrestling matches</p><p>only then was my service set</p><p>in slow cement with a suitcase</p><p>full of threats and a bloodied</p><p>little cloth of gold and an</p><p>unreasonable longing for an</p><p>entirely different moon a</p><p>proletariat as always</p><p>disenchanted carrying on as</p><p>they do with groping thoughts</p><p>for consolation</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Off You Pop</b></p><p><br /></p><p>along the smoke trails of a time</p><p>that crawls out through a purple</p><p>crust we’re lately sprung from</p><p>long-forgotten traps to find</p><p>your infantry is living off our lands</p><p>those bullet-riddled bodies</p><p>indicate enough to argue for</p><p>a lasting peace the presentation</p><p>of a priceless cup to compensate</p><p>those endless ruptured needs</p><p>your ancient runes are merely</p><p>sharp depictions of the stagnant</p><p>air that most night travelers</p><p>contest for money is as money</p><p>does is death so meanly spread</p><p>out as you sleep to dream that</p><p>all our lives are just burlesque</p><p>interpretations of an absolute</p><p>eradication so they needn’t</p><p>sound the knell that death’s-</p><p>head chanting from the wings</p><p>as bloodlust rises in the east</p><p>a desert of aborted resolutions</p><p>might continue their recitals</p><p>whilst complicating something</p><p>bestial that your dying nervous</p><p>system touched were more than</p><p>just like sprinklers on the lawn</p><p>who rowed me out should guide</p><p>me back there’s nothing stranger</p><p>than an attitude or spiral explanation</p><p>sixty-one reflect are oligarchs’</p><p>excessive guest room perks</p><p>like turbots on the bill i felt you</p><p>give a shiver slurping goat’s head</p><p>stew and proper getting ripped</p><p>apart to shard the quivering filled</p><p>-in gaps a little tighter when you</p><p>choked as sapless semi-invalids</p><p>disseminate their slightest of</p><p>suggestion strands before</p><p>returning lamely into shot to</p><p>dress-rehearse a song of restless</p><p>high-end one off cracks</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>Eddie Heaton studied innovative and experimental poetry under the tutelage of post-modern poet and educator Keith Jebb, achieving a first-class honours degree. He also won the 2021 Carcanet Award for Creative Writing. His work has been extensively published in a number of prestigious literary journals.</i></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-9399234639092804262023-09-17T12:30:00.002-05:002023-09-30T17:20:13.089-05:00Dr. Ernest Williamson III, Ph.D. - One Poem <p><b> Because of the Train</b></p><p> <i> In memory of Bloke Porter </i> </p><p> </p><p>We have twenty minutes till dawn. </p><p>For at least twenty and twenty years </p><p>I have worked in night.</p><p>All the night. In all the nights.</p><p>Even though no one knows</p><p>or knew about it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nearly now</p><p> we can go</p><p> like many things</p><p> go away. Shrills cuss words in utterances.</p><p> Mean letters coldly aligned</p><p> shutter then lie down.</p><p>Though we pant in grey resultant.</p><p> </p><p> Because of the train.</p><p> </p><p> Ennui in we in soaked silence</p><p> who smile </p><p> with wisdom of the fish bolts.</p><p> As Romance and Old Visions of Rome</p><p> land</p><p> in our seats.</p><p> We know nothing of these people.</p><p> </p><p>Because of the train.</p><p> </p><p> Iced auburn rails against the rails.</p><p>All of them so sweetly. I cannot begin to count</p><p>the burns. Our assumed words</p><p> burned into our ears because we wasted not</p><p>our time. In hour's midnight.</p><p><br /></p><p> Because of the train.</p><p> </p><p>Soon birches will bend for</p><p>in smile of us, even when lights</p><p> release glitter ash</p><p> minus</p><p> moment</p><p> plus, my soul.</p><p><br /></p><p> Blessed is thy soul.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because of the train.</p><p> In spite of no solace. We worked.</p><p><br /></p><p>And this too. This is what</p><p>I, too, remembered.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Dr. Ernest Williamson III has published creative work in over six hundred journals. His poetry has appeared in over two hundred journals including <i>The Roanoke Review, Pinyon Review, Review Americana, Aroostook Review, Poetry, Life & Times,</i> and <i>Westview</i>. Currently, Ernest lives in Nashville, Tennessee.</p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Nashville, TN, USA36.1626638 -86.78160167.8524299638211517 -121.9378516 64.472897636178843 -51.6253516tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-49234371627821474342023-09-13T16:20:00.001-05:002023-09-13T16:21:50.887-05:00J.J. Campbell - Three Poems<p><b> The Last Drop of Regret on Your Lips<br /><br /></b></p><p>share a bottle of vodka<br />with your crush from<br />the eighth grade</p><p>it will be the last time<br />you ever see her smile</p><p>roam the streets downtown<br />at four in the morning</p><p>loneliness is when no one<br />bothers to notice anymore</p><p>walk in the cemetery<br />and listen to the ghosts</p><p>pain is the last drop<br />of regret on your lips</p><p>tripping the light fantastic<br />in a purple velvet suit</p><p>suddenly, you realize<br />you are the sore thumb</p><p>that desperate soul doing<br />whatever to be noticed</p><p>forgetting that yourself<br />was always enough</p><p>that was what all the<br />punches and names<br />and slaps across the<br />face was trying to<br />suppress</p><p><br /><br /></p><p><br /><br /></p><p><b>These Are the Nights That Never End<br /><br /></b></p><p>the thin line between<br />forever and hate</p><p>the agony of the best<br />thing to ever grace<br />your lips walking away<br />to a better tomorrow</p><p>these are the nights<br />that never end</p><p>the bottles all go empty<br />but the soul needs more</p><p>like a junkie</p><p>like a lost lover on the<br />last bender known to<br />man</p><p>her eyes were a shade<br />of neon never seen before</p><p>you couldn’t find the words<br />or the will or the courage<br />to drop the wall and<br />embrace change</p><p>the mere hope for something<br />better than the status quo</p><p>this is one of those videos<br />from your youth</p><p>but the hot girl isn’t coming<br />back</p><p>no matter the longing look<br />five o’clock shadow or just<br />enough leather that you feel<br />cool</p><p>all these lonely steps to go</p><p><br /></p><p><br /><br /><br /></p><p><b>To Never Fall Victim<br /><br /></b></p><p>the grind gets the better<br />of me on most days</p><p>hell, it happens to most<br />of us i suppose</p><p>i’m sure the rich have<br />enough fuck you money<br />to never fall victim to<br />such shit</p><p>but us slugs</p><p>the nine to five losers<br />that keep this country<br />running on the fucking<br />flumes</p><p>we’re chasing dreams<br />that don’t exist</p><p>or have given in to<br />whatever illicit drug<br />that gets us through<br />the night</p><p>that’s the only america<br />i have ever known</p><p>no matter what party<br />is keeping the rich rich<br />and the poor poor</p><p>and when i clock out<br />for the final time</p><p>hopefully, the urn will<br />be something more than<br />a coffee can</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>J.J. Campbell (1976 - ?) is old enough to know better. He's been widely published over the years, most recently at Synchronized Chaos, Horror Sleaze Trash, Cajun Mutt Press, Mad Swirl and Disturb the Universe Magazine. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights.</i> (<a href="https://evildelights.blogspot.com" target="_blank">https://evildelights.blogspot.com</a>)</p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Ohio, USA40.4172871 -82.907123000000013-9.1761414532824617 -153.219623 90 -12.594623000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-19617754265543502972023-09-11T10:18:00.002-05:002023-09-11T12:46:26.221-05:00Roger Singer - One Poem<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;"><b>Faithful Cycle</b></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">on a meadow flat</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>soft and equal</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">weeds and flowers</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">life weeps up</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">from soil</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">rich with breath</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">gasping between</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">heaven and earth</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">plain colors</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">healing the soul</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">a bountiful message</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18.6667px;"><i>Dr. Singer is the Poet Laureate of Old Lyme, Connecticut. He has had over 1,100 poems published on the internet, magazines and in books and is a 2017 Pushcart Prize Award Nominee.</i></span></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Florida, USA27.6648274 -81.5157535-0.64540643617884541 -116.6720035 55.975061236178846 -46.3595035tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-1835359742037663272023-09-09T21:43:00.002-05:002023-09-11T12:44:35.544-05:00Charles Goldman - Three Poems<pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">O To Be Big Enough</span></b></span></pre><pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
i look for you in mist and turmoil
i look for you in my pain and anger
