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riley minteer Feb 2020
in the midst of an easy, northern-bound rain
from one shore,
a gust,
another’s clear day

in the midst of the courtyard,
a brick-laid patio
igniting an hearth,
who’s embers dampened long ago

igniting the fire which therein warms my heart;
a simple red peony that rose from the yard
it rose and was nurtured by delicate words,
then brushed during night,
by the sensual rough of a scourge
oh the power of words...

but alas, the easy rain soon starts to harden
as nothing is safe from the truth’s vacant burden
and my courtyard, once blooming, peonies, red
is wilted, long-shot, and over-spent.
-riley minteer
“courtyard hearth”
(from “mind soul heart”)
Sunday, February 23, 2020
riley minteer Jan 2020
i drew a line in crush'd corals
to separate the right from wrong
disregarding past-life morals,
none are right and nothing's wrong

forget-me-not, daisy, chain
laced around your throat
a kind of leaf'd, vile, locket
that doubles as a noose

please do not forget me,
i've cut up both my knees
i'll take upon your burdens,
you burden me with ease.
-riley minteer
“boundaries”
(from “mind soul heart”)
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
riley minteer Jan 2020
we picnic during solstice,
neon-chartreuse vertigo
vision morphs and bends,
we're weightless, astral high
in constant ego death,
eyes so lunar dilated
bits of stars surround us
on the f*cking moon

seven violent truffles
i’ve been high for so long
i rise, thirteen a.m.
in a drab and dreary coma
when i take another sip,
like a wilting lilac-
then spring begins so soon

everything inanimate
speaking in slow tongues
living and observing
from their place of immobility

slow kisses to your skin,
it melts on my lips quickly
like cathedral waxes
in the carmine breeze

everything is alive,
sobriety is so silent
we get high on the roof,
an ashen rocked collision
seven violet tablets
violent constellation
vibrant vein pulsation,
euphoric crystal lines
a new cosmic collusion,
peripheral discernment
we ascend to highest heavens,
just to plummet to the sea.
-riley minteer
“everything is alive”
(from “mind soul heart”)
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
riley minteer Dec 2019
when i've reached a proper altitude,
all will be as it should
and when i've reached that final peak
i will then be understood

silence hangs upon the valley
like a cloak of grey despair
nothing comes, nothing goes
never is there fruit to bear

so i leave my place of living,
i run across the county line
somehow i'll make it to the mountain,
no guarantee i'll come back alive

if i do then nothing changes
if i don't no one will cry
and when i've reached that final peak
i’ll finally be seen as I.
-riley minteer
“the final peak”
(from “seeds of change”)
Thursday, November 28, 2019
riley minteer Dec 2019
return in pieces,
return to He
violet grasses envelop me
breathing
waiting
leeching
breaking
prism-fractal
forest floor
seeded ancient,
resisting blight
shadows cast infinite light...
...a medium dampened by the night
hold my hand as i
regress
violent, devoid lack sense, selfless i,
you dig relentless
grasses sense the scent of
blood
glasses within parcels, platters
broken glass, shattered and scattered
you are glimmering, ghastly, strange,
all you are is selfish, vain
glass grows underneath my skin
underneath my skin is pain

often did i call for help,
never did it make a change
never did the music stutter
never did i share my pain
mader, madre, magdalene
you scour and scorn a thorn’d gaze
you hurt and make joyous exclaim,
then grimly cast infinite rain.
-riley minteer
“ grasses sense the scent of blood”
(from “seeds of change”)
Thursday, December 5, 2019
riley minteer Nov 2019
the sun's warmth passes overhead
i long to lie on glass plateaus
dry crack'd soil when sinking teeth
crumbles easily
like rotting flesh

all that was is overshadowed
a looming sick juxtaposition
i hear the chimes and flutes afar
when wind rattles through a field of bones

sooty grey, crème fraîche,
are veins of thistle without color
skulls and talons burning hot,
gleaming bright in desert-day

stripped by sand and beetle bites
fall’n remains and dusty cans
eons pass in tens and thousands,
all plunges into trench-ed depths...

a sacred golden tomb emerges
in the midst of a red monsoon
magma from below the surface
billows in a thousand plumes

this land is hell from what i see
the valleys are deadly and unforgiving
i'm swallowed up by rising tides,
all washes away before the dawn.
-riley minteer
“a field of bones”
(from “candlelight rust & shells”)
Thursday, November 28, 2019
riley minteer Nov 2019
here i am!
oh, i raise a fuss
they're looking,
waiting...

but seeing me they're not.
-riley minteer
“invisible”
(from “where did today go”)
Tuesday, November 18, 2019
riley minteer Nov 2019
warm is the fire that burns under stovetops
warmer is your knitted alpaca coat
you made us a dinner
yams,
veal,
whiskey and cornbread...
let me assist you,
enjoying your labor

honey, you are deserving of ev-er-y welcome
ev-er-y welcome deserving and true
if we could keep this warm autumn night
always,
i'd choose to have it,
always with you.
-riley minteer
“crackle”
(from “mind soul heart”)
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
riley minteer Nov 2019
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
riley minteer Nov 2019
oh, they come in the troves of a’thousands
yes, the gulls overhead come in troves
watching the water as they appear,
and take every saltwater fish from the sea
this is the season of music a'plenty
but plenties tend to appear and recede...

tales from a bench by the fire
in a home so lichened,
recently it sprouted a tree on the roof
this home was constructed
a thou-sand years,
before any knowledge of myself was conceived.

so take every fish from every sea
and take every stock of red beeberries
here i will rest and refill my glass
as the tree on the roof will observe life and death,
these seasons of cold will come and then pass.
-riley minteer
“tree on the roof”
(from “forces at bay”)
Monday, November 18, 2019
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