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 Dec 2019
riley minteer
i've never seen such
astounding things
a discovery made
on a passage within

i recall sleeping
in celestial cots
made up of cygnus,
pavo,
the enticing lot

green velvet curtains drawn
block out the sun
although the windows are no more than
one
surrounded
by ivies, scripture
and platinum-tipped
pens
the era of thought
all within my
mind...

i awaken from slumber to quite different sights

the very same forces that prevail in this place,
the forces above
alluding, brooding

the thief comes too smug,
wind thrashes the sails
a cynical offering,
all grief to repent,
the season of starving,
the season of lent

isn't it odd how the winds never billow?
over the strangest utopian lands
the islands of women with no trace of men
the archipelagos of shellfish on land
and that one place due north...
beyond arctic bird coves
where wisps of the sky
grace plat-inum snow

the things that you see when it's dark on the ocean
four sailors drunken on laughter and autumn-***
down though the seabed
the lowest of shores
the music through rafters,
flutes clamor and roar...

torn and burdened is the world,
but brokenness never equated unworth
the land once which was
trodden,
the seas overcame
i nod off to sleep
just to shake off the pain
the forces come crashing,
formed over the bluff
indifferently shouting,
unrighteously tough

here from my balcony
on french-spanish estate
once indifferent forces,
concluding in rain.
-riley minteer
“i've never seen such astounding things”
(from “forces at bay”)
Thursday, November 14, 2019
 Nov 2019
riley minteer
once green now forgotten
the land we call home
the cities are looming
and dark
and lonely

what happened to sun
our greatest god
now cities are blue in the wavering smog.
-riley minteer
“once green”
(from “forces at bay”)
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
 Nov 2019
riley minteer
red rubies and studded emerald calvary charms...
they adorn my chalice of Château d'Yquem

i succumb to the music
of nothing around
the melody once heard divulged underground

i'll take up my post,
commit to the king
i'll see all that was once calvary's beings
through sixteen moons everything's peace-renowned,
till death drifts about,
blood drips from their gowns

i made a promise,
a promise i'd keep
a pinnacle dagger, obsidian knife,
out of the dark on a late summer night
taking the life of my childhood spite.
-riley minteer
“calvary charms”
(from “the observatory”)
Wednesday, November 13, 2019

— The End —