for you i seek in the myriad abysses
my screams bare themselves of all clothing
they strip themselves naked until there is only bone
i listen all of my days to the faint echoes from a tiny voice
through lens and sound i scour the night stars for a vision of you
and there in the midst of all depravity
in the flooding grimace of winning vileness
in the unceasing torment of murdering war
in the folly of the jackals of the soul's poverty
in the deluge falling skyward in the vanity of brokers
in the wind fall of those who live free of the rest of us
i find you standing with rock hard obedience in the service
of greed
for you living in the wounded distance i offer my full healing
embrace
as a prayer
as determination
as longing watered in hopelessness
to shower your life of horrendous despair caused by warriors of
all countries
and like a tall stranger bending to tell a child that its love is all
that counts
make for you a tabernacle of my opulence and the very
substance of my soul
there in the endless storms of grief
rapid-fired from human hate
i reach a hand of solace but it is too late
i cannot drag you from the ruins which are taking you from us
i cannot convince the powerful to stop your suffering
nor the most powerful from reversing time
in your lands of starvation and days of war
in the grief of your families and friends
the shape of what could have been but will never be
in the numbness of class difference and causes of dominance
in the pain caused by inattention and clinging
o to be big enough to set you free
<br /></span></span></pre><pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></pre><pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
<b>Hate No More</b></span></span></pre><pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
You
do not forget.
The story must unfold
to live inside you.
To become a lasting flame,
one to cherish,
a human tale,
to teach others
what to feel.
Arrogance
must never win,
must never again
be allowed
its triumph
inside
the many
burning skins
of those who
lived to suffer
in the hands
of tyranny.
One day
they will all
have gone,
replaced
by other stories
just as wrong.
Until we
are strong
enough
in the thorns
of misery,
to say for
the rest of time,
from deep within,
hate no more.
<br /></span></span></pre><pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></pre><pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Ruins
</b>
these
are not buildings
of stone
but selves
of flesh
built to hold
our meat housed minds
we believe in
our solidity
in our ability
to reach out
and crush
i see ruins
a city laid waste
by an idea of war
i see a sorrowful moment
in a hospital room
when someone loved
must die
i see the tears
and rain
i see it pouring
through our hearts
and i know its purpose
to wash hatred
from inside us
and send it back
into the ground
the timeless healer
of all despair
i see the farmer
come to tend his field
of thriving flowers
and unwanted weeds
spreading coats of poison
to profit us
and kill all else
<br /></span></span></pre><pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></pre><pre class="aLF-aPX-K0-aPE" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-wrap: wrap;">
</span><i><span style="text-wrap: wrap;">Charles Goldman is first a Poet. Dear to his heart is the study and work connected with all things of Spirit. He finds himself defining a poetic reality in such a way that it may live inside the subconsciousness of others. Charles has written under the nom de plume Doctori Sadisco. He sends his love for a good life. May the living world survive our arrogance and rage. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.</span></i><span style="text-wrap: wrap;">
</span></span></pre><div><br /></div>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Wisconsin, USA43.7844397 -88.787867815.474205863821155 -123.9441178 72.094673536178846 -53.6316178tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-4337780362561138512023-09-03T13:00:00.002-05:002023-09-11T12:46:36.442-05:00Sanjeev Sethi - One Poem<p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Panorama</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b>For the parched</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">semblance</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">of shower is enough.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unruliness</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">of our union</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">a song</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">to saplessness.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bias is built-in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">the human chip.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is an offshoot</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">of the temporal run.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is not in the texture</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">of alluvial soil</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">to understand</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">ruth and rue</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">of the scorched.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sanjeev Sethi has authored seven books of poetry. His latest is</i> Wrappings in Bespoke <i>(The Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK, August 2022). He has been published in over thirty countries. His poems have found a home in more than 400 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. He lives in India, Mumbai.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Find Sanjeev online at X/Twitter @sanjeevpoems3 or Instagram @sanjeevsethipoems</i>.</span></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Mumbai, Maharashtra, India19.0759837 72.8776559-9.2342501361788472 37.721405899999993 47.386217536178847 108.0339059tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-29291472638940158842023-08-30T17:15:00.005-05:002023-09-11T12:46:47.470-05:00David Flynn - Two Poems<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b> The Valley of Disquiet</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Valley of Disquiet is where I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>want to be. Unhinged, </span>blathering<span>, a man</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">in search of his brain. Neither robot nor</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">human, I would be a machine with face</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">of plastic, servos for muscles, and soul</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">of titanium. “I love you,” I say,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">inside a room of furniture and rugs.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Being all human hasn’t worked out well.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Heartache, failure, arguing are daily.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nothing works: the refrigerator shakes</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">shudders, and dies. Then I will die also.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Everything dies, even love. If I was</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">a robot at least I could be repaired</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">in a shop with spare parts and a fresh new</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">battery. I smile, a rectangular</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">glimpse at my silver teeth. I speak,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">male or female, take your pick in Settings.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Software choices: right wing, moderate, left</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">wing; personality: jock, nerd, preacher.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are so many advantages in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Valley of Disquiet, where the graph does</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">plunge from machine with wheels and knobs to all</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">humans with tears and kisses. Real humans</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">grow uneasy when a robot looks like</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">a human, speaks like a human, and lies</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">like a human. They do shake in their shoes</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">when a human blinks too fast, jerks his neck,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">turns with an inappropriate comment,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">and they realize, know he is a robot.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fooled, mapped by the silver smile of a droid.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s what I want. I want to live on in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">the V of The Valley of Disquiet.