The new firehouse stands where the old
Hardshell church used to be stationed,
and across the road new houses
have replaced the once fallow field
where the Methodist tent meeting
took place when I was twelve years old,
accountable for my wanton
gaze, at the cheeks exposed by shorts
that would not have been allowed on
Sunday morning this Friday night,
if you took the freewill doctrine
unpopular now in circles
philosophical, canted like
the hooks we used to turn sawlogs
on the carriage where I offbeared
in the summer and after school,
saving cash I would one day use
to court those long-legged ladies.
Jul 25, 2024
Jul 25, 2024 at 11:43 AM UTC
Was this a predetermined thought,
Constructed in an unfree mind--
A trot line strung where fish are caught
Without a well cast lure to find.
Loose words sift through a poet's hand--
They scar the skin like god's own hooks,
As if there were a master plan
That could inspire a patchwork book
Begun with what was deadly banned,
Unknown within the naked world
Until the slanted word's command
Suggested sacrifice endured.
Some better line deserves this place,
Wedged tight in this most thoughtless
space
May 14, 2024
May 14, 2024 at 3:12 PM UTC
It didn't matter what we did,
Together while the light lay down--
Eat something, watch TV, get high
On every breath we shared before
The darkness called, like memory,
Like a thing almost remembered,
So sure we were that time would leave--
Unwanted guest, unlikely song
Feb 6, 2024
Feb 6, 2024 at 10:15 AM UTC
The brown leaves holding fast
To the grey branches
Of the post oak tree,
Above the unblemished snow,
Are more beautiful
Than apocryphal angels
Jan 17, 2024
Jan 17, 2024 at 12:20 PM UTC
Empty eyes where you
Once reflected all the world
As it existed
Dec 31, 2023
Dec 31, 2023 at 2:26 PM UTC
A broken heart doesn't stop.
It's like she told me;
Some things are worse than death. Yes
Oct 16, 2023
Oct 16, 2023 at 12:23 PM UTC
should it all be quantified,
this spirit-laden world,
broken to its smallest piece
without a secret left
except the love
that contradicts
all circumstance, defying language,
stone carvings and disease,
unguided shots at shadows,
my own transgressions sacramental
and profane,
with which
the fruit
of paradise
is tasted
on
a dying tongue
May 30, 2023
May 30, 2023 at 10:19 AM UTC
not long this measured
universe
shall entertain
my thoughts,
if they be fancied
mine
you understand the
the infinite uncertainty
loosely scattered in bright flashes,
dark skies,
increasing silence
laced between
the thunder
May 27, 2023
May 27, 2023 at 5:29 PM UTC
touch our shared confusion,
once more portrayed
as good intent,
black ink
in darkness so profound
as gravity tilts
what otherwise might stand
as roses
on a twisted stake,
unclear the aspiration
of an intermittent beauty
falling loosely
on an unmade bed
May 26, 2023
May 26, 2023 at 9:50 AM UTC
old boneyards made the perfect sites--
the residents content to wait,
through late-night fornication rites--
for judgment at a future date
sly little sisters took their turn,
when breakups offered openings
to quench the adolescent burn
by covering a load of sins
with stories that got passed around,
a currency as firm as gold,
assuring they were never found
without a little death foretold
next day the brimstone sermons ruled,
in nodding pews post Sunday school
May 23, 2023
May 23, 2023 at 1:57 PM UTC