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 Nov 2019
riley minteer
...seemingly routine,
the circumstance at hand
the fire burning books made by my fellow man
burn away his knowledge with the ham-ring of keys,
“burn away his ashes-
do with the riches as we please”
such things are the enticing lies of the world
the same men who lust are the same men who burn
“do unto others as your fellow man”
we’ll do what we want and we’ll wilt at the end…

looking above,
the light changes the tune
and all that was bleak
is bleaker once more,
but truly, vibrancy occurs; downpours

how colors as if drawn by invisible force,
recede, concur, conceit, remorse
valleys plunge into whites, into blacks
“is this the epiphany to break down my back?”
i scream into jars
without reading their state
i know what will come
but it’s only to late
they’ve captured my heart,
away with my fate!

its true, down i fall
but more truer so,
thick vines from the ravine catch me into-
though i come breaking lose
with the weight of the weathering i bear…

i believe in the power of chiefly healing
with nothing but passion within true pain
eyes gleaming astounded as they slowly degrade
like collections of quarters left out in the rain.
-riley minteer
intrinsic oxidation, total condemnation”
(from “standing in two gardens”)
Sunday, August 25, 2019
 Nov 2019
riley minteer
You can find me in the fields,
catching water bugs,
and small red beetles.
You will find me in the grass,
sifting through all of the things I have left.

sifting through dollops of honey
and gin
sifting through well-rusted lockets and tins
o’er high hills comes sweet-smelling winds
carrying over pollens from yore,
drifting from to city to city once more...

twenty years later i sit in my yard
with my cats and my children in the heart of new york,
new york
a faint, yet audible buzzing awakes me from my nap,
and as i wake i see a flow‘r on my lap.
how could this be?
how could this happen?
i’m surrounded by non-ornamental hedge plants!

i look to the sky and see a faint glisten,
for i've seen it now as i’ve seen it before
i breathe in the sweet smell of my youth from yore,
drifting from city to city once more.
-riley minteer
“commenbees, pollen-sifters”
(from “standing in two gardens”)
Monday, August 26, 2019
 Nov 2019
riley minteer
wine print on neutral veronese,
some drink to live,
some live to drink

i spent a lowly year "out back"
high up in the Adirondacks
i spent a couple grand and change
lay a lady lay again...

here lies conquer with no-seq
ne vis plus, prefaced as con
harboring the depth of write
just to overcome the wrongs
always drone as rhythm does

pin and doily on the water
mag-a-nolia, Julian, golden
life of old and orchards open
send a silhouette to the cabin door...

happy getting older, broaden
road and carriage,
stock and bale
bail and stalk
walk o’er hill
neatly seated at heron
seated on the bench i stole
i knitted up the overgrowth
and lay i shall think of the olds
of plum-stained linens from the gods,
rags and gore,
pale blue bones
the modern peril is destination and fortified knowns.
-riley minteer
“the overgrowth”
(from “standing in two gardens”)
Thursday, October 31, 2019
 Nov 2019
riley minteer
un breloque,
a novel,
un tonique moitié plein

sweet chicory; wild,
a japanese maple

a lectern, a candle, a pendant;
lent
waves bring in water that melts the cement

holy

holy a lordy sing me poormans-hymn
nothing is true when nothing is not
to is is to be is to know now,
you see?

holy

who what is and who is what's not
this is truth spread out on loaf
this is riddle to a rhyming oaf
never simply,

holy

from highest heaven to lowest vale
carry the sound like an orchestra,
a procession of violent brasses rising…
-riley minteer
“who what is and who is what's not”
(from “standing in two gardens”)
Thursday, October 31, 2019

— The End —