Thursday, March 6, 2014

Poem: IED


IED

Carry me down the bloodlines
vermilion curtains, salamander cauldron
swayback bug doesn’t know what he’s
talking but still he talks

The comma is our darkest
enemy the semicolon God
forbid the period find a
shovel fill that thing up.

(Pause here for effect.)

Silence, thou dangerest of
beastlies, glut of probable,
excess of maybe, too much
likely, seeds of you never know

Deathly afraid of given the
chance what he might
do to himself

We pull the pins we
toss the grenades the
desert swims aflame
but then we call it
off they all return and
try their best through
Jesus football and
mortgage not to explode

You are nice to look
at surlytop but mind very
much if we wrap you in a flag

Cardboard marker meridians
three weeks of sunburn dirt you
reach for change but the
light ticks green the
truck driver honks you
spray the curb silver and
enter the ramp a muckyhand
wave he shouts Godbless!

It might not be right he
might drink it up but a
Godbless feels good and you’ve got
pins of your own


Photo by MJV
From the collection Fields of Satchmo

No comments: