taking up pen, preparing a page
sober, serious–really quite sage–
i wrestled a wriggle
a jiggly smudge–no more than a giggle
struggling to make it behave
ultimately, i was the slave
discovering, to my chagrin
taming a word is a terrible sin
——
ancestor under the skin (20170226)
storing oxygen
in a pair of secondary organs
while swimming through my blood
it pulled itself forward on flippers
rough-hewn legs too slow
to evade an apex predator
but then
it broke through my skin
and had the new world to itself
words that can’t be spoken or spelled (20170225)
i am less an open book to you
than a blank page
you write on me with your fingers
your words sink into my skin
like your teeth
and i am tattooed by your multicolor voice
you do not erase
only write over the soft, pink scars
replacing old
with new
the touch of your fingertips
like a singing water glass
peaches (20170224)
i long for the bees
tending to my peach tree
nascent blossoms
untitled (20170223)
little new in the news
(little love lost between late lovers)
i thought i was a cynic
defined once as a failed, frustrated romantic
but
that’s a digression
that’s a depression
that’s a diversion
everyone wants to be
a snowflake these days
perfect
unique
fragile
as ephemeral as a cherry blossom
and so so cold
so cold you can’t expect
any warmth
just a glint of light
reflected and refracted
an impermanent diamond
no one is a snowflake
you’re all just raindrops
and you’re not even making
me wet
do i contradict your worldview?
very well then, i contradict it
what we have here is a (failure)
to communicate
but it’s only because my mirror
has darkened and cracked
on a different xy coordinate
than your own one dimensional glass
——
Someone New!
Hey, we have a new contributor for this month’s Open Mic. Jim Feeney of stopdraggingthepanda sent me a link to a reading of one of his poems. Check out the February 2017 Open Mic Page and swing by Jim’s site!
observations on a serial napper (20170222)
behind me the cat sleeps
on a little fleece bed
i can see her breathing
in that almost imperceptible
mockery of slow motion
i just wanted to remind you
that there is something warm here
with a beating heart
and it doesn’t matter
the size of the muscle
manicured wastelands without roots (20170221)
from the latin
sub “below, near”
and urbs (genitive urbis) “city”
so then, one might say
something beneath a city
growing
fungus like
virulent and in the dark
but really
what else grows in shadows
and in shit
just so many mushroom capped
spore spreaders without
bearing the weight of skyscrapers
and the dreams that built them
stone on stone
the murder rate is lower
but the suicide rate is higher
in spite of the lack of tall buildings
——
monologue (20170220)
i hear you
rattling around in there
chattering
i let you
have your say
some days
and some days
i clap my hands over
my ears
i try to keep busy
because you don’t talk to me
when i’m busy
though you mutter
an incessant
vibration in my inner ear
sakura (20170219)
white shirt
cherry blossoms appear
like blooms of disappearing ink
secret message written in code
and violence
Words and Feathers 