sw00744ut-33.3poems

The Undulant Trees
                              (Do not know when I first wrote the second two poems.)


Suddenly


we turned
the corner
and then
there was.


§



 A Spinner of Emptiness


Manifestations of Dionysus
sputtering from the deep fire:
blue jays, sparrows, cardinals, gulls

draw and draw him
to his bedroom window;
& even, maybe, to a tittering smile.

Still, as the sun tucks itself in,
his thinking ego, tossing his body
back & back, stands awake

and into the darkness spins a web
with which to snatch Eternity
only to--as the sun shakes--undo it again.

And yet, and yet, he cannot stop--
who dreams he is of Apollo--
trying to figure his being out--

or is of Dionysus,
or also, or neither.  Sunk in his rocker,
he'd clap from his head/ the incessant birds.


§



 Arthur Joe


All his life
the 12-foot wall
trapped his desires;
attracted him;
beat him down
whose salient gift
was a small stature;
yet, once again
(having thought, trained)
he presses through
the undergrowth
to try to leap
to grip its top
in the sharp sun,
only to have
reaffirmed--
on his scraped knees
& scraped arms--
the concrete's sealed
dominance,
and the two stones
sullen beneath
a film of water
where he sits/
dreaming of salmon.

=

Aurthur Joe     (most recent version)


All his life
the 12-foot wall
trapped his desires,
attracted him;
beat him down
whose salient gift
was a small stature;
yet, once again
(having thought, trained)
he presses through
the undergrowth
to try to leap
to grip its top
in the sharp sun,
only to have
reaffirmed--
on his scraped knees
& scraped arms--
the concrete's sealed
dominance
and the two stones
sullen behind
a film of water
where he sits,
teetering, tottering,
shadow against shadow,
dreaming of salmon.


                     (2006-10-08)




-
Brian A. J. Salchert