Tag Archives: poem

ROLL

ROLL

rolled my eyes
during your poetry reading

tried my best
but could not help myself

kept thinking of
a ballroom waltz but
the dancers on
rollerskates

with the skates themselves rusted
and long strangers
to oil

as a whole, not the rock
and roll linguistic gig
I had been
    anticipating

as a whole, the sum of each line
as a part
        considerably less
than a hole

PLEASE YOURSELF

PLEASE YOURSELF

please yourself
it’s not your war

and why should
old injustices
present slaughter
trouble
you

you have
your own life to decode
everyday concerns
to fret over

so much
fretting there

who cannot forgive
your total dedication
to present
woe and
need

pleasing yourself
finding
what you pray will
prove
(and provide)
supreme relief (in

an extremity
beyond
belief)

TONGUE TALK

TONGUE TALK

I flick out my tongue
to test the air for you

drink
your scent

rattle
appreciation

no
threat display

though lately
I have been told
I am
   indeed venomous
potent neurotoxic

am thinking that
the glory of my dance
and the
beauty
    of my coils
sly sophistication
of my
       pattern

will
   win you round

WATER MOCCASIN

WATER MOCCASIN

I waa thinking
of a dream poem
about a new
dream body

when all of a sudden
a mud-coloured water moccasin
broke through the surface
of my flow
    alerting me to
the inescapable nature of entropy
and the primeval structure
of my being

and here the skunk odours
of this approaching viper
alerted me
at once to the dingy, tawdry, drab
undercurrents
of all life

and so
    I sensed it best to put
all dream-minded thoughts
on hold, let
     them back burn for
the night

water mocassin gliding
effortlessly by
  not as ornery a reptile
as is
    the reputation.