Daily Archives: March 21, 2015

Rime of The Ancient

Originally posted 3/7/2013.

My arm, darker
than candle tip,
cooling like
dead wick.

My arm,
stark twig,
holds nothing,
is just pointing.

My arm tells the story:
over there’s where
I was going, where I still
need to go,

but I’ve been standing here 
for a very long time now
and I do not think I am meant to be
triumphant in my return.

I think I am instead meant to be
the One Who Does Not Arrive,
the One who tells his story
to the traveler who has made it 
this far.  The old one 

without so much
as a symbol
to fall back on,
stock still in desolation

until his arm drops,
at last, in surrender.


Microaggressions

Street scene:

my eyes unmet,
their hands drifting

onto wallets, their bags 
pulled in tight to
their guarded bodies.

Office observed:

stumble, whisper,
awkward pause,
sudden stop,
change in subject,
question without thought,
thought without question.

Media, in media res:

what does a story say
about what a blog says
about what a blog says
about what was said
about what was said
about what was said
about how they died?

Surrounded,
sundered,
smothered, 
simmering, 
smoldering — 

Now this? No.
Not here, I beg,
not with you too —
not you too;
do you understand

that I am far beyond ready
to burn my home? That
if I have to ignite
the here and now
to reach the future,

I will?