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Norman Crane Oct 2020
That feeling—
Night running between tree trunks,
Bark scraping your cheeks—
Before smashing face-first into:
Goosebumps,
   Neck snapped,
      The blood leaks,
That feeling is freedom—
Before you awake unfeeling your body,
Legs useless, mouth drooling dumb,
Welcome! You're one of us now,
The obedient numb.
I can! replaced by May I?
Physical stagnation, ornamental degradation
of the soul: the will dies always
Alone.
Norman Crane Oct 2020
imagination cannot be contained
with your fingertip
trace the border of the trees against the sky
now see the clouds behind
and make them mountains in your mind
  Oct 2020 Norman Crane
Unpolished Ink
On a blue Sunday
Grey rain seeks out my window
White noise fills my head
Norman Crane Oct 2020
Not all light has a source. Some streets travel
in freight cars city to city to be
extra-urbanistically unravelled,
oppidan rugs unrolled for you and me,
Only upon close inspection we see
that the perspective lines fail to meet,
A top shadow has spilled. Tread carefully,
Although a flag blows, the street is empty,
What lives in all these abandoned buildings?
you may ask but no one will answer. I
wander here searching for who pulls the strings
of this, our cleverly falsified world,
But quick look now how the light breaks the rules,
They already roll up the street—the fools!
Inspired by Chirico's painting of the same name from 1914.
Norman Crane Oct 2020
If I grew wings
would you stab them
with pins
and add me
to your collection?

If I grew fins
would your interest
in me
culminate in a classroom
dissection?

If I grew muscle
would a vivisection
suffice
or would you first crush my strength
within an iron vise?
Inspired by Sandra Wyllie's poem If I Grew Wings ( https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4059625/if-i-grew-wings/ ), whose title and idea I shamelessly stole because I thought it was interesting how two minds could take those starting points and go in completely different directions!
  Oct 2020 Norman Crane
sandra wyllie
I’d soar
higher than the trees
into the clouds
and catch a breeze

If I Grew fins
I’d swim
longer than the seas
onto the earth’s outer edge
and be a tease

If I Grew muscle
I’d lift
you off your knees
into the dancing stars
and galaxies
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