Poem for Sol

Green soylent's charnal aftertaste
chokes down the the sob that sears his throat
No tears
No tears...
An old man's heart
might burst
like paper,
scattering grief

Clutch back the flood,
that terrible draught.
Remember and rage

Remember now, and rage

One instant, like a jewel,
translucent.
Aspen leaves tremble in crystal air
Suspended between
the icy water
and blue slate mountains
summer licked bare
Down where the parchment trunks are scarred
with the rude slash of love's engraving...
Land he must love over any woman,
sour and aching
as love gone wrong

Swallow it down
That rotten truth
Manna from heaven
Wafer fish food
Bread on the waters
The hungry mouths rise
Gulping in frenzy,
swallow it down

(No, it is not
truth he can live with...
No.
And it will not
let him be.)

He unhooks the glasses from his ears,
pinching the pain at the bridge of his nose
Presses his eyes
No tears
No tears
But behind his eyelids the meadow blows
Columbines drink the melting snows
And there can be nowhere else to go.

Out in the city a siren cries

On this poisoned earth where death is dear
there can be nowhere else to go.

The light that fades as his rage subsides
etches the darkness.
The hemlock's taste
embitters scenes long since laid waste

And optic proof of paradise
transforms the chamber where he lies
Ready to die
to know
once more
the face of his lost, beloved,
Earth.

09/17/2007

Posted on 09/17/2007
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