beautiful flower

carried away in the storm
laid down in a thicket of thorns.

who will morn
the dancer and sinking sky?
the raven with a broken wing?
who will cry for you? O, flower
folded in the forgotten book of sorrow.
now, a shadow and a name and a tombstone.

my flower, my rose without thorns.

I'm gonna get my shotgun
climb the water tower,
shoot the stars full of lost tomorrows.

The first day of the new year
silently edged its way inside
skulking around the wrapping paper

And the empty bottle of champagne,
not making a sound as if waiting
in ambush for the unsuspecting,
or the young, dulled by too much bubbly.

Here in the darkness
it waits patiently
to see what the inhabitants
have cooked up for it.

Before midnight and all the days
accumulated in the old year,
have the sleeping prepared new resolves
for what went undone… if they remember?

Will they remember to write 25 instead of 24
on the first check they write
or did they stop writing checks all together
in the old year or the old old year?

How many will forget the word new
for the twenty-fifth year of the twenties
because they hope nothing new
will disturb their well constructed lives.

How much energy will they expend
to ensure that 25 will be the same as 24?
Or how much energy to protect the 25th year’s
plans from the  upstarts and the different?

Will this first day hear songs of praise
for all we have done
or with the songs hark the herald
of creativity, innovation, and new life?

“New Year?” Copyright 2025 by Glenn Currier
Written 1-1-25

You are sky and sea
beyond little me
You are inescapable
unable to be locked up
or corralled or expressed in mere words
words limit your being
yet they are what we have
for the time being
but we have music which is beyond mere words
we have light and dark
we have canvas and computers
but computers work with digits
ones and zeroes
in the sky in the ether
in infinite variety.

Infinite variety
that is who you are
always new
ageless angleless
It is what attracts me to you
you in your agelessness
I’ve always been fascinated with the new
that is one reason I’m drawn to you.
You are ever changing
yet religion speaks of your changelessness.
Why is that?

           Humans need patterns and habits,
           customs and values and norms
           to give them a sense of who they are.

          Yet what is fascinating about you is your changeability.
          You got it my boy.
          Thus the limits of religion.

I walk on the sandy shoreline
feel the clear water and sand squish
between my toes
then recede back into the great lake
and off its surface surges a forceful  wind
that tickles the hair on my legs
and rushes up through my swim trunks
over private orbs giving me
a brief intimate encounter
with the dark blue magnificent body.

The gentle electric charge
travels up my torso and face to my brain
awakening it to a new sensation
forever imprinting the essence Eerie
within my consciousness
never to leave
but returning with intensity
in the warm folds
and arms of my lover.

People go missing from our lives
Either leave or disappear
Or may appear unfamiliar
Hard to feel they were once
Intimate part of your life
Had a place in your heart.

Then they depart
Either you let them go
Or they leave you.

Maybe after years
You remember them with silent tears
Wished they had not gone
You shouldn't have let them go.

Guilt sits a weight in your heart
It's you made them depart
You and you and you
It's why relationships are few.

Hold those few strong,
Who knows
You may again go wrong.

You have problem with tooth?
The doc is here, her treatment is smooth
First she will put slime in your mouth
Then with a tweezer, she'll take it out
She charges nothing, it's all your gain
Her ways of treating won't cause you pain.

Come running to her, if you've toothache
She has the knowledge of steps to take
For you she'll make everything light
To ensure you can comfortably bite
She's free as her patients are few
But she makes sure you can chew.

Here's the doctor, do come to her
She comes handy, she isn't far
Treats you well, pays you time
But as I said, you don't pay a dime
The cutest dentist call anytime her
She'll treat your problems with just a tweezer.

I was there twice. Two times I'd walked in thinking it’s home.
Second-guessing it both times as I stood in the hall.
These abandoned places that taught to abandon hope
handed me more ropes than there are in our old depot.

It is all a cycle – the shoulder you once leaned on
won’t be there this time, leaving you on your own,
either pointlessly leaning onto something resembling its sort
or forcing you into becoming your own support.

/it is all a cycle – the illness, the ambulance call,
as a body lies lifeless a back turns cold,
and a voice keeps saying it is his own fault
for not living and growing enough to grow old/

I was there twice, both times I got on my knees and prayed
to Our Lord, to be at the right time, in the right place.
In the inanimate bodies along my new way
I recognised all the mes that were once left strays.

But as God washed his hands in warm milk with honey
I moved in on a mountain of myselfs dying.

Never have I seen the Landscape.
The forest—whimsical in sight
For it was you who introduced me to the trees,
the shrubs, the vines.
Dense it is, but pragmatic and real,
Same as you keep your thoughts in disguise.

Never have I seen the intriguing flies,
For it was you who introduced me to the fireflies.
Like you, they awaken the soul,
They did the same—what you do with your smile.
They killed my senses with their alluring light.

Never have I seen the waterfall.
For it was you who introduced me to the sound—
The melody of the water dew.
Swaying and grooving, the fluid moved,
Like you moved my heart away.

Never have I seen the moonlight
In this way.
For it was you who introduced me to this gaze.
Left me astonished; left me amazed.
Watched a goddess ablaze.