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My Antarctica</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am coming back from a white plain, plain</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">as death but with blowing snow, white waves on</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">white, with white birds, white foxes, whitish pain</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">to this room with black frames holding men gone</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">to Deathland where I long to be. I long</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">to be the photographs of me, flat, bordered,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">in color, framed. That one in a kayak</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">fighting rapids on a river, the waves</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">splashing all but my eyes and my hands</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">grabbing the paddle. That one with my smile</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">standing on the Great Wall, at home in lands</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">where I have never been, only. My wife</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">throws the photos into the trash, and I</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">am truly dead, memories, DNA</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">on a doorknob or two in brick buildings</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">where I sat on the debtor sides of desks</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">applying for eternity, or a</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">thirty-year<span> mortgage, or love that fades</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">into no doting, cabernet decay</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">to dry lips, then my love’s fire trades</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>my struggles to the used </span>bookstore<span> for self-</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">help from gurus who charge for writing</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">positively. When I die, I will be</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">deleted even from the server so.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is color on this wall before me,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">red and pink in frames, flamingoes and trains.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am back from Antarctica for now,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">but before I do die I must fade to pail.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Only.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">David Flynn was born in the textile mill company town of Bemis, TN.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">His jobs have included newspaper reporter, magazine editor and university teacher.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">He has five degrees and is both a Fulbright Senior Scholar and a Fulbright Senior Specialist with a recent grant in Indonesia.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">His literary publications total more than 240.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">He lives in Nashville, TN.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span></span></i></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Tennessee, USA35.5174913 -86.58044737.2072574638211577 -121.7366973 63.827725136178849 -51.4241973tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-7624016479174676232023-08-28T14:14:00.000-05:002023-08-28T14:14:17.815-05:00Steve Bruce - Two Poems<p><b> First Star I See Tonight</b></p><p><b><br /></b>It emerges<br />like a pimple on the night sky’s chin.</p><p>Make a wish.</p><p>What is there to lose<br />but time and sanity?</p><p>Confess.</p><p>What longings billow<br />your heart’s sails<br />tonight?</p><p>To win a jackpot<br /> other than birth?</p><p>Something ample,<br />right?</p><p>Enough to forget<br />about the cost<br />of living.</p><p>To have a figure fashionable<br />for the modern age?</p><p>To be famous?<br />To be successful?<br />To be happy?</p><p>To be enough<br />for them to not walk<br />out on you?</p><p>World peace?<br /> Don’t lie.</p><p>For your enemies<br />to wake as dung beetles?</p><p> Yes.</p><p>For an ounce<br />of self-confidence?</p><p>For a room<br />with a clear view<br />of the singing ocean?</p><p>To be young?<br />To be old?</p><p>To be somebody<br />or anyone else?</p><p>To feel loved?</p><p>You don’t need much,<br />do you?</p><p>Only</p><p>to wake up<br />to one person pleased<br />to see you.</p><p>Some nights<br />if you listen with intent,<br />you can hear humanity’s desires<br />resound around Venus<br />and disappear<br />into the unapproving universe.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Poetics</b></p><p><br />How to say it?</p><p><br /></p><p>When forms become overworked</p><p>and demand a vacation.</p><p><br /></p><p>When internal and end rhymes</p><p>are sick</p><p>to death of each other,</p><p>and file for divorce.</p><p><br /></p><p>When similes are fumbled</p><p>with more times</p><p>than a cheap escort’s</p><p>labia.</p><p><br /></p><p>When iamb, trochee,</p><p>dactyl, and anapest</p><p>march off</p><p>to die</p><p>in the blood-soaked trenches</p><p>of a distant war.</p><p><br /></p><p>When sentimentality steps</p><p>from the ledge of a skyscraper.</p><p><br /></p><p>When metaphors digest</p><p>in the iron stomach</p><p>of a turkey vulture.</p><p><br /></p><p>When a rose</p><p>is a rose is a rose.</p><p><br /></p><p>How to say it?</p><p><br /></p><p>When the heart</p><p>no longer cares</p><p>to refine itself.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the soul</p><p>is almost out of steam.</p><p><br /></p><p>When there’s enough</p><p>foresight inside of you</p><p>to admit that in a hundred</p><p>years,</p><p>none of this matter</p><p>will matter.</p><p><br /></p><p>How to say it?</p><p><br /></p><p>When inspiration’s</p><p>as ripe and fragrant</p><p>as artificial flowers.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the flash of a rat’s tail</p><p>vanishing beneath your bed</p><p>holds equal power</p><p>to a lightning bolt</p><p>splitting apart</p><p>a far-away oak tree.</p><p><br /></p><p>How to say it?</p><p><br /></p><p>When you are not Blake.</p><p>When you are not Shakespeare.</p><p>When you are not Keats.</p><p>When you are not Wordsworth.</p><p><br /></p><p>When you are contradicting components</p><p>tumbling through this dog-eat-dog cosmos.</p><p><br /></p><p>How to say it?</p><p><br /></p><p>When you believe</p><p>poetry, like air,</p><p>is meant for</p><p>all of us.</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">How to say it?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In your own simple way,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">I guess.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Steven Bruce is an award-winning author. His poetry and short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies worldwide. In 2018, he graduated from Teesside University with a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing. Born in the North of England, he now lives and writes full-time in Barcelona.</span></i></span></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Barcelona, Spain41.3873974 2.16856813.077163563821152 -32.987682 69.697631236178836 37.324818tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-78763185395702852192023-08-24T15:08:00.002-05:002023-08-24T15:08:23.580-05:00Clive Gresswell - Two Poems<p><b> Gypsy Hymns</b></p><p><br />junk heart stakes out</p><p>gentle malnutrition</p><p>seedlings posing perpendicular prosody</p><p>across choppy sea disasters</p><p>as gesticulating bureaucrats</p><p>wander deserts & gypsy</p><p>hymns decline</p><p>racial origin</p><p>forceful adjectives</p><p>hasten to kaleidoscopic horizons</p><p>traces on the shoreline</p><p>passing scoundrels declare</p><p>gaping wounds of love</p><p>then whisked off by</p><p>amateur chauffeurs</p><p>each with splendid haircuts</p><p>from 1958 movies</p><p>& delicate bone structures</p><p>carve intimate knowledge</p><p>across these cracks of desire</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Locks</b></p><p><b><br /></b>locks of industrialized</p><p>hair</p><p>handfuls torn from cancer cells</p><p>deep in the heart of sleeping</p><p>beauty fades around corners</p><p><br /></p><p>time for chatter at hairdressers’ bidding</p><p>staying awake the byword</p><p>seeing fleeing snakes</p><p>& charmers</p><p><br /></p><p>trampling society’s murk</p><p>& desperate dust</p><p>waterholes receding</p><p>reflecting camel tempers</p><p><br /></p><p>claws</p><p>darkness captures</p><p>the misinformation highway</p><p>straight from the ministers’ mouths</p><p><br /></p><p>dissolve.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Clive is a 65-year-old innovative writer and poet connected to the London-based poetry group Writer's Forum. He has been published in many magazines and released five poetry books. His 16,000 word prose poem </i>Shadow Reel <i>is published early July and obtainable through Amazon or the publisher.</i></span></span></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Bedfordshire, UK52.0627394 -0.529209123.752505563821153 -35.6854591 80.372973236178836 34.6270409tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-11238576169669777092023-08-23T16:05:00.001-05:002023-08-23T16:05:08.128-05:00Diane Moore - Two Poems<p><b> Pearl</b></p><p><br />Pearl, sealed tight in womb of dark mother</p><p>Who is whose mother?</p><p>Your mouth clammed shut.</p><p>Trickster man of Georgian Bay, Junk Yard Chakra.</p><p>Swath of Lapis blue.</p><p>Joy of clothes and matching purses. You my pretty thing.</p><p>My favorite mystery who fed me</p><p>You broke my heart that time you hit me.</p><p>Another Friday evening. Arms full.</p><p>It’s summer as you walk the walkway.</p><p>Hungry throng of smiling.</p><p>Cats, dogs. Rosey youth.</p><p>You smiled back at him not us. I didn’t notice then.</p><p>Car door slammed shut.