#GloPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo Day 15 ...................................... the dance of vices and victories

photo by EJR ©

(while she read me, 'The Hollow Men')

mind tine-d fine eye slid hid fled wearing 
skidded along(s) they were stains 
weather patterns, gains of ideas, 
sewn over desires, needs 
and other clothing 
fleshed bones demanded 

in prayer bent to a well 
suckle bell 
she said 
a smile curries 
the dark too 
even if you 
don't believe 
you 

i began to carry accordion Chinese finger puzzles, mottled life in a bottle 
entering houses, holy and not so, just so i could swim the hall entryway 
where wear of soul, was stirred currents, ghost cries on a small table 
in a bowl that was glazed iridescently 

who enters now 
disembodied choral dark voices 
always bellow 
a dust bunnied 
furnace kicks on 
this house is quiet 
i suspect most are 

early on 
quarantine life 
a late night comfort zonal 
flow charted maps of those things 
we never knew were art 
what we'd start animating 
when the inanimate things 
between us 
wanted to be prayed to 
prey too 

we try to remember where we were 
outside out tide flicker lit vignette 
you say self why do you keep getting stuck here 
hear on hearing on 
as if this bliss was meant missed and is 
just another dream that opens into 
another dream opening into another and another 
until you are dreaming of dreaming you 
you and this poem 
somewhere else 
a sum wear Elsie 
and the world ends 
another bag of bones 
another quiet drum 
another slow whimper 
another Jericho 
that kept its wall 


EJR ©