his face
comes a calling
at this warm woeful place,
to give me a gruff and galling
mauling
——————
Cinquain/IX was inspired by this photograph of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier taken by John Shearer for LIFE magazine in 1971 before “The Fight of the Century”, in which Ali lost the heavyweight title to Frazier. I have plans to write an essay about this image and its relation to self-inflicted psychological warfare when time permits.
soft light
licks my backbone
then darts into the night
on the copse edge I stand alone
unknown
this dust
is an offense
which manifestly must
be uprooted with an intense
defense
——————————-
My maternal grandmother was a skilled miniaturist who painstakingly created a beautiful collection of small fascinating rooms. This short poem was inspired by her “Victorian Parlour.”
banshees
roam the badlands
babbling with twisted trees
on this wicked night that demands
hard hands
elbow
latches lamplight
beneath a tawny glow
in the moment that we alight
from night
sundry folly 