Author Archives: Damian Garside

BUT NO

BUT NO THANKS

thanks
but no

thanks

put way the glue,
the tape, the tacks
there is
no
quick fix here

might as well
look at the likeness
we how slap-
dash the thing
got crafted

damaged
beyond repair

and you in what
might pass for
artistic agony

crying out
in self-destructive rage

your wounds
my wounds

there’s all you know
about representation

all you feel
about transferability

WHERE THERE WAS

WHERE THERE WAS

where there
was hair

now only
a scrap of gray

scraping
of steel wool

she called me Adonis once
looking down from Olympus

in need of
worship, a fix, mortal love

sad play
on the mythology
the love for
one such
by Aphrodite

how close we came
to happiest transgression not
perfect
     re-enactment
is thing could only
trust to
the years
    to make clear

yesterday
     we laughed about it
feeling about as far from
goddess plus Adonis
as we
     might possibly be

wizened by time
every word weighted
a deeply
    considered miracle

what passing now between us
compacted by interpretation
upon interpretation

everything
     every trivia aspiring
at that moment
to satisfy
     epic proportions

and here we are
for what it is worth
for what
we are worth

brought to this moment
of measure, of
         considered forgiveness

acceptance of
all things

though I could have then
so should have then

asked for more
           could not
ask
for more

RIB

RIB

I came across Adam
in his fallen state
crying out
to God

demanding
that He return
that rib
He took

and that rib,
speaking of her,
we should now notice
how bereft of
hope she looks

fearing for that long
long line of forever daughters

doomed to hear
again and again
the self-pitying
accusatory dirge of
rib
  deprivation

aimed at Heaven
by all in that neverending
line of Adam’s sons

THEY

THEY

they were pretty sure
you were fixed
for all eternity

but I felt
in my bones
you would go
wandering again

your unsettled soul
foreved ramblimg
needing to
fiind the anchor
you could never
be
  nor provide

the logic here
pretty crippling
      and so I pray
our lives
  never
again cross

unlike this time
no more
    such a time