The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 4/2/08

[BlueIris]

"April Poem"

With sixty improbable degrees, new rain,
the ground soaked and wondering, shoots
of good thoughts nuzzle their way to air and light.

The bedroom window at last opens its dusty ears
to the skirmishing of calls: geese already peeled
from their echelons, redwings, ducks, cranes, crows.

See in your daughter's hand the crocus petals
she would never pick given by her daughter
who reached with pink and maroon in her laughter.

Unbidden the chill flashes like floods.
You think of March when children kill children.
Pickups and mobile homes frolic in mid-air.

You can't stay rooted there. Rising like blood
sap again thrills hickory and oak, standing
calm, reluctant to show it.

Feel the power that of old was called down
from the woman in the always-other sky.
Restore the balance. Write the green fiction of May.

—R. Virgil Ellis

[BlueIris]

1. Kick.

[BlueIris]

2. Kick.

[shadowknows69]

3. Wolf

Crouched on my haunches
Wolf am I

Always inside,
Feasting on my mind
Teeth gnashing, snarling, ripping.
Head thrashing
Back and forth
Bloody spray and salty taste

Kept on a leash
At arms length,
Sometimes shorter
Biting the hand until it feeds it.

Pale moon moves me
the hunt, the scent, they call.
I stalk alone,
In forests of thought
Foul deeds dreamed,
Must sleep until the beast is weak.

Fat and full now
On blood unspilt
Until another moon
And it's darkest calls
Disturb the wolf
That lives within us all

Crouched on my haunches
Wolf am I

[shadowknows69]

4. Fractured

Feeling fractured,
Life in tatters,
Like nothing else matters.

World getting me down,
Giving me the runaround
Driving my hopes into the ground

Stop. What's that sound?

Progress marching to the rich man's beat
While I'm shuffling my feet
Trying to get by; a roof, some meat.

Broken roads and empty streets

My path has been shattered
Crazy as the mad hatter
Sitting here getting fatter.

Nowhere to go but death's door
The beast says, "come on bring me some more"
You never were rich, but you'll surely die poor.

Body aching and mind about to snap
Time that's gone can't be taken back
How did a smart guy like me fall into this trap?

Like iron teeth around my legs.

Breaking my bones
Not feeding my jones
Trying to fracture my home.