</p><p>TV volume</p><p> muted </p><p>Pearl.</p><p>I’m not afraid of the dark anymore</p><p> of your secret ancient terms</p><p>I scramble close and kiss your tangled brow</p><p> Your precious hands of sack cloth marbles</p><p>Too sleepy for embarrassment</p><p>Tip toe gratefully.</p><p>It must be right this waiting. Years of patience.</p><p>Leave it open (faintly speaking Pearl)</p><p>Just a crack</p><p> the bedroom door</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Jamaica </b></p><p><br />In subduing the yam, we chop a chunk and</p><p>with clean sharp knife carve into morning yellow</p><p>outer layer rough removed</p><p>bleeds brief and neat</p><p>In assuming the lotus tuber sting</p><p>back straight, eyes rolled back</p><p>relax the mass with good intentions</p><p>Breathe potato air</p><p>Birds sing through, clambering tractor trailer</p><p>In subduing mourning dove and strawberry dust</p><p>lifting strands of golden</p><p>We sweep a little</p><p>We pray</p><p>As cubes of willing yam</p><p>We don our gloves, dump them in a boiling pot</p><p>Husband sits saluting, crowning warm salt butter</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>Diane Moore’s poems are oft times lyrical and sometimes narrative. Her subject matter and inspiration tend towards occurrences from the natural world including natural awkward exchanges within various cross sections spanning the human spectrum. Ms. Moore’s fringe perspective offers a fresh bold look at those same societal fringe pockets and paradigms of which she is most familiar. </i></span></span></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Canada56.130366 -106.34677127.820132163821157 -141.503021 84.440599836178848 -71.190521tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-67680095232229046092023-08-22T21:53:00.000-05:002023-08-22T21:53:41.197-05:00Chris Butler - Three Poems<p><b>Third Degree Burns</b></p><p><br />The hubris of a kamikaze Icarus</p><p>crashing into the rising fiery phoenix.</p><p>I'll stare at a solar eclipse</p><p>before I'll ever glimpse</p><p>at myself in the mirror,</p><p>and stare through this stranger,</p><p>standing there, deflecting the rejection</p><p>of morning's deepest, darkest reflection,</p><p>throwing one punch so his glass jaw cracks,</p><p>and that man never, ever comes back.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Thesaurus Rex</b></p><p><br />People make big words little.</p><p>Poets make little words big.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Punks on Junk</b></p><p><br />Scratched nerves involuntarily move</p><p>when the needle’s inside the vinyl’s groove.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>Chris Butler is an illiterate poet. He has previously published three books and seven chapbooks of poetry, with his most recent chapbook, "DOOMER", published by Ethel Press.</i> <i>He has published over 500 poems, and many works of fiction, creative nonfiction, journalistic articles and academic journals. He is also the co-editor of</i> The Beatnik Cowboy<i> literary journal.</i></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Connecticut, USA41.6032207 -73.08774913.292986863821156 -108.243999 69.913454536178847 -37.931499tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-62048382140239651322023-08-20T10:56:00.003-05:002023-08-22T21:54:19.372-05:00Michael Aaron Casares - One Poem<p><b>Burke on the Bus</b></p><p><b><br /></b>Fallen envelope.</p><p>The heavy plop of folded paper</p><p>parchment never sound</p><p>so heavy.</p><p>A rigid belly flop</p><p>on the floor.</p><p>A ripped attention</p><p>pulled from gonzo delusions</p><p>and terrible advice on early</p><p>2000s marijuana law, the length</p><p>of obsidian leg and gaunt calf </p><p>anonymous in the bustle </p><p>of silent respite, a public respect</p><p>of downtrodden eyes and bowed</p><p>heads, lucky if remnants of past </p><p>civil society prompt them to look</p><p>up from their phones or self-interests</p><p>to hold a door open or look you in </p><p>the eyes and say "thank you" or </p><p>"excuse me," coyly places heel</p><p>tenderly, imperceptibly, cautiously</p><p>as if to claim the prize fallen </p><p>from the seat before him</p><p>from youthful giant of pale skin,</p><p>tree trunk bicep, 'fro'd brown coif,</p><p>Khaki and purple school uniform.</p><p>In the wild-wild-West of the new <br /></p><p>Millennium, in the dog-eat-dog</p><p>world we've adjusted, in the </p><p>shark tank we are born,</p><p>the young man claims as a finder</p><p>a prize to which he should not</p><p>be the keeper. As this man sits good</p><p>rereading lines of sinners who do </p><p>nothing and bad men who do evil</p><p>and, folly, sit idle on the wall </p><p>of perdition. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>Michael Aaron Casares is the author of poetry collections,</i> Even in Death (2021) <i>and</i> The Vanishing Poet (2020), <i>and</i> <i>fiction</i> The Distance to the End (2016) <i>and</i> Trick of the Eyes (2018). <i>His latest chapbook "Black Orpheus: Poems of Dreams and Dementia" can be read at <a href="https://www.wattpad.com/story/232618818-black-orpheus-poems-of-dreams-and-dementia" target="_blank">Wattpad</a>. </i></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Texas, USA31.9685988 -99.90181313.6583649638211533 -135.0580631 60.278832636178848 -64.7455631tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-58888658359055744202022-04-20T20:21:00.001-05:002022-04-20T20:21:14.202-05:00Tyler Vaughn Hayes - One Poem<p><b> Poem<br /></b><i>After lines from Muriel Rukeyser</i></p><p><br /></p><p><b>I</b>.</p><p>‘I don’t believe </p><p>that poetry can save</p><p>the world.’ And again you say it has </p><p>not solved the ultimate,</p><p>most quiet mystery. I myself, </p><p>mute, refuse to assert</p><p>that we should shirk obscurity, </p><p>that it is without purpose. I myself,</p><p>solipsistic by nature, have been saved by its expressus. </p><p>Empty without the empty</p><p>darkness, we see no unknown, </p><p>and it is in this very dearth,</p><p>that we conjure the light of ourselves.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>II.</b></p><p>For poetry does not exist</p><p>to neatly brim, tranquilize, explain,</p><p>but to breach the lip of each cup,</p><p>to shift the seeming water into mud </p><p>and back again.</p><p><br /></p><p>My hope is for you, for us</p><p>(shrouded as we are in solitude)</p><p>to discover that an answer</p><p>is just a funereal veil </p><p>conclusion uses to fool you. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>III. </b></p><p>Now you look about </p><p>and weigh the world </p><p>as finished, but only poets </p><p>discern what is so near </p><p>and yet scarcely clasped: </p><p>every pursuit is an attempt </p><p>at renewal and a chance </p><p>to touch a hand, to save it.</p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div><i>Tyler Vaughn Hayes is a poet and essayist completing his MFA at Western Kentucky University. His words have been published in</i> The Ponder Review, Thimble Magazine, <i>and many others.</i></div><div><br /></div></div>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Kentucky, USA37.8393332 -84.270017923.783440031620174 -101.8481429 51.895226368379824 -66.6918929tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-25506243511924508592022-04-17T21:52:00.001-05:002022-04-17T21:52:36.380-05:00Mark Parsons - One Poem<p><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Mandatory Daily Meeting Of The Los Angeles Bus Riders Union Local 238 (Solid State)</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-667dff7d-7fff-b6d8-fb4b-086173f3e608"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indistinct from the finely grooved</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">metal</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“all over.” And</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">indistinct</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from the others</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">who are</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">scattered around,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sitting</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on the bleachers,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their arms at their sides,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hands flat and palms down on</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their thighs.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe the anodized finish preventing corrosion….</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or maybe the chemically compromised</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">endurance limit of this light</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">alloy….Or</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">maybe the wholly impractical bird's-eye perspective</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the gradual incline arrangement</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of low</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">density grooved metal planks</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">our anamorphic images are painted over requires to</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">see us as we truly are</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">caused this interconnected feeling that holds us</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here as prey for any gust of wind that may disperse the morning</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mist like wisps of cotton over the empty and</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unused athletic field behinds us.