"gantry" poems
There, in the corner, staring at his drink.
The cap juts like a gantry's crossbeam,
Cowling plated forehead and sledgehead jaw.
Speech is clamped in the lips' vice.
That fist would drop a hammer on a Catholic-
Oh yes, that kind of thing could start again;
The only Roman collar he tolerates
Smiles all round his sleek pint of porter.
Mosaic imperatives bang home like rivets;
God is a foreman with certain definite views
Who orders life in shifts of work and leisure.
A factory horn will blare the Resurrection.
He sits, strong and blunt as a Celtic cross,
Clearly used to silence and an armchair:
Tonight the wife and children will be quiet
At slammed door and smoker's cough in the hall.
4.8k
my aunt,
my beautiful aunt,
my hippie aunt.
the one who gave me a jar of sand and shells and whispered, "don't ever open it, or else the whole sea will spill out".
my aunt who smokes joints and offers it to the birds.
the one who sings on mountain tops, and tells me about her trips.
"i could hear my skin cells whisping past one another",
'parmel gantry they said, parmel gantry i echoed'.
the one who told me her whole existence is based on the fact that a furniture truck delivered a sofa to the wrong house.
my aunt who said when her daughter was young,
14 maybe, she would sneak off and see maryjane.
she said she was on her way to Woodstock,
but her brother, her brother was a cop in new york,
and he 'kidnapped' her,
told her "no, the closest you'll get to those ***** hippies is through this television in the attic."
"but he made me dinner every night, it was wonderful" she said,
"i hadn't seen him in years, we really bonded."
"i had a scholarship to upenn, he didn't want me to lose it"
but she dropped out one week in and moved to oregon.
she married on a commune, and her housemates threw rose petals on the only bed there.
and when that was over, she married another by the same name.
and i've never seen someone laugh so much.
i've never seen someone so happy, so genuinely happy.
Sep 20, 2012
Sep 20, 2012 at 4:57 AM UTC
gallows on the rooftop
where window washers go
to suspend
metal gibbet
quick hinge, raise and lock
secure against the weather
whipped
combed and packed snow
ice crusted dunes
strain the winds over the buildings roofing
an extreme combing exposure
doubtlessly
they'll be no labor done today
On the seventh floor
i watch from behind
an environment sealed window
wolfing my lunch on a short break
in the warm fire escape
i watch
a solitary worker is ejected from a hatch in the exterior wall
cuffed by a spasm of wind
he descends a short bolted ladder
and makes a geared approach
crouching
his weight against the wind
he drags a heavy kit
mummified in protective clothing
passing my spot and he then heads outward
towards the bounds of the rooftop
he mends a stable stance
one foot close to the edge
the rest of him
in a low defensive pose
clips his harness to the gallows
stands to take a confident beating
of the breath stealing
brawling winter gale
he radios for the gantry to be raised
Mar 10, 2022
Mar 10, 2022 at 2:07 PM UTC
My shoes **** as I trudge down a seamlessly cemented road. The floor, only slightly lighter than the colour Black. Launching into the wide road where the sky more daringly shows itself, the sun, too, exhibits its colour hue. I can see the reflection of orange in you. The sound of cars are not evident but they exist. The traffic light goes green and the rhythm of its beeping escalates in what seems like less than its promised seconds. 5 steps into the humble gantry I have reached Yomiuriland Station. I buy my morning beverage for 100¥. I think of nothing in that repeated moment while fixing my eyes on the orange-reflected clock.
Mar 29, 2021
Mar 29, 2021 at 5:39 AM UTC
chant chant chant,
at the speed of light.
un-understandable, dance on the table.
whisper across the room (as loud as you can)
fill my glass, fill his too.
smoke so thick, i haven't see you since we first walked in.
i haven't wanted to.
(it was the opposite of that time in your best friend's bed, when we were the only 2 people that existed, when every part of my body needed every ounce of yours. same for you. all of the windows up, we were sticking to eachother, regardless. inevitably, our skin cells were whispering to one another, 'parmel gantry, parmel gantry'
that **** wind, as you cruised through it,
knowing our destination, but not sure where we'd end up)
eating me alive, i know im on my way to my emotional demise.
your kind gesture of offering me a bed this night, is anything but kind.
single-handed exhaustion.
you get off on the face i make as my heart is breaking.
because you've seen it so often, so recently, and i notice you smiling as you head in your direction, me in mine.
i like the time before this when we loved each other, never in love.
when you weren't mean.
Sep 24, 2012
Sep 24, 2012 at 3:06 PM UTC
(The abducing of the soul) By meself.. The abradant Heartache soo strongly felt, The pillars do melt , for they feel the abstinence thats needed. Choked, and bleeded out, Searched, lost found.Only for many to doubt..Yet its right in front of us friends, The metal ink pen spells out all on graffitied walls..Emptied stalls, where strangers do strange things..The bite of the sting makes many feel safe..Such Bemauling of faces, all races displaced. They follow what man has to offer, A downfall of bellmetal cans, They wear them, they compare them, as what they wish for comes to its end.. Books and books stacked upon mammals knowledge only to lose themselves..Can they not see, the belonging and needs that they desire are all right beside..No need for reasoning, No need to hide, for they must discover at their own will..Yet time runs short, the bountiful courts close as Mid til noon.. Blackhearted faters are doomed, For they sought the wrong theories, No coadjusting spiritually, For what they lost was foresight..The souls in all freight as dram~shops stay loose, The dragon seeks who he may desire, Hes suited in fashionable Boots.. No gantry to protect the most wonderful hearts, For they keep on looking for what the world destroys..Young girls and boy's why do you seek in emptied chests? Give god your all, Hear his call, For what you will find will not be Pleasureable..But will bring you back to the beginning, where the treasure was all along...Seek and you will not find..But SEE and your eyes will Not be blind.....
May 9, 2015
May 9, 2015 at 12:15 PM UTC