A LOT IN LIFE, for Jim Chandler

reading images in alphabet smoke
road map eyes shift left to right
scanning darkening skies for familiar
shapes in clouds, thoughts in ink

raining lives, hours, segments
down to moments captured, contained
within one man locked inside written
pages placed as life ticks on

in stigma like fingers wielding the pen
a vultures quill dipped in truth serum
writing from one hand while the other rests
dangling keys to be turned at will

knowing when to pick the tumbler
never rushing the delicate task
embroidering the years experienced
keeping time from blanketing truth

capturing places, generations of people
spinning with occurrences, aspirations, vines
wrapping around roots of real hard living
to stand out as history in humble eyes

dodging untrue bullets
shot by crooked historians
who'd paint pretty pictures of thornless roses
when reality is crabgrass killing
flowers stealing water from the tender

the thunder tells of rain

 

WORLD REDUCTION - for Tori Amos

enchanted again
by red's siren song
i wander hoping
over the railing

cross rocky reef
to shoreline stage
through a surging
sea of faces
under light show
constellations

my seat - a ship
left behind
to sink or fare
on it's own

hypnosis guides me
through scarlet vibrations
undulate stoking
provoking desire

she looked
in my eye
seeing my antic
a smile crossing her lips

accompanied by
(and with) feminine softness
a fingery wave
(the kind you'd expect
from a faerie)

this exchange
a few seconds of
forever tightening

the size of the world
winding down
while songs expanded the feel

 

TROLL - for ME!

I am a troll

in the daytime
at least

hiding beneath
old stone bridges
in shadows

tucked safely away
from the voices that pass
overhead
echoes dropping
unlike billygoats lost

these push me
down further
in deep dark
of sin

left here to starve
as I covet

lost lunch

 

 


Parallel Enigmas
Carter Monroe with Eric C. Harrison
Third Lung Press

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