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Undistorted and free of the normal perspective of people</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">who walk on the sidewalk or drive</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">past where we sit, unobserved, we consider the fixed</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">point of the keyhole that blinks with the wings of the watchers above.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fine threaded shafts of bolts through holes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">drilled as tight collars writhe</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to saw and grind.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No moving parts is always a gamble.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Mark Parsons’ poems have recently been published in</i> Dahlhousie Reivew, The Floor Plan, North Dakota Quarterly, Antigonish Review, <i>and</i> Cobalt Review.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Japan36.204824 138.2529247.8945901638211566 103.09667400000001 64.51505783617884 173.409174tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-82715926024508910512022-04-13T09:00:00.001-05:002022-04-13T09:00:00.167-05:00Thomas Piekarski - One Poem<p><b> <span style="font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Remembering Rimbaud</span></b></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e3c20bde-7fff-a022-e108-ba34bbfe4f3d"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the crack of my electric bull whip</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those Indians fled the ancient galleon:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Iroquois, Mohawk, Cherokee liberated,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every one of them a delightful old soul.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My beard to knees, eyes lumps of coal,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I chopped down their glorious totems.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ahead lay rivers mystic beyond pain,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Misery, murder—even nonexistence!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relieved of that indigenous burden</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walls of wonderment shot up around,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Surrounded. They blocked the skies,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everything but turbulent brain waves.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rimbaud ambivalent although I pled</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For him to take the rudder, someone</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who'd scaled nirvana's laved strata</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And left his shield emblazoned there.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flocks of floundering geese fluttered</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slightly above an automated horizon,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And witches with golden broomsticks </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rolled past on diamond bowling balls. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The vagrant stars went mostly blank.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I sung of mermen flailing, their scales</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Erupted into vermillion flame. Surely</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As light devours light they'd persevere.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What fine imaginings energized me,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My limpid skin, the atomized bones!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rimbaud experienced in such sport</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nonchalant, offered nothing to import.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We skimmed the roiling Aegean clear</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of ghouls, Harpies, Medusa and her ilk.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I took a drink of hemlock as Socrates</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once did, willing to sink even deeper.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The door of perception yawned wide,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And from it emerged a fabulous team</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of harlequins, angels, hermaphrodites,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Icons for the hoity-toity social elite.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To stave off utter boredom I twirled</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jupiter on the tip of my index finger.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mars grew jealous, Uranus retreated</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Rimbaud applauded my fortitude.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ever penitent, my eyes steadily wept</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Falls of molten tanzanite. Then Dante</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coaxed me to tour his torrid domain</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I respectfully declined this offer.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From every pore of my flaccid flesh</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sprouted giant redwoods, savannas.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I moaned at so much territory to map.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rimbaud unshaken, simply guffawed.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amid interminable tumult squirmed</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A silver bugler sounding the classics,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sublime Beethoven, Liszt and Brahms</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That crammed my ears till they burst.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whereupon thousands of tarantulas</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of three feet long began to crawl</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Up the listing ship's side. They loaded</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Its deck bow to stern with dead weight.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We arrived at the Spice Islands where</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unlucky Magellan met his Waterloo,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collected much frankincense and myrrh,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enough to fill the ship's hull with mirth. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then continued along the Ivory Coast</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dodging wooly mammoths and lions,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There to gather slaves whose resistance</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meant little to anyone who would pay.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I dressed a lavish banquet table, invited</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kings of continents gone many moons,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Served sumptuous beetle, eye of newt.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lord, you should have seen them gorge! </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As if to prove that people aren't seasonal</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rimbaud read rime of questionable origin.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I queried him how this made sense</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He clobbered me with a French dictionary.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were blizzards big as solar systems,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Electronic bugs crawling all over our faces,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And welcomed them because we ourselves</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Could deny nothing in a transient dimension.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we'd waft and wend unnerving hot winds</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blew at us in rapid succession. I knew then</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Man's obliteration had already transpired, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">News yet to go viral on the worldwide web.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beggars with empty bags, lepers, dilettantes,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ravenous politicians, frightening skeletons </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oared the vast empyrean in crystal lifeboats</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the chance to jump aboard that galleon.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tiny Alice diaphanous moth flickered forth,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nested atop Rimbaud's head, and threatened</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To haul him along the yellow brick road </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By his hair, to seek absolution from Oz. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Behind our backs John Wilkes Booth slinked</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aboard, invisible. He ransacked the captain's</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quarters, undetected, until with X-ray vision</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rimbaud spotted him, slit his stinking throat.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back and forth between our hearts a constant</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">flow: black tulips, hanged saints, primordial</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">chants, revanchist sins, succulent cantaloupe,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">insubstantial oceans, precarious cliffs, clones. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I longed for an olden port, some cozy space</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I could finally call home, yearned for a truth </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Born of beauty, while maintaining passage</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Across unending expanses of pure ambrosia.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slung from lethargy by a furious hailstorm</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rimbaud grasped control, steered us ashore, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Out of the fiery firmament of sheer passion,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Onto solid turf where my spirit came to rest.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I'll hail Rimbaud's languorous lagoons,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thunderstruck archipelagos and planetoids</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crushed to bits by that manic mind of his, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reconstituted as rainbows wherein we flit.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d33f64f0-7fff-73e3-3c4c-07bf78c7f560"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> California State Poetry Quarterly</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">.<i> His poetry has appeared in such publications a</i>s</span><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Taj Mahal Review, Poetry Quarterly, Literature Today, Poetry Salzburg,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">South African Literary Journal, Modern Literature</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">, and others.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>His books of poetry are</i> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Ballad of Billy the Kid, Monterey Bay Adventures,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Mercurial World</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">, <i>and</i> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Aurora California</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div></span></span></div></span>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0California, USA36.778261 -119.41793248.4680271638211551 -154.57418239999998 65.088494836178853 -84.2616824tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-51644411241900868862022-04-12T09:00:00.001-05:002022-04-12T09:00:00.193-05:00Ken Poyner - One Poem<p><b>The Journey</b></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-142d8ea7-7fff-593f-084a-2dfe08280e96"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are not going down that road.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have other places to be,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Other appointments, and I have</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No idea where that one-way</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Street ends. Look at it:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No lights, no traffic, nothing</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But weather. Clouds and no doubt</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rain. We are better off</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With our highway, curbs,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And a posted speed limit. Old,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Weathered roads are not efficient.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They end suddenly, go</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unexpected places, hold few</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chances to turn back. They</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Were built by men who hauled things:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wagons of grief and industry.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good men, surely; but not wise</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the way of roads, the wickedness</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of going. It is not their fault.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After all, the architect of Hell</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Was a just and merciful God,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or simply God. Every so often</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A road made by men is going</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To stray, to cut itself off from its</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fellow roads and go in particular</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No place. I’ll not take such a road.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll not calculate that the desolation</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Will cease so many miles hence</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the land turn resistant green again.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I see a road for what it is.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Travel. Transit and traffic</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the sound of an engine:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An engine</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enfolded in the brightly sharp ordinary,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The wheel in my hands, the pedals</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Useless without me, and a known</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Landscape running commonly, precisely past.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Get in.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is time to leave.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Ken </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Poyner</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">’s four collections of flash and four of speculative poetry can be found at all the usual places. He is married to a world class female power lifter and lives with several rescue cats and betta fish in a dreary townhome development. He is a retired information systems warrior.</span></i></span></div></span>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-31531387075552260042022-04-11T22:27:00.001-05:002022-04-11T22:45:24.354-05:00Elaine Handley - One Poem<p><b>Scavenger Heart</b></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-633d99b7-7fff-99c1-0134-cb017d72ca29"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> -in Memory of Naton Leslie</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Suddenly, we knew you were going,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as if your body was shouting</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I am dying: Ta-da!” a collection of bones</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">near collapse as we talked music</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">while the faint rattle of death </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dickered a rhythm.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who wouldn’t be made ragged</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by the collection of cells mutating </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the network roughly mappable</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">like a watershed, a hundred tributaries</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You called us to witness the clutter, sweet junk</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and value of life, stuff of misgivings and wonder:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everything…gathered, from the doodad</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">collector to the hoarder of rusted machines.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is useful, what is precious</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> reach out</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from someplace deep and crucial and enfold</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that rusted kettle, battered blanket chest, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or extraordinary silver candelabra--</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">treasures in light of your final bid.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scavengers are also salvagers, and part </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of what they save is some intrinsic part</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of themselves. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We save what we fancy,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">what pricks our heart, and the tarnished </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">old clock of your life goes on ticking there. </span></p><br /><br /><br /><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Italicized excerpts from </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That Might Be Useful: Exploring America’s Secondhand Culture</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Naton Leslie</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-9cdca953-7fff-28e8-f67a-70f986eec249"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Elaine Handley has been published in a wide variety of magazines, journals and anthologies and is a three time winner of the Adirondack Center for Writing Best Book of Poetry in 3 different years. Her chapbook, </i>Securing the Perimeter, <i>was recently published by Clare Songbird Publishing House.</i></span></p></span></div>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7127753 -74.005972812.402541463821152 -109.1622228 69.023009136178842 -38.849722799999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-75725246047986111372022-03-15T14:52:00.003-05:002022-03-15T15:19:58.478-05:00Audra Burwell - One Poem<p> <b>Heat Wavering</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Sickness drenches the canyon, </p><p>Yellow swimming and bleeding into orange, </p><p>Peeling, flaking, cascading, </p><p>Into the valley of death below. </p><p><br /></p><p>Scales shimmering from cracks, </p><p>The desert’s elusive secret, </p><p>Concealed by crumbling rubble, </p><p>Breaking and fading into a subdued glow. </p><p><br /></p><p>Snakes coiled tightly, </p><p>Forked tongues flicking, </p><p>Sunlight glinting off pooled saliva, ‘</p><p>Breaking into a million droplets of pale color. </p><p><br /></p><p>Sadness morphs from extended shadows, </p><p>Cast by cactus blossoms, </p><p>Crumbling and wilting beneath the unrelenting elements, </p><p>Thrust upon their fragile membranes. </p><p><br /></p><p>Some wander this canyon to find truth, </p><p>Deceitful and dull, </p><p>A poison that festers in your gut, </p><p>Bubbling and frothing as it kills. </p><p><br /></p><p>Some breach its dusty gates, </p><p>Attempting to outrun the past, </p><p>Feral and bestial, clawing them back, </p><p>To a sin yet unrepented. </p><p><br /></p><p>Others seek absolution, </p><p>Their skin peeling like aged parchment, </p><p>Bones white as milk, crushed to dust, </p><p>As their restless spirit wanders the desert wind. </p><p><br /></p><p>You will know your reason, </p><p>The moment its sand touches your skin, </p><p>Claiming all weakness, </p><p>As it drags you beneath, into a blistering embrace. </p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Audra Burwell is a creative writing major with a strong emphasis on fantasy-themed poetry and fiction. She studies at California State University Fresno where she is aiming for a Master of Fine Arts degree. She is currently employed by Fresno State's Kremen Department as a Communications Assistant. </i></div>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Fresno, CA, USA36.7377981 -119.78712478.4275642638211536 -154.9433747 65.048031936178845 -84.6308747tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-52332573914775502352022-01-12T03:40:00.003-06:002022-01-12T03:40:42.783-06:00Kate Meyer-Currey - One Poem<p><b>Hammered</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Burdens borne are slow to lift<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">their weighted pall of resigned <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">acceptance that settles over<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">your bowed shoulders heavy<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">head wearied bones after the <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">struggling days of realization <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">grappling with bruising reality<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">that makes your face sag as<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">your skull grins boldly at the <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">world with its game face on<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">while your teeth chatter as <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">they utter platitudes of hope<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and adjustment that fool no<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">one not even yourself for you<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">grit them as you bite the hand <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">of fate and that is how days <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">pass dreading what comes <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">next better you think to guess<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">there is worse to come for then<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">this will seem pleasant by the<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">laws of comparison so your <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">taut skin will not flinch under<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">scalpel blades that excise <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">your old self so you smile at<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">your scars and death will one <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">day be just an anesthetic <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">to knock out pain of days <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">spent dreading more of the<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">same so you barely notice at<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">first the shifting of the light <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">into a slow dawning of hope<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">as night’s bruise fades and <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">nightmare’s stitches dissolve<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">into the itch of routine as you<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">adjust to survival after the <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">strip-lit hell-glare of danger <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and sense fear’s absence <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">in the night sky overhead<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">where stars no longer signal<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">splintered warnings from <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">their fractured shards but <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">reform familiar constellations<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">as your shattered self renews<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">its wholeness and refracts <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">their steady scintillating gaze<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Kate Meyer-Currey lives in Devon. A varied career in
frontline settings has fueled her interest in gritty urbanism, contrasted with
a rural upbringing, often with a slipstream twist. Since September 2020 she has
had over a hundred poems published in print and online journals, both in the UK
and internationally. Her chapbooks ‘County Lines’ (Dancing Girl Press) and 'Cuckoo’s Nest’ (Contraband Books) are due out in early 2022.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Devon, UK50.7155591 -3.53087522.405325263821155 -38.687125 79.025792936178846 31.625375tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-29303717031132531362022-01-01T23:31:00.000-06:002022-01-01T23:31:04.520-06:00Ian C. Smith - One Poem<p><b> Lost Weekend</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By a beach trash bin, standing alone,</p><p>the spell of sex spent in the cool dawn,</p><p>his chagrin induces a low moan.</p><p>By a beach trash bin standing alone</p><p>he reviews last chances to atone,</p><p>recalls girlfriends, wives, lost hope, forlorn</p><p>by a beach trash bin, standing alone,</p><p>the spell of sex spent in the cool dawn.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>Ian C Smith’s work has been published in </i>Antipodes, BBC Radio 4 Sounds, The Dalhousie Review, Griffith Review, San Pedro River Review, Southword, The Stony Thursday Book, <i>and</i> Two Thirds North. <i>His seventh book is Wonder Sadness Madness Joy, Ginninderra (Port Adelaide). He writes in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, and on Flinders Island.</i></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-73544188445070905102021-12-02T09:00:00.003-06:002021-12-02T09:00:00.161-06:00Michael Lee Johnson - Three Poems<p> <b>Poets Out of Service
