Monday, 30 December 2024

NO POEMS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS POST (MOSTLY)

 
 
AFTER THE WAR
It’s after the trial
when you’ve passed
their test,
whatever will come,
will still be our rest.
 
POTS
Another cracked bowl
finished. Perfect!
 
MACHINES
There’re machines that fly
And machines that scry.
But those that I fear
Are machines that die.
 
BOILED WINGS
Murder from the skies.
Then darkness,
as a witch’s vat
bubbles and boils away
everything.
Soon, flesh will fall from bone
and the lights go out,
leaving earth, as they must,
for the distant stars.
And in those final breaths,
voices will sound out
like the breaking of bells.
 
FATE
Fate dropped a penny,
then the other shoe.
Both fell to heaven,
To land beside you.
 
ORBIT
It had been coming for a long time.
You could see that now.
If you’d been more observant
you would have seen lines of doubt
etching themselves across her face.
You might have taken them for a sign,
or a guide to look deeper.
...
Then one day (suddenly it seemed)
you notice she frowns around you,
how she’s given to moods and fits
of impatience.
You began to quarrel over things like flags
and rain and other bits of the inconsequential.
 
That glow, once always upon her
whenever she moved about you,
grew cooler, fainter.
She became distant, aloof,
regal, you once criticized,
though she was never your queen.
 
Over time, you grew to resent her.
But you never thought
to wonder why she changed.
Or how it was done.
 
In the end, she became an irritant,
an unpleasant reminder.
So, you chose to ignore her
and grew indifferent to her presence,
sundering the final gravity between you.
And when she left
you neither mourned nor rejoiced.
You simply looked elsewhere
for your reflection.
 
PERSPECTIVE
“BE GONE!” roars Elephant.
“GET OFF!” parries Ant.
If one could just see
What the other still can’t.
 
SPARE THE ROD
Rap for the knuckle.
Pinch for the nose.
Bullet for my baby,
plucked like a rose.
 
ENGAGING THE VOID
Death is currently busy
at this time.
Please stay on the line
and a Grim Reaper
will be with you shortly.
 
AT HOME
Home.
“This is home.”
A stranger sound
than “alone.”
 
 
 
  

  

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