Samaritan
(1890 AD)
I lived with him
he treated me well
to him
I was the other
yet he fed me
when I hungered
gave water
when I ran dry
I fell ill
he cared for me
nursed me back
to health
he taught me
his language
culture history
traditional skills
he loved me
never forced me
to forget myself
and be like him
he made me
what I am today
a discerner
between
light and dark
still the other
Palsy
(1817 AD)
starts with a twist
a palsied twitch a nod
more movement
slow loss of grip
bottle-tops won’t open
things fall to the floor
twist and twitch
turn into shakes
bad vibes not good
words tripping
on not off tongue
stumbling over teeth
vitality extinguished
a dullness in the eyes
a cork-screw turning in
bland the writing
both erased
chalkboard and page
dry honey tunnels
yellow calcined skull
empty hexagonal cells
this lone bee searching
for a special something
it can no longer find
Paradise Lost
(1667 AD)
nobody answers
bewitched by your knock
ultimate betrayal
front door locked
cold finger elegies
devils ascending
rhythmic drumming
rain descending
knock again louder
nobody’s replies
ahoy there the house
nobody’s inside
memories flutter
life’s dead butterflies
doorstep-marooned
look around take stock
ghosts watch from windows
sockets open in shock
that key in your pocket
might open the lock
a mystical place
between heaven and earth
land of my fathers
house of my birth
Tara Pine
(1770 / 1977 AD)
maritime jack pine
arm-waving
declamation
sonnet to wild growth
a wilderness now
lop-sided
forest church
spired with birds
crows’s nest
crowning savage
extravagance
radical disorder
flustered
clicking needles
clustered
knitting the wind
salted the air
old man’s beard
sprouting fresh bristles
old salt sea salt
“ill fares the land
to hastening ills a prey”
without a helping hand
to point the way
each broken limb
an olive branch extended
scorched earth policy
salt-sown earth
Tangled Garden
(1916 AD)
indoor daffodils
drink water
dosed with chemicals
survive in a vase
refuse to crumple
won’t furl their flags
outside
sunshine and shade
Cape Daisies Peonies
Sunflowers
Black-eyed Susan
threading her colored ribbons
through butterflies
and Bees Balm
towering the Hollyhock
seeded by a surprise wind
coming in from nowhere
weeds crowd together
vox populi
these dandelions
beloved of the gods
ubiquitous
totally indestructible
Copperopolis
(1717 / 1804)
mountains of the moon
lunar landscapes
lunatic fringes
mercury madness
running through brains
scabs picked
wounds running raw
skin blotched red
eyes blurred
twitching
wait a hundred years
grass might grow back
earth might give flowers
bay waters might flow free
my grandfather coughs
his lungs up
bit by bit
he’ll never again know
the scent of flowers
taste oysters from the bay
smell sea-fresh air
Eight Deer
(1113 AD)
eight deer visit
my garden each night
they raid my feeders
capture my birdseed
lusting for gold
anything to keep out
this winter cold
raccoons
leave claw-marks
grubbing for grubs
dug up like donuts
circled on my lawn
who captures whom
when the full moon
descends from the sky
walks among men
making them mad
death by snow plow
snow-melt and crows
Eight Deer emerges
his sacrificed body
preserved on this page
and in salt snow
Autograph
(1603 AD)
it spews out words
bones to hungry
academic dogs
gnawed the word-knot
grammar’s gristle
doubly chewed
then eschewed
wet concrete sets
where the statute’s
clay feet whisper
damp follies
to waiting bergères
prance advance
macabre the dance
ink its acid burning
fragile the page
held to the light
pin-holes where stars
peep through thin paper
more fragile than
parchment
parched for knowledge
crisp pages crumble
under the fumble
thumbed
by dumb hands
lusting eagerly
for wisdom drawn
from bone-dry dust
Geld-[de(a)d]
who burnt the cakes
played on his harp
plotted their downfall
under white cliffs
far from the beaches
terra firma forbidden them
no more a foothold
rocks in striped sails
dragon ships sinking
feeble the swimmers
down through dark water
helped by hard iron
chain mail and axes
seeking the bottom
acting as anchors
gone now those actors
lost now their legacies
Scrapes
so old you can’t feel old
blood tingles eyes stare
below you the grassy plain
where sea waters will
one day surge and run
distant that future
here and now flint
flaky sharp-edged
digs into flesh and ribs
arrowheads designed
to disable and kill
spear tips elemental
killers like these clouds
this wind eternal this rain
rogermoorepoet 