(V6)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Like a full-service gas station<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">or postal service workers<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">displaced, racing to Staples retail<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">for employment against the rules of labor,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">poets are out of business nowadays, you know.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Who carries a loose change in their pockets?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Who tosses loose coins in their car ashtray anymore?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">iPhones, smartphones, life is a video camera<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">ready to shoot, destroy, and expose.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No one reads poets anymore. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No one thumbs through the yellow pages anymore.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Who has sex in the back seat of their car anymore,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">just naked shots passed around online?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Streetwalkers, bleach blonde whores,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">cosmetic plastic altered faces in the neon night;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">they don’t bother to pick pennies<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">or quarters off the streets anymore.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The days of surprise candy bags for a nickel<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">pennies lying on the countertop for<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tar Babies, Strawberry Licorice Laces<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(2 for a penny), Wax Lips, Pixie Sticks,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Good & Plenty are no more.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Everyone is a dead-end player; he dies with time.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Monster technology destroys crump fragments of culture.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Old age is a passive slut; engaging old age<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">conversations idle to a whisper and sleep alone.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Matchbox, hand-rolled cigarettes,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">serrated, slimmed down, and gone.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Time is a broken stopwatch gone by.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Life is a defunct full-service gas station.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Poets are out of business nowadays.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Deep in my Couch (V2)<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Deep in my couch <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">of magnetic dust,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am a bearded old man.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I pull out my last bundle <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">of memories beneath<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">my pillow for review.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What is left, old man,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">cry solo in the dark.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here is a small treasure chest<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">of crude diamonds, a glimpse <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">of white gold, charcoal, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">fingers dipped in black tar.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am a temple of worship with trinket dreams,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">a tea kettle whistling ex-lovers boiling inside.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At dawn, shove them under, let me work.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We are all passengers traveling<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">on that train of the past—<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">senses, sins, errors, or omissions<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">deep in that couch.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nightlife Jungle
Beat,<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bar Next Door (V2)<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Like all thing’s life changes, its melodies fragment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It breaks pieces apart, then they drift, then shatter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The singers of songs love bars,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">naked bodies, consistencies, and inconsistencies<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">that makes it burn all turn outright at night.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">They like to drum repeat rhythms and sounds.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Poets like to retreat to dens<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">of pleasure just like these.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sing poets sing off-key<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">free verse notes down by the bridge,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">near the river as far as their voices<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">will carry them away.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is the nature of difference,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">indifference a vocabulary of us confused,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">minds between insanity and genius.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The hermit asks for<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">a public forum in shyness,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">while treading to the bar<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">next door for a shot of tequila<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">no money, no life.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the
Vietnam era and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Today he is
a poet, freelance writer, amateur photographer, and small business owner in
Itasca, DuPage County, Illinois. Mr. Johnson is published in more than 2033 new
publications. His poems have appeared in 42 countries; he edits and publishes
ten poetry sites.</i></p><p></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Illinois, USA40.6331249 -89.398528312.322891063821153 -124.5547783 68.943358736178851 -54.242278299999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-68538592001936785692021-11-17T09:00:00.013-06:002021-11-17T09:00:00.167-06:00George Freek - One Poem<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">WINTER AS A QUESTION </p><p class="MsoNormal">- <i>After Tu Fu</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Summer’s flowers are gone.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All that is left are<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">their decaying remains.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The trees are now bare.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I can hardly remember<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">when the leaves were there.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the garden an empty hammock,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">where my wife used to lie,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">creaks in a bitter wind,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">under a ghostly sky.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Like a sneak thief,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Winter now approaches.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I talk to my elderly cat,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">to the moon and the stars.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As is their way,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">they have nothing to say.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I think of the aroma of roses,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">on this icy winter day,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">but I’m unable to make it stay.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>George Freek's poetry has recently appeared in </i>The Stockholm Review of Literature; A New Ulster; Miller's Pond; The Whimsical Poet; <i>and </i>Dreich Poetry.</span></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com1Illinois, USA40.6331249 -89.3985283-11.238508998966452 -159.7110283 90 -19.086028299999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4194802494944372390.post-23487996510778860392021-11-14T09:00:00.002-06:002021-11-14T09:00:00.199-06:00Anina Robb - One Poem<p><b>Half-Life</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">When the sun lies</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">slant in the sky— all of a sudden,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the way an eddy of leaves writhes<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and just as soon seems to decompose<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">into dirt—you realize life is more than half over.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yet again, when the moon rises,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">it’s not just darkness and silence<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">like you imagine the milky way might be.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Under the quiet ruler of night<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">it is easier to measure the meaning <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">of another morning.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Anina Robb is a poet living in the Shenandoah Valley of
Virginia.</i><o:p></o:p></p>CarcinogenicPoetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12177866603329487204noreply@blogger.com0Winchester, VA 22601, USA39.1856597 -78.163334110.875425863821157 -113.3195841 67.495893536178841 -43.0070841