shadow of a bone

by pagan poetry

Posted to Poetry on 2002-11-12 18:56:00

The monsoon uncovers troubled
seasons we tried to forget
dead men slip through bad weather,

stamping their muddy boots to wake us up,
there’s a bend in everything

red leaves whirl by, the monsoon
unburying the dead.

Counting these shapes in a dance
human form aren’t made for. Faces
waterlogged into their own

Pure expression, unanswerable
questions on their lips.

Brighter than crisp new money.
birds unfold wings into nervous fans,
near a spidery cage of grass

This cripple inches sideways up a sandy trail
light as a shadow of a bone.

Pine-box builders grin with
the pale soothsayer presiding over
the end of songs.

I search dead-colored shells for clues,
vision, for a thread of meat,
A scarecrow dances away with my shadow.

Between loves I could stand all day
at a window watching honeysuckle open
as I make love to the ghost
smuggled inside my head.

While Cobras drag the perimeter,
gliding along the sea,
swinging searchlights
we duck when we hear the quick

Metallic hiss of the mountain of amplifiers struck by
a flash of rain….
A cross roads of lost birds singing their heads off.

Cock & heart entangled, ragweed in bloom.
Birth and death
Back to back

Silent mouth against the others ear.