Dystopian Eden

Frayed 

 

Skins of serpents rotting 

Apple peels scattered 

 

Over once virgin grounds— 

Fishy smelling whatnot 

 

Holier-than-thou spiels 

Making the usual 

 

Suspect rounds. 

 

 

 

Aborted Bang-up Writing Prompt

Jump start 

 

Writing about 

Some vivid childhood 

 

Memory 

 

Involving anything 

That first pops up, 

 

Don’t break too many 

Lines and do not 

 

Punctuate for at least five and see 

What happens; if nothing 

 

Memorable appears, repeat 

One phrase at least 

 

Three times; keep writing 

To wherever 

 

Your often failing memory takes you. 

You may have to repeat 

 

This time-tested procedure 

Countless times before going on 

 

To bigger and better things, say 

Learning how not to 

 

Fade away with a whimper 

But with a bang-bang you're dead only

 

When things can't get any worse.

 

 

 

 

Well-Meaning Congeries Of Poets Bringing Further Order To The Universal Order Of Things

--on some lines by Rebecca Solnit* 

 

Billions upon billions 

Of stars given 

 

In the universe but how 

Is it we make our own 

 

Constellations? 

 

 

*"The stars we are given. 

The constellations we make."

 

Resolute Irresolution Of The Wishy-Washy

True as can be 

To ourselves, what it is 

 

That must be unequivocally 

Stated ad infinitum 

 

Is that we are always 

Lying in wait, ever ready 

 

To lie to ourselves 

Again and again, 

 

Till it all comes out white- 

Washed to no end. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emily's Drone Anywhere And Everywhere

When I first saw that small 

Swallow on 

The telephone wires jabbing 

With its beak into what I first took 

For thin air, I just had 

To zero in for a closer look, 

 

And sure enough there it was, 

That maddening almost imperceptible 

Fly trying to find a chink 

In the bird’s armor and then— 

 

Can you believe it? 

Both flew to where 

I could not see to see.