No Bargain

 

“Mephistopheles”
By Eugene Delacroix

 

 

promises were made
inducements assured
or he wouldn’t have died
let his sacrificed soul
slip so easily into that
charred scaly pouch

so much for the contract
of blood by Theophilus
what the hell has this
damned old world come to
when you can’t even trust
in a deal with the devil

*********************

“I am in no mood to be deceived any longer by the crafty devil and false character whose greatest pleasure is to take advantage of everyone.” – Camille Claudel

 

 

From my book Onionskin

Chandlery

 

“Candle Flames in a Temple” by Konstantin Sterkhov 

tallow taper
dip-moulded
emits smoky
animal scent
waxen wick
coaxes flame
to consume
the very air
ancient light
for we poets
of midnight
liquid verse
drips from
now bloodless
nibs of moult
quills as the
wax tells its
story in drops
of its own

 

 

 

From my books Onionskin and Legacies (vol. 2)

Breathing Winter

 

“Pine Trees and Snow” by Joy Nichols

 

 

crisp apple-sweet air
exhaled by evergreen lungs
chilled by the snow

 

 

From my books Onionskin and Riverthink

Americanization

Poesy plus Polemics

“Italian Immigrant Family”
Painting by Michael Pitocchi
From fineartamerica.com

skin will remember

the neighborhood

cooled with blued steel

that burned in the palm

gunshot residue stippled

gold braceleted wrists

gangster streetcorner

ethos prevailed in the

feel of sharp favors

stiletto points pressed

to the cheek would

remind obligations

blind prices that someday

would come tap the shoulder

smooth subculture textures

of sharkskin omerta

kept quiet the village

within the metropolis

cracked ancient brickwork

whose mortar of honesty

crumbled at touch

of the innocent finger

these were the ambient walls

of an enclave impressed

and imported intact from

quaint history carried

across hopeful seas

the old ways hung humbly

in hefts of familiar dependence

the weight of illusions of safety

brought men to their knees

so much easier then for

their customs to operate

regain their influence

reinflict stinging sensations

to numb hapless immigrant

virtue on streets paved with

promise in…

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Va Bene

“Placid”
Painting by Briana Sutton
From fineartamerica.com

(It’s Good)

between poems
placid moments

a weightlessness
feathers the mind

words become
unimportant

no turn of a phrase
begs attention

no theme
demands focus

it’s good
just the breathing

Wizardry

“Deception” by Frelisa Walker

smoke and mirrors

and shadow speech

secret apparatus in

ploy of a priesthood

long beards longer

robes cloak agendas

pointed words serve

designs of distraction

from furtive deft

hands spinning issues

positions opponents

achieving odd profiles

that gull jaded eyes

and pander to fear

magic staffs poke

dull minds in their

sweet spot of envy

with empty impossible

promises villains

transform into heroes

astride their white

chargers with hats

full of stars and moons

ready to shine in the

stale dusty darkness of

little used voting booths

truth somewhere left

on the floor nothing

more than detritus

of damaged democracy

litter unswept and

unnoticed beneath

shuffling sandals

 

 

From my book Onionskin

Deathmask

Poesy plus Polemics

“Death Mask”
Digital Art by James VerDoorn
From fineartamerica.com

I am my own myth
metaphysical object
divined from dead dreams

standing kneeling and falling
by turns in the sky
a ghost-cloud formation
at one with both
eagle and rodent
the truth of a man
defies fixature
never one moment definitive
save for the last one

the deathmask
congealing the slurry
of virtues and vices
that swam without diction
the whorl of the years
not concentric
but rather eccentric
of pattern and purpose

the deathmask
will captivate features
call halt to the chaos
face into the sun
cold as arrogant stone
now immortal
immune to the
burning white blindness

the deathmask
perceived by posterity
judged and remembered
by immanent scent
of that fragment
of thought touched
to tongues of the mind
on its last escaped breath

divined from dead dreams
metaphysical object
I am my own myth

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The Trouble With Being an Earthling

 

Image from Pinterest

 

 

progress is fiction
every straight path round a sphere
makes a circle
joined at its start by its end
forward equal to backward

 

 

From my book Onionskin

View From Under the Sea

 

“Tornado School of Fish” by Caine Delacy

 

 

ugly featureless bellies
aligned for their swim
through the food chain
the race to the swift
for the hesitant all will be lost
best to keep to the center
carried along by the throng
as every half brain is aware
there is safety in numbers
little need for decisions
or thoughts of one’s own

funny how it all
looks the same
up above

******************************

“The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.” – Jim Hightower

 

 

From my books Onionskin and Legacies (vol. 2)

 

Respite

Poesy plus Polemics

“Sunny Day”
Painting by Boicencio Tariq Natalia
From fineartamerica.com

a saturday sun

set in brilliant blue sky

suggests leisure

a time for deep breathing

a fresh air elixir

inebriant warmth

heightens senses

to crosstalk of

birdsong in so many

languages greenery

cast in so many

bright shades

piquant smells of a

garden trade off

with more earthy

aromas of freshly

turned loam a slow

wander in woods

where the scurry of

chittering critters

at play brings a

smile contented

with aimlessness

carnally vivid with joy

nothing pressing

demands or a duty

just free as the breeze

light and airy of heart

burdens lifted away

a luxurious absence

of misery’s pain

a reward for the spirit

a day to remember

to savor if only a

figment imagined

by one very wounded

and weary old mind

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