Riq Schwartz

Riq Schwartz Oct 2014

His thoughts smell like caffeine.
Defied the day/night drummer, he did.
Watched the world nearly die
     then awaken unaware.
Ready, though, for the autopsy,
searching for the COD
he read in the wrinkles
of street lamps and satellites,
"Death due to the search for life."

Instead he wrote, inadvertently,
the biography of the day,
playful and concise,
wise despite his best efforts.
I'll not write it all down here,
so as not to plagiarize.
Suffice it did no more that night
to keep the world from sleep.
Supine he waited, wished with
baited breath. Each fulcrum
of solar ascent went
slowly, wholly over his head.
Each night laid him down
something elaborately unseen.
Each of us heard his rhymes
                and in turn
         wrote him off.

Daylight simply hides the shadows -
passive state of things.
Life simply hides the death
which time inevitably brings.
Mourning dove finds company
and to the other sings.
I pick for you these roses,
but we're waiting for the rings.
                               - unsung

Riq Schwartz Oct 2014

Tonguing It

I's stuffed with mouthfulls
stuck bombastic swabs back, silly tonsils
attract this kind of swelling
blood flow filling brash, crass
rusted filter engorged but not gorgeous.
Leaking, not porous. I'd fight for us
but you're the one fighting me.
So I stuff this all down from the surface.
It's worth it. You see,
argumentatively I concede to the truth.
You withhold resolute and spew weather.
I'm better. I hold it inside. Stuff it down,
bottle up all my thoughts and I swallow them
frothing and foaming in cheeks around teeth
gargle responses, apologize
but I's stuffed with this awful,
awful mouthful.

Disturbed? Bueno.

Riq Schwartz Oct 2014

Let Linger Lightning

I've resolved to hold out hope
Some offering resilient
Passed down, an heirloom
From day to day to day
Through this damning night courier
I sell this trinket for a pittance of sleep
Please, just ten more minutes of pittance
And so hopelessly I'm found
Face first in down, safe swaddled dreams
Abound to excavate another vein
And so hopefully I'm found
Panning for dreams for passing tomorrow

Wishing that the sun would rise reminds us that it will.

Riq Schwartz Sep 2014

Gray

You dressed
In early morning pallor
Faded like half
     forgotten memory
Free like a beggar
Lost like the rest of us
     with somewhere else to be
You walked with
Dignified aggression
Regal like a
     Queen elect
Static as a storm cloud
Displaced by sunrise

Riq Schwartz Sep 2014

Invest

There is a churning,
spurning surge
like sickly sushi
or bad first dates
rollercoasters
Take it slow, I say
take it no more
than two days at a time
like when your brother
slipped, fell fell fell
down the basement steps
Remember that?
Let it fester
lactic acid
Let it drown
Let it bloat
Then make your
chalk outline
of feelings deceased
Let it waver or
whimper or wallow
but don't let it go.

This is the beginning
of your next great write.

Riq Schwartz Sep 2014

Listening

The pitter patter
Of your words smelting against
My inner ear forge

#haiku

Riq Schwartz Aug 2014

About time.

I heard clockwork songs,
sprockets and cogs
lost, stolen tocks
swept through swift hands,
and ticks slipped by
whistfully shy and shallow;
lapping up time in
long tongues and trappings
on and on, anon
singing suddenly daylight!
Laughing larks earnest for tomorrow
while we, heart shot in sorrow,
swallow our pride, hide
face first
while versed well in this chorus
crowing, "See! See!
It is sleep that damns,
these dreams, contagion!"
Step we back,
through stars never sleeping
as we wound tightly with
lunar ties
to the tides of these cardiac shores,
sanguine swells
beneath onyx allure,
dampened air, dew gathered in reverence.
We were immortal
until daylight.
We were wrought with cast shadows
as indomitable as dreams.
Yes we were.
Like dew to fog and
stars to sun
and we may just
dissolve like
de_ to fog nd
stas to su
ad we ay js
issove _ie
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