"acolyte" poems
Saturated in steely blue clutches, sweating from the 75 degree Georgia night
strung up and washed out with a serpent woman that keeps bringing on the blight
Singing you a song of bliss and blinders.
A big brick red boot on your neck and a green collar that reads The Gardens *****
The Garden takes the taxes tightens up the lead and never relaxes
Hit ya where ya like, the pain is disguised, leather tastes like candy, The Gardens got ya hypnotized.
Your late night camping sight attracts the moon light parasite, that acolyte of appetite, Tonight your the Gardens Delight
You wanna run but she's got those hooks between your shoulder blades feeling like an inexorable **** of silk, smoke and skin.
She gives you every thing you need,
Fountain heads of intemperance and black out nights
Whole streets smelling like grease and charcoal charbroils
Men and women of dexterous lechery, feverous severance, and generous deference
Crystals for your cranium, high altitude dives and the lowest lows.
A cacophony of any entertainment you might want or need, just as long as its seedy.
The Garden keeps blinders on your head to make sure you can't see anything she doesn't want you to.
Try to remove em and the punishment is usually severe.
She might give you the greatest loves you've ever known and turn em to photographs, blot em with LSD and trip you out on memories.
And when you come back to what you think reality is she'll take those photographs and burn em up right in your face and leave you asking if any of it really happened while feeling like it was the realest thing that ever has.
She'll break you and build you up, build you up and break you worse. A cycle of bad things feeling real good.
The Garden will do everything in her power to keep you right here.
But if you can get all those straps and tight leather off, all those hooks and chains.. If you can escape her steely blue clutches,,
You'll finally see how wrong you've been done, and your still gonna want her back in some strange way..
but you might start to heal....
But know this.
No matter where you might run off to,
You'll still be hearing The Garden City call.
That siren song of bliss and blinders.
Mar 23, 2017
Mar 23, 2017 at 4:27 AM UTC
Between the brown hands of a server-lad
The silver cross was offered to be kissed.
The men came up, lugubrious, but not sad,
And knelt reluctantly, half-prejudiced.
(And kissing, kissed the emblem of a creed.)
Then mourning women knelt; meek mouths they had,
(And kissed the Body of the Christ indeed.)
Young children came, with eager lips and glad.
(These kissed a silver doll, immensely bright.)
Then I, too, knelt before that acolyte.
Above the crucifix I bent my head:
The Christ was thin, and cold, and very dead:
And yet I bowed, yea, kissed - my lips did cling.
(I kissed the warm live hand that held the thing.)
3.5k
A picture of your mother
dull colors of a bygone era
a polaroid born faded
a memory bestowed upon you by another
a hearsay tale long lost in time
more far than you can count on fingers
she smiles
a smile reserved for the unburdened
you wonder when this woman is
she looks happy
A finger painting of your mother
all colors watered down
a reminder that you must
prioritize
some things carry more meaning
other need meaning poured onto them
cupped like water in both hands
presented to a lip-cracked child
some water saturate the soul
while keeping others thirsty
some colors are skin deep
Your mother, wrapped in blankets
in an almost vacant bed
her paint, dry and life-bleached
you sit with her
through all these final hours
watching as the outer coating
peels off and settles to the floor
solemnly, you sweep the flakes
an acolyte on hallow ground
choosing the most beautiful
pasting to a piece of paper
crafting the image of a woman
that once could have been
your mom
Dec 23, 2018
Dec 23, 2018 at 2:08 PM UTC
shapeshifter, son drunk
& changing skins.
he digs up skeletons of a spanish battalion
buried
by tigers on the garden key.
suncresent
spray of blood & oranges.
new-fangled sailors once soaked
in madness.
now just starvation.
the viking speaks:
in limericks of new world poise.
his antler woven mask,
set nicely upon the shore.
seod, turtle lord
of space & time, appears only once
every lunar eclipse. bound by treatise
to the jellyfish triumvirate.
his acolyte,
bolivar t. shagnasty,
wanders the mainland in search of water
or meat of trees.
kindness
of men turns to dust & belly worms.
forgotten, the plants mutate
into root-rich empires
of fish & figurine.
million year armistice.
dr. samuel mudd,
shackled years to tide-slab &
fort jefferson. he
purifies the island of its yellow
shivering death.
hospital key.
fastforward hundred plus years
through mudd lifeline:
battle weary sneakers,
spokes sung by strum of card, the bmx
stridden boy & his
teenage mutant ninja turtle mask.
Apr 25, 2014
Apr 25, 2014 at 4:55 PM UTC
***
I see thine image through my tears to-night,
And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How
Refer the cause?—Beloved, is it thou
Or I, who makes me sad? The acolyte
Amid the chanted joy and thankful rite
May so fall flat, with pale insensate brow,
On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow,
Perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out of sight,
As he, in his swooning ears, the choir’s Amen.
Beloved, dost thou love? or did I see all
The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when
Too vehement light dilated my ideal,
For my soul’s eyes? Will that light come again,
As now these tears come—falling hot and real?
2.8k
Armed and rightly dangerous
religious and slightly pugnacious
on the sidewalk the talk's of the testament
the rent being due on a Sunday.
Molly, the soothsayer tells me
that heaven is mine if I could be
an acolyte of the almighty.
My fiance is the goddess I pray to
she's the light that I see
when the day's through and
the hope that I seek and
I cling to.
Nov 15, 2015
Nov 15, 2015 at 2:57 AM UTC
Walking up the rickety stairs,
Patchouli and cigarette smoke
combat for supremacy
Before I even reach the door,
and I step through to see
The everyday undead scattered on the thick carpet like so many corpses blown out of Wednesday Addams' haunted dollhouse.
Maybe it wasn't wise to come.
A cd player informs me that, indeed,
Bela Lugosi's dead,
And I cautiously move into the living room.
Ruby lips and ivory faces emerge from the gloom,
Incurious glances marking my progress
As an acolyte guides me to the Queen of the festivities
Holding court in a corner of the living room.
Her waist-length silver-gilt hair and damp skin like fresh camellias gleam in the candlelight,
A studded black goblet brimming with Jack Daniels
Is handed to her,
A token of homage she eagerly welcomes
while nodding me forward.
Whispers behind me tell her story,
Of how she's seen a thing or two in her time,
And why her flat stare and Theda Bara smile give glimpses of her bottomless occult wisdom.
As her slim fingers play with a knotted black necklace,
She considers me long before finally declaring,
--"My God, you're an old soul"--
And she pats the cushion next to her,
An invitation to drink deep and close of her dark knowledge.
A cup of something unknown is pressed into my hand
and I sip, hanging onto every arcane word she utters.
Night slowly fades into dawn
and I wake cold and stiff from a kitchen floor sleep
only to see the Queen buttoning the cuffs on her white poplin shirt.
Smoothing her tweed skirt, she steps into her pumps,
Grips her cup of coffee,
And with a cheery wave, leaves for work.
Oct 19, 2020
Oct 19, 2020 at 3:42 AM UTC
a confessional screen
chambered in opaques
the pearly gates would sport
checkers sovereignty with grime
between myself
and the other side of this poem
another acolyte had founted
from our species-widened narthex-maw
the answer to the test
the answer i have tested since
despite the veto of a roshi's sleeve
while adults justify in frowns and threats
commandment-etched
i am a child still
aghast at drawing lines in sand to mark the living
from the soon to die
one i knew who drew such lines
for whom a line was drawn to mark himself as well
not just in votes and homeland hate-speech
you see
he crossed the line
no unadulterated childhood can cross
he shot his own face
or at least his face was shot
when he was found
who can read the final lonely moments of another
when mistakes are easier than ownmost acts ?
bombing bullies politicking death
can sanctify the safe
unpunctuated traps
dividing moods in swallows
pills
swilled with undigested fear
of nozzled death
mercilessly sudden
.
