In This, the Valley Dreamed - A Poem

In this, the valley dreamed,

Beautiful river ran through,

The airs always humid, moist,

The Sun seen through the aperture

Of dizzying skies,

I took a flight once my father bought

Where I burst the cloud, sky high,

It all flowed beneath to the river,

All was water, coursing beneath,

The towns hugged the womanly hills,

Towers melted to strange perspectives,

But all bent to the river,

All moved to the eddying currents…

Carousel, Carnival - A Poem

Carousel, smiling, gliding,

Tangent to the carnival,

Dreaming people wandering,

Playhouse nightmares

In haunted house rides

The stench of caramel apples

And jacked up cider

Thrill the throat, wafting,

Through the elephant-dust air,

You, but a memory,

Tucked away, house of mirrors…

Of School Rooms - A Poem

Ripe orange,

Sap of the evergreen,

Robust aromas

Wafted through

Magnificent airs,

In the street of youth

Running, in dream,

To nowhere, though fast,

Before the glue-drenched airs

Of adulthood nightmare’d in,

There were the wide seas

Pacific and Atlantic,

Gulf of Mexico,

The crook’s elbow

That curved round

Impossible beached

Sea turtles,

Sharks swimming ‘round,

What danger lurked

But in abandoned freezers,

What bright death

Lurked in the crouching corners

Of schoolhouse rooms?

He Won Her - A Poem

Childhood mates

On the playground, fighting,

The love of the same girl

Had brought best friends to this

I pounded him

Into the dust beneath the tunnels

And though I won,

They carried him, the vanquished

On shoulders through the mud,

She kissed him madly

In the classroom,

Scolding me for my rage…

She tore my necklace loose

Released it to the humid air

It flew out the window with her love

My childhood dream date

Left me in the mud…..

Ripe Orange - A Poem

Ripe orange,

Sap of the evergreen,

Robust aromas

Wafted through

Magnificent airs,

In the street of youth

Running, in dream,

To nowhere, though fast,

Before the glue-drenched airs

Of adulthood nightmare’d in,

There were the wide seas

Pacific and Atlantic,

Gulf of Mexico,

The crook’s elbow

That curved round

Impossible beached

Sea turtles,

Sharks swimming ‘round,

What danger lurked

But in abandoned freezers,

What bright death

Lurked in the crouching corners

Of schoolhouse rooms?

The Close Poems - a Trilogy

Broken



In the flint of things,

Between knife and rock,

A spark kindles,

Ignites to a wildfire

In the close space,

Air asphyxiated,

No room to breathe,

The center of double-cross,

I fight to fly free,

Boredom punctuated

With nervousness,

I cannot imagine


My way out…




Struck



I’m a vein of gold,

Out west buried deep

In the subterranean current

Coals turning to diamonds

Float my hidden streams,

Natives pound hooves

Into the dirt,

Grounding my deeps

So that my riches multiply,

Beneath the ghost town

I gleam, in darkness,

I thrive….







Open



On lofty airs,

Feather floating

From the brim of the hat,

Gravity in reverse,

The apple leaving

The ground to rest

On the twig,

Above the horizon,

Melting into

The receding terminus,

The bow of the ship,

Bobbing the swallowing wave,

The surreal is still natural,

In that what it is beheld with

Beholds the tree and the star….

'Typhon' and 'Wealth' - Two Poems

Typhon

My typhoon came,

It swept away buildings,

Landmarks, chewed the grass,

Nature ravaged away

All hints of who I was…

When they awoke,

They said, ‘you look different’

Completely changed,

I stood among them,

The lone apocalypse survivor,

Became god-like…

Because only I

Could admire

Their greened

Their undisturbed worlds…..

Wealth

With an aversion to paper,

Held where the moth could eat,

I became a thief,

One who stole the airs,

The winds and the rains,

Moments of earths and trees,

I crowded in what they denied,

I gained not one pound,

But of earth to begin

The amplest of gardens…