brianbrock.com




poetry is not for practice
it's much too dire for life
its suture is its structure
knowledge is its knife

no god may prod the poet's print
the truth shall reason wreak
the mouth of fury brays the brink
where meaning bearing breaks

and when the demon drops the pen
for pittance of its wrack
the pit of fury seethes again -
stare! stare into the empty crack

stare into the empty crack of hell
it's laughing in your face
your face is laughing in the well
you're standing in my place

and words can heal as well you know
like the pealing of a bell you know

--

The bird who cries cannot survive -
coyotes find her first -
yet lives like hers again arise,
as kin escape the curse.

They count their clever patterned feathers -
preen the points of sanity -
they burn to breed her tattered tethered
heightened sensitivity.

As each one dies, they mock her cries,
and praise their fabled prophets.
The dead shall rise, Cassandra lies,
so catch her in a coffin.

Ah! here's one now - let's cage her song!
We'll save her from this place.
But oh! my friend, is something wrong?
She's shrieking in your face!

--

The body's a vestigial trait,
a "little tail" beating time;

the self a silly hollow bore,
a spirit-voiced inverted mime.

The heart is mostly metaphor,
contracting slowly into things -

the will is coming (running late!)
to claim the song another sings...

but I, oh, I exist, I do -
they promise me I'm true.