Oct 6, 2013
Oct 6, 2013 at 2:18 PM UTC
i hear the whistle of a mockingjay
play every time someone says your name.
a rebel girl in a patriarchal world
defying the absurd iterations of hyper-masculine
oppression that manifest themselves in solipsistic
displays of impotent aggression.
how do you muster the compassion
to forgive seventy times seven?
i want to learn to love like you.
the white noise fades away
when you and i fly
down the interstate.
the breeze teases
your hair, the sun
kisses your face
the way i'd like to.
i hope you hear my voice
every time one of our favorite songs
gets stuck inside your head,
singing in time to the rhythms of love requited.
have faith in me.
and i'm trying hard—
real hard—every day
not to lose my temper
with these circumstantial quandaries
that leave us wondering whether or not
we should press pause.
instead i'll climb the mountains
of your vertebrae so i might find
a resting place in the holiest of holies.
if only i could shrink myself down,
dance between the synaptic gaps of your brain cells,
i could see reality through your eyes—
twirling like twin nebulae,
galaxies inviting me to endless epiphanies.
i want to lose myself in your universe.
your courage is infectious.
when i hold your hand,
i summon the strength to smash the State
and all the arbitrary authorities
trying to dictate the limits of liberty,
that instigate injustice and propagate malice.
it all just falls away until it's you and me,
forever us against them all.
you're like Hermione,
time-turner included,
feeding the homeless,
leading a women's health group,
acting for a short film,
directing a play,
writing a novel,
all in a day's work.
and you breathe white-hot fire
when you fight for the disenfranchised
recognizing that those who are neutral
in situations of injustice have chosen
the side of the oppressor and it's quite
impressive how you stand-up for
the little guy or invite the social acolyte over
to your table to have a bite of whatever
vegetarian dish you cooked up last night.
i see you on the silver screen,
in each new book i read ,
in every single note i sing,
latent remnants in recited rhymes
of poetry from the one and only Bukowski:
i found what i love
and i want it to **** me.
Dec 28, 2015
Dec 28, 2015 at 7:54 AM UTC
I'm terrified of not having at least one secret that only I know.
Saturn moves into capricorn
as conqueror
rather than lover.
I keep drawing the tower card.
Space has no boundary.
Down is relative.
We know, then,
that it is entirely possible to
just
keep
falling.
Indefinitely.
Devils roam free in the sixth house.
I've been drawing the tower card.
I keep drawing the tower card.
The snake I am is not the snake I was.
Tower card. Tower card.
"Mama, some pieces are missing from this puzzle."
"Only the piece with the eyes printed on it, baby."
Drawing from memory, now.
Come on and touch
this broken husk
before it crumbles
away to dust, and
something different
is left sitting
at the foot of your bed.
Inevitability.
Might be
that there is no Heaven,
but
there are certainly heavens.
Apr 29, 2018
Apr 29, 2018 at 4:58 PM UTC
Eyes of anthracite, ignite-
Fuel for my waning spirit
Food for my hungry soul.
Her rays mirrored sunlight,
And I, a humble acolyte:
Happily dirtying myself to worship coal.
The decades of pressure
Stifling in leisure, tiny slivers of pleasure.
Harsh force of demand.
Idle gem, form of a diamond:
Unaware of her own worth.
How often, is ignorance our ruin
And ourselves, our own undoing.
To eat our own words:
How it hurts
Oct 22, 2023
Oct 22, 2023 at 4:36 PM UTC
By: Cedric McClester
Lindsey Graham should be ashamed
For saying Trump’s unfairly blamed
In this inquiry, as he’s claimed
Though to him it’s all the same
Lindsey’s Trump’s favorite acolyte
Pretending everything’s alright
But what’s done in the dark of night
Will come out in the daylight
Linsey Graham’s now full of stuffing
See these days he doesn’t stand for nothing
When he criticized Trump, was he bluffing?
Like your average ragamuffin
Lindsey Graham once had some pride
Now he doesn’t, but you decide
Should he be reelected or denied
When good judgement is applied
Graham’s not who he used to be
And that’s plain enough to see
So if he’d get up off his knee
Maybe then he would be free
But Lindsey does like his golf
Ask Guiliani, as in Rudolph
Who has bitten more than he can chew off
So now we view him as screw-off
Lindsey Graham has gone crackers
Just the same as most Trump backers
And I guess that directly factors
In the thoughts of his detractors
He’s clearly not the senator
That he used to be before
An idiosyncrasy we can’t ignore
Let me stop now, although there's more
Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2019. All rights reserved.
