poetry – Page 52 – Poétique

Red Birds

Monotonous tone
Tumbling drone on repeat
Is the hummingbird to my
Psychedelic central network
Emotions at my fingertips
Nerve endings systematically
Outstretched to the sky
When the grey crawls in
The blue breaks brighter
In both of my eyes
After the melancholic
Piano player slowly
Stood up from his bench
I heard the red birds fly overhead
Even though the windows
Were closed my heart
Was again opened to
Hear the sound of another
Person walking in
I recognized the waiter coming
Towards me in the arc
From far away I was uncertain
If it was her hair or her smile
Is this a church in Italy
Maybe a restaurant I’ve seen
In a magazine next to the water
Uncertain but reassured it was a dream
When I felt the edge of my blanket
Against my lips
Thirsting for destiny

September

Cool breeze refreshing
Pink sun bathing me
Tomorrow is today again
Later the sound of loss
Reminds me of hope
The smell of alder wood
In the air welcomes fall
It’s only September
Still we can sense
What is coming in
Vibrant colors on the ground
I recall that the train ride
Wasn’t nearly as long
As I imagined it would be
The scenery sped by
Heat and flies
Legs swinging over the edge
Of an endless valley
Immeasurable vociferous depth
Like the weight of a stone
In your gut
Flowers come and go
Parading the moon
Emotions waiver too

Estranged

She wasn’t peaceful
Everyone new to be careful
Around her depending on…
She’ll take all the
Fresh pressed juice
That you’re willing to give her
We all want attention
Most need affection
It’s quiet when you walk
Into the room in her absence
Remember the boom
Recall all the arguing
A maze of emotions
Tied back to California
Introduced her to friends
We gathered there and
I was ungraciously
Pinched out in the resolve
Came to be with an X
Cross you out gone
Scream and shout
Certain to flivver
Moving on without you
Rudely awakened
Solving the equation
Minus and pluses
She wasn’t peaceful
And the girl who was stolen
Went with her

Two Peas

Attenuated heart
Wounded from the exhaust
Bruised and bled sore
Healed by the garden
Two peas in a pod
Tending to the flowers
Mending the core
Pulsating new with desire
To feel better post red letter
Teaming vessels of light
Coursed through the veins
Off the pages in flight
From the soles of my feet
Climbs each vertebrae
Night rings up to skull
Lips round the bottle of life
Vilified and godlike
Innocent grasshoppers chime
Every pure drop drips
Indistinguishably right

Hooked

A whinge of second guessing the self
Relief comes in the return a reception
What of the moment just as it is
Reassurance in the palm of your hand
No terms for judgement if the truth
Is what it is it stands on its own
Quietly observant but as loud as a word
Will allow another one to share
If a heart is on a string there is no
Need to pull the line we are not fish
To be caught but emotionally we
Are hooked by our own thoughts inside

Pulling

Keep keeping up
Or we’re gone
Authenticity is what
Keeps people going
Easier to give up
Than to put up with
Easier to give in
Than to stand up for
Who wants to be hard
Fixed in forever if
We can compromise in
Halftime but not now
But if ever we can get there
Hands are not tied
And the black and white
Is blurred then good
Keep going pushing
Through the murk
Feels redoubtable
On the other side
A breakthrough

23

We only look like that
When we’re twenty-three
Hair blowing in the wind
Walking casually
A world of eyes
Taking us in
No real concern for anything
Or what lies around the bend
And once we look like that
We seem to be
Attending to realities
Soon realizing that we are
Twenty-three years older
Holding on to twenty-three
The newborn youth we used to be
We see ourselves becoming
A version of what we had no clue
Would be our truth to be
So many dreams were dreamt
Beneath the stars inside our youth
Beholden to the same remains
A youthful heart within the frame
That is also the container to
The one who once was twenty-two
Becoming twenty-three

Starting

Power me up
Power me down
Electrical shock
Fluttering heart
Feeling less frantic
And soothed by the sound
Of a quieter world
A bit settled in
Greyer skies
Early nights
Where will the next
Experience come to turn
Tell the tale as unfolds the
Stars the story of destiny
Much more life to live
Still more to keep up with
In the temple of our minds
What wil be the opening
To begin the next block
What parts the section
Of the sky that shines light
On the forthcoming fairytale
That will become real life
To reflect upon in ten years

Driving

Clear skies clear mind
Ensconced in the divide
Trapped in a singular reality
Someone’s playing the piano
On the other side of the glass
Another person is watching me watching
Them from the corner of their eye
My autocorrect is blind
Light is casting shadows
Blatant spots in which to hide
Tomorrow has a white knuckled grip
On my spontaneity
One that I created
But not to concede behind
I would rather dance in the rain
Than seek cover from the storm
Sheltered life leads to
Sheltered forms of
Tattered rewards
Remember who’s driving

Étoiles

Discord in a tasty pear
Compersion to beware
Seething liberty in a
Pallid hope spilled eternally
I’ve climbed a hundred steps
To find the sky
Welcoming me
In a bed of stars
What ecstasy is night
And what of tomorrow!