"verticality" poems
I sat on the dentist’s chair
With an aching tooth, feeling hell
The dentist seemed quite pleased
As he opened my mouth and surveyed
‘There are holes to be filled
And the plaque to be removed
It needs a few sittings
At the end, you’ll have a set of fine teeth’!
His gentle assurance was so comforting
And I thought my jaws no more have to suffer
The pangs and torments of an aching tooth!
He then, in a narrow syringe
Injected something into my gum
I knew a numbness creeping in
Until at last I felt a hard rock within
Now, like an expert work man
He began his rigorous craft
Loud machines began to boom
The chair got flattened
From 'verticality'
I got changed into 'horizontality'
And the overhead apparatus came down
Like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
With blaring lights blinding my vision,
I lay torpid as if my body was strapped
The doctor took out his steel and hammer
And started tapping and chipping
Drilling and boring
Though numb, I could still feel the pull and tug
The crooked forceps and pliers
Made all the nerves in my head irk
My mouth was filled with saliva
And I felt a sprout of blood inside
He stuffed some gauze and resumed his work
I wanted to yell, ask him to stop
But being gagged, I couldn’t utter a word
My pupils dilated
My lips quivered
My tongue got parched
I gasped for breath
With a mix of cement and sand (?)
He began filling and plastering
Scrubbing and polishing
Helplessly lying on the dentist’s chair,
I wondered
What whips and stings one has to endure
To end the pain and give the teeth a shine!
Jul 24, 2016
Jul 24, 2016 at 7:53 AM UTC
Classroom Discussion
Raucous noise vibrates across
The surface of my ear
Not daring to enter and disrupt
The train of thought
That processes as a machine
Turning, creating, assembling
The wheel of thought spinning round the axle
-------A **** on the rope, a pull on the subconscious
The pulley recognizes the intrusion of an applied force
The wheels halt, as if rust jeopardizes its advance.
The thoughts scatter, a snapped electrical wire snaking in shock;
a cooper waving current racing back to a reality
through black rubber nerves.
The noise registers,
confirming the split of a once continuous wire
Insignificant words- not quite processing,
failing to relay information,
refusing to form a sentence,
still trapped in a realm of limbo
wanting to return to the rhythm of a reverie.
Slipping, falling
the mind surrenders, the electricity dies.
Materializing in a classroom
The cage for intellectual minds
Discussing about.
From one world to another - act, adapt
The bright scientific lights burn
The eyes of the dreamer
Who creates from the dark,
Objects exposed, judged, determined.
No place for the dreamer, who loves
warping reality.
Within the metal box this reality is set.
Bars on the window, an indestructible verticality
Plastic seats, beige, blue, cold
Sit this way, look up, right, like that.
You are my animals now speak, raise a hand,
perform a trick, tell me what I want to hear,
Speak my language of intelligence, be my machine.
May 2, 2011
May 2, 2011 at 5:11 AM UTC
Position, at its utmost
buckles into meter,
losing originality,
condemning itself to fate.
His sister is Horizon,
annal of the past,
coming up to meet us at
the moment before dawn.
The records show that she has moved
but no one here has seen it,
no one can read semaphore
save the lovely moon.
And if we ask her for her word
she echoes back but silence,
so must we waste the evening
without accounting Highness.
Feb 15, 2019
Feb 15, 2019 at 9:27 PM UTC
NOCTURNAL
One bright sheet of moonlight
and a flutter of gold leaves,
a picture opened from darkness,
a torque tree trunk, gnarls of
its sinister face frowning --
a somber vision with brief
streaks seeking the eye of
the wanderer.
In this evening movement
of air, leaves are touched
by a starlit memory.
The woodpecker knocks,
playing his registry of notes,
monotonous yet full of mystery.
Night is a wild creature, filled
with countless visions, sky
turning with prophesy.
In the small hours the tree,
its leaves and branches
ghostlike, as vision fades
around it.
Shadows whisper words
among the nebulae :
the past is not finished
but speaks of other worlds
veiled in illusion. Verticality
calls to spirit-- Oh, to be given
the gift of flight if only in a dream !
Mar 7, 2025
Mar 7, 2025 at 3:04 AM UTC
-
Across the vast expanse
Heat patterns rise from flat rock
Simmering sensations to fool the mind
Blurring even the recognizable
Into a mirage of nothingness
“Dust coated winds that do not exist”
Blinding hypnotic colors play
Weaving patterns of self doubt
Alone in a misconception of belief
Solitude of unwanted fear
Emptiness worn on a sleeve
“Kaleidoscopic nightmares so very pretty”
Let down, shoved aside, forgotten
Discarded emotions piled in a heap
Broken sidewalks of those I thought I knew
French braided friends…or so I believed
Abandoned on my own crumbling foundation
“Why did I ever believe?”
I see a tiny speck…perhaps something in my eye
Canceling the horizon’s verticality
Moving beyond invisible footprints
Solidifying a view…a smile…waving
As if a drunken crow has tipped over
“Thoughts turn to memories of words once spoken”
Reoccurring images race forward
Sentences of comfort find their way
Down the path to my heart
Realizing I now understand
What she meant…that day…this day
“I run to meet her halfway…her arms are open”
May 10, 2016
May 10, 2016 at 5:53 PM UTC
'behold beloved...
divine verticality,
no edges in the curve.'
Aug 25, 2019
Aug 25, 2019 at 1:13 PM UTC