Oct 23, 2019
Oct 23, 2019 at 4:45 PM UTC
Long ginger muzzle
eyes burning
through the copse, fixed upon
the snuffling vole eating
grubs in the moonlight,fangs
like stunted darning needles
revealed in its widening jaw.
hunching in the grass
it crawled cautiously forward
and pounced
like a god on an acolyte
quenching blood-lust-
the fox ate again that night.
Aug 19, 2016
Aug 19, 2016 at 5:53 PM UTC
Do not look sadly
at days gone by
days below days
like a river
running under stars
do not listen to priests, the blues
or that bitter veteran fool
of some past war claiming to miss
a piece of his soul, his only disease
is the rotting of an *******
the poet that forgets
in remembrance of you
is a lunatic's left hand man
a gun in the hands of a fool
on Sundays he is the acolyte
of the moon, night following
other nights, the eyes of the blind
the stranger who lusts after wives
his tool the bitter root of a persimmon tree
and every time he draws his pen
like a knife and drawls his soliloquy
I say forget him, let us drink again
for poets do not cut their fingers
at cheap joints like ******
toasting one another's death
they do not eat the cheese or hoard
the rich black bread of their poetry;
the true poet gives it kindly to the poor.
Jun 1, 2017
Jun 1, 2017 at 11:55 PM UTC
Be not my altarpiece.
You are no ritual implement
with which I commit
religion.
You are given
(of and by yourself)
to
(no cherub or elf but)
a being
(human)
this feeling
(this numen)
Free as any altarpiece
found alone on seascape vistas
far away from
the clamor of symbols
Be not my leader nor acolyte,
we've too many paces to walk tonight,
for you not to be by my side.
I'll settle for no projection.
No, I'll settle not at all;
for the fall is slow,
and I'm caught like
so many motes,
so much dust
suspended in your transparency
Dancing.
Be not my altarpiece.
You breathe in your sleep
too sweetly
to be anything other than
this moment
(as it repeats me)
Feb 20, 2014
Feb 20, 2014 at 2:21 PM UTC
A stone lies shadowed at morning,
Its figures carved long like the shore.
An acolyte lies on it, yearning,
For flames that stoke now no more.
This birthright, he sold for quiet,
A peace but traded for pride,
His scorns, his scar - once scarlet,
Now fades: and so his stride!
To which the eastward sun, foreseen,
Blinks by the shade, above,
Tracing the vestige of figures beneath,
And their voices that beckoned thereof:
“To the Sun belongs the truest light,
“And with it, heard let, and be,
“The fire of men was not for fight,
“But the fight sealed tight in he.”
Sep 5, 2015
Sep 5, 2015 at 1:27 AM UTC
His favorite protégée
Mentors her day by day
You are his curious delight
You're always affable
And so unflappable
Yes you're his favorite acolyte
Though your aura's sacred chic
Radiating cool mystique
Your life story does bespeak
Constant fight
His patronage for your art
Remains for you're his dear heart
Shine favorite protégée shine
Rejoice that your lives intertwine
Nov 22, 2019
Nov 22, 2019 at 4:12 PM UTC
Flowing like a river does,
Straight into the ocean,
I embrace my inner self
With a calm devotion.
Winding roads and rolling fields,
Them I see aplenty.
Lethe is my acolyte,
Them I have a twenty.
I’m the current and the brine,
Nourishing and ageless.
Slipping through your hands like time,
Cleansing bitter rages.
Sifting through the memories,
Finding those of merit…
Love me like a river does -
Light is there to share it.
Feb 10, 2018
Feb 10, 2018 at 9:38 PM UTC
The morning dew adorns her body
as her charm begin to unfold
a vibrant bloom of intoxicating proportions
makes an impression dare and bold.
dressed in a shade of the majestic ocean
her grace softens the hardest of heart
but her thorns absorb all the pain
when her world's ripped apart.
she captures an artist's mind
when the canvas comes alive with her glory
she 's a faithful acolyte of Nature
In the morning breeze,she writes her story.
Mar 14, 2013
Mar 14, 2013 at 9:06 AM UTC
Acolyte of ancient kings,
Student of the primal scribe,
Sacred bird that ever sings,
Words no man can now describe.
Offspring of this fledgling realm,
Sailor of the modern way,
Faceless masters at the helm,
Shaping out this brand new day.
Seeker of the inner truth,
Writer of the dark within,
Chronicles back to my youth,
Memoirs for my future kin.
Sep 8, 2011
Sep 8, 2011 at 2:00 PM UTC
*let me tell you now just how i saw you:
you wooed the world with your sublime figure
accentuated by that supreme walk of art in life
that became you so well in love without strife
i saw and felt the beauty reposed in you
but how futile and hapless now
this belated lyric to you
you must have come from a constellation of stars
your name should have been stella or estelle
queen of the skies who made earth her chosen abode
and walked upon it like a storybook queen
you spoke like a fabulous heartthrob
and had us transfixed like pilgrims in worship
your enigmatic gaze was magnetic
wafting but unseen incense oozed from your nostrils
as milk and honey danced upon your lips
later to nourish my thoughts and limbs
in the solitude of early evening as venus began to rise
in truth you were a goddess on sabbatical
and your fabled home is in the cosmic mists of time
where i hunger to be a devoted acolyte in your service
forever chanting the treasured words: it is well*
Jan 5, 2016
Jan 5, 2016 at 3:11 PM UTC
The furrows are drying
in a woodlouse summer.
Each quiet year proves
they were inexpertly dug.
Empty eye sockets
the flowerbeds shrivel
and each tulip bulb is just
a useless ********
Earthworks crumble into riverbanks,
the defective rock
dances bed-ward.
The clay browns the water.
In the dusty corridors of sunlight
we are the balled up
little hedgehog
late for the earthworm
and the screen-saver, bouncing
but never touching the corner.
I’ve sat dumb and still as
words dwindle on a screen.
Somewhere else hands delve
into crowns of sticky, soaked poppy.
Wet and soft they stink
of sugar.
Liberated calves with
liberated hoofs gambol in mud
and rough tongues
curl on apple picking fingers.
Slugs glisten
With fairy-tale arrogance.
Happy and fat in a giant’s
vegetable patch.
Somewhere else the smell of low-tide
isn’t a crusting of salt,
seagulls, ******* and
a reminder of torpid shallows
but profound ovulation.
Nesting puffins, shearwaters,
an ocean view cottage.
Shepard’s peachy sky.
Summer is willing. Keep calm.
Count her freckles.
I’ve walked through the forest
seen hearts in trees.
Bark grows, gold stars roll
and the guileless acolyte,
not hungry but dry
bends over a keyboard
and counts an orchard’s
wealth in slushy apples.
Mud and sand on the carpet.
Eyes sticky and red. Not black.
Aug 2, 2017
Aug 2, 2017 at 12:30 PM UTC
*1
Creation
Musical is life
Strange order out of chaos
Magic symphonies
2
Red Headed Sky
Dim stars of heaven
Such perfect imperfections
Freckles on her face
3
Existence
Fantasia of days
All night long what dreams have come
Misty morning sun
4
Passing
Blindly saw it come
With one touch she loved me whole
Lost the world entire
5
Empyreal
Winter never was
Late morn her hair in my eyes
Breeze through summer grass
6
Grey Love
Dried flowers in vase
Lovely garland she once gave
No colours left now
7
Sunny Acolyte
In corners of room
Her heart shined so innocent
Small plastic Buddhas*
Dec 9, 2015
Dec 9, 2015 at 6:22 PM UTC
"Love is the worst religion,"
croons the dying television,
with no further explanation;
well, thanks for the news -
I see myself in emptied glass,
a bust carved rude and inchoate,
poet, captain, lost apostle
of the worst religion,
baptized in changeling pools
of day and week, scribbling
my night's peak breath
on the flypapers of insomnia.
Sun over sainted skin,
stars where evening eyes were,
swain's vespers, all of it
splitting like new ripe fruit
in sticky hands of the acolyte,
ardent hands of little silver.
Apr 9, 2025
Apr 9, 2025 at 1:54 PM UTC