Totem

TOTEM

might of oak and heft of kin

blocks and logs carved by the din

painted teeth and lolling gazes

wombs and graves in larval mazes

fathers, uncles, siblings, lovers

babies, sages, mentors, mothers

incantations slam the air waves

pen the legends spun in dark caves

lonely, legged, crawling creatures

whittled into wood by teachers

chisel held in shaking hand

totems tower in this land

master, novice, doesn't matter

histories notch in whorls, not ladders

https://richreidphoto.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/130909035.png?w=300&h=199

Dissent

DISSENT

No different, tantamount to her;

The one subsists thought to have died.

Plaintive moments blossom weeds;

Regenerate reveries petrify.

Free! it told her . . . Free! it said.

She, on knee, the pensive nun—

Now disabused, the guilt sets in.

Though love persists, she misses one.

The planes of heart, unparallel

To those of mind (the lunar core),

Span distances, make corners cruel

And then dissent, shape paramours.

Desiccated, wizened fault!—

Engenders posthumous desire,

This nascent creature, filling roles,

Weeps to feel this ember’s fire. 

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/471482933010644992/r8AKxRmb.jpeg

Memory

MEMORY

The bones of my Jurassic past

Arch over into ribs.

They house a good-luck bear, a punk-haired rockstar, and brightly colored shoelaces.

Such things as what we remember of our childhood

We wish we could regain.

A broken-down house, the nettles in a book 

Sting,

As do the things we no longer know,

Only feel the once-vibrant presence of.

Resonating.

Regress! The years come too fast.

And throbbing, pulsing at the center of it all,

The beginning of a wind tunnel

Whose centrifugal force sucks

In,

            In,

                        In.

Nothing truly remembered

Survives the mortal world.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fh9sBSfYDNtGyd8wLyd19ztIhNxgg9TmNTGHYLsr_5T-IhYb_nZCpGP_UVCXa39ok5h4XA=s128

When Alice Died

WHEN ALICE DIED

When Alice died,

In her arms, he cried,

While the raven danced round them in rings.

He laid her to rest

With a pearl on her breast;

Above them, the doves moved their wings.

He whispered a prayer

While the evergreens stared,

For the woodland respectfully stilled.

And he left one last kiss

On her pale, bedewed lips.

When he rose, he knew fate was fulfilled.

https://uploads.spiritfanfiction.com/fanfics/historias/201702/demonio-refugiado-8161869-240220171524.jpg

Bluebird

BLUEBIRD

Where qualms converge
The gray-tipped wings
Of a heart's bluebird
Twitch, falter . . . flutter.
Captive no longer,
Sought refuge by choice,
Preens for a much-anticipated
Flight.
Sleeps, now, rests its head.
Tucks its beak
Into its delicate breast.
And waits . . .
Waits . . .
Waits.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/90/fe/a490fe3ed9ee4c7c3556a24dfbc242d0.jpg

Satisfaction

SATISFACTION

Satisfaction comes slowly,

Creeping on soft paws

As a jewel-eyed, gentle creature,

Or sometimes as a ravenous beast

Whose teeth reflect the moonlight

Of a nocturnal world.

An imbalanced calendar

Reincarnates only days of sameness,

Nights of lonely minds and rooms.

The rare intrusion of interest

Is a welcome animal—

Much better if untamed.

https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article11043448.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/black-panther.jpg

Still Life

STILL LIFE

You’re a still life,

Not my real life.

A puppet core pumping in a puppet corpus;

Yet this marionette

Loves the moves her mover makes . . .

Approves the tones her maker takes.

An idyll, pretty as a picture,

Perfect and pure—

Please play in my silent theater

This way, my way.

Realness corrodes, crumbles and fumbles;

Grime mars gray days,

Time chars each fraying page;

Let’s touch and taste in immaculate places.

Stay, my still life—stay.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/BOOKS/Pix/pictures/2012/11/19/1353321352912/Marionette-010.jpg?w=700&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=e3933142b9971b9bd412c19bbe93e04a

Mushroom

MUSHROOM

Mushroom cap, orangey-red,

Sprinked with spots upon your head,

Soft white belly, joy to touch,

Wonder—do you whisper much?

Underneath your hat perched so

Fan the slats, about they go.

Like a pinwheel, delicate,

Spiral eaves so intricate.

At your foot the earth is damp,

Round you all the faeries stamp.

Black the forest, all around,

Bright you glow, so crimson-crowned

While all the while, quiet lies;
A careless step is your demise.

                                                          

 http://www.wildnatureimages.com/images%203/070729-007..jpg

Glass Lawn

GLASS LAWN

Geodic firmament, harboring refulgent facets of pellucid light,

Sparking and spinning against the violet.

Most profound penetration,

Pulling into itself, warping layer upon layer, caves in salt-rock swirls.

Glass fossilizing,

Arms enfolding, embraces long-awaited, much anticipated with restless dreams,

Murmurs and moans and sighs,

Stars in celestial eyes,

Under the spinning orbs on a dark grass lawn.

http://ak5.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2998525/thumb/1.jpg

Devil's Waltz

DEVIL'S WALTZ

The greatest sins never abandon

Amber corridors. The devil’s

Dance begins—the wickeds

Waltz, tulle twisting, darkstars

Drumming, fingers feeling, mouths

Melding, crystal coruscating,

Couloirs vibrate, trembling

Tolls resonate.

So sumptuous,

Swelling the sinning soul; reveries

Reward nothing,

Never satisfying, never thrilling

Though but an instant.

https://i.pinimg.com/474x/8f/48/ed/8f48ed9ad1f4ae4ffd17c644cf1cedce--walt-disney-world-disney-parks.jpg

The Bones

THE BONES 

Click, clack, clock go the bones, go the bones. 

Femurs cloaked in furs and facets 

Moan, groan, moan. 

Chip, snap, chop rolls the head, all alone. 

In the executioner’s basket 

Rife with bones. 

Oooh! Sigh. Aaah! Surge the crowds, minds blown, 

As the satin of the casket 

Stifles every moan. 

Laugh love, laugh! for the liver’s loom was sewn. 

Blood it bleeds in beads gymnastic 

Through the bones. 

Thunk, clunk, chunk shiver chinked tombstones. 

Corpses grin, the freaks fantastic! 

Hellhounds moan. 

Jostle, jangle, in a tangle, down they’ve flown 

Roasting, roiling, acid ashes 

Into pits the bones 

They crashes! Moan, grooan, mooooan.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhlUoYPIP-_FiRsNy6t8_27xuDEOHGpbqf0-54IJWDUa42y5qqTL67-1S7QGEG957ruqDkI5dnycdOS0uugs7Sv0DwK2GzETNxe4Fhve8FtEsLuj_1RXbvexwhXb8OKhvfXX83co7-38/s1600/CG14A.jpg