the laughter just eases out
we live in a capsule
time slows down
I breathe you in and out
People could be conquered,
galaxies lost,
cities ploughed,
we’ll still be here smiling that damned smile
like we’ve got a secret
and have had one for awhile
hurt piece done
the bad blood boiled, gone
together we fit
puzzle pieces
or dark chocolate in reeses
With my head on his spotted back and his head on the grass—a little bored with the quiet motion of life and a cluster of mosquitoes making hot black dunes in the air—we slept with the smell of his fur engulfing us. It was as if my dominant functions were gazing and dreaming in a field of semiwild deer. It was as if I could dream what I wanted, and what I wanted was to long for nothing— no facts, no reasons—never to say again, “I want to be like him,” and to lie instead in the hollow deep grass—without esteem or riches— gazing into the big, lacquer black eyes of a deer.
— by Henri Cole [Nara Deer Park]
burnt skulls. a vicious fight. dull swords. brave knights. pulled teeth. scorched screams. dull eyes. no relief. cries, of people long forgotten. bones broken
down
and locked in
to the soil. their souls rotten.
When I was three
the sun never shone on me
I only knew darkened nights
the sun’s gold wasted
Maybe it isn’t happy, just like me
Maybe I’m my own sun born of man and woman
I will shine and rise
glare heavily
so that they may see
they have not taken my joy.
If you thought that was hard
you’re in for a treat
‘here endeth the lesson’
Fools in love, drunks, and babies
have entirely too much in common
We’re all soft in the head
selfish
are God’s favored
and have a death wish
Biernet.nl/images
iol.co.za
Death and calamity exist
to breach the unreachable walls built up around us.
like the crumbling of Lady Liberty’s twins
our arrogant towers would fall
leaving a hole devoid of petty prejudice
delivering us back to our original state
reminding us that we are only
human.
After our fierce loving
in the brief time we found to be together,
you lay in the half light
exhausted, rich,
with your face turned sideways on the pillow
and I traced the exquisite
line of your profile, dark against the white,
delicate and lovely as a child’s.
Perhaps
you will cease to love me.
or we may be consumed in the holocaust,
but I keep, against the ice and the fire,
the memory of your profile on the pillow.
–Dudley Randall
Fondle me
caress
and cradle
me
with your lips
withdraw
the nectar from
me
teach me there
is
someone
–Mari Evans
(after reading a New York Times article about
a mummy kept preserved for about 300 years)
I’m gonna get me some mummy tape for your love
preserve it for 3000 years or more
I’m gonna let the world see you
tapping a blue shell dance of love
I’m gonna ride your love bareback
on totem poles
bear your image on mountains
turning in ocean sleep
string your sighs thru the rainbow
of old age.
In the midst of desert people and times
I’m gonna fly your red/eagle/laughter ‘cross the sky.
–Sonia Sanchez
The Poetry Corner 