Posts tagged ‘poem’

February 12, 2013

Sylvia – parts 1 and 2

by jhon baker

Sylvia part 1

I listen to your voice,
late November,

reliving a moment long
worn away by time’s
passing
and memory.

did you mean to see it out,
taste of poison
fruits? or come
back.
all questions lingering
and a scar,
a very real scar,
traces round our heart,

I’ll show you if you come to see.
no charge,
no heart beats like ours

out of the ash, we sift
and sift, but find
no more

no phoenix burning
the midnight air.

 

Suicide – Sylvia part two

February, 11 2013
you are gone today
fifty years gone
left,
without a word
after
a lifetime of words
each neatly arranged
each carefully reviewed
a life meticulously considered
but
you no longer suffer
and
your pain ended

I wonder what your last words were
who they were to
a goodbye and kissing your children
perhaps
a goodbye and that is all

how are we to mourn
each passing hour
is a passing day
and this just another
poem
about your death
which you couldn’t write
anymore

you staggered
and saw it out
confessional until the last
asleep
on a pillow
the sun rising to meet its
worshiper.

 

– Hoc Scripsi

February 10, 2013

mundane details of a life – part one

by jhon baker

I was sick one day last week

but by the morning I felt fine

from puking to nearly running a marathon

in twelve hours – a new record

 

I watched television earlier

and could not tell you what was on

for as much as I was paying attention

but I ate a peanut butter and jelly for lunch

then pie – cherry pie with ice cream

and by one o’clock was back to this.

 

I left the house four times this previous week

all for other people and as for myself

I am staying home today

while the wife is ill and naps

and the boy practices his guitar

and dances.

 

I have a short leg and therefore

wear a prosthetic lift

and I limp

which adds to my menace.

 

– hoc scripsi

January 31, 2013

Chicago winter in the 21st century

by jhon baker

two days ago the birds were singing

calling out for lovers

thinking it spring

today it is too cold to stand outside

unless you were getting paid

and even then…

 

Chicago winter in the 21st century

 

it rained yesterday and then

snow fell all night

but waking only to an inch of it

not worth it to shovel the drive

not worth it to get the mail

not worth it to smoke and look

at the grass peeking out from under the snow

 

even the windows are frozen shut.

January, 31st 2013

 

– Hoc Scripsi

January 29, 2013

untitled dream #1

by jhon baker

 

idle incognito

rifling closets and clothes hampers

looking for colorful oxfords

tumultuous

and crying with one hand on the bottle

and one foot on the brass rail

(but don’t interpret)

 

 

in dream

childhoods bedroom

reading

each written line in each book touched, screaming

magazines screaming, wallpaper screaming

I’m screaming, bloody and wasted

(this is no way to conduct a dream)

 

 

I follow her into bathroom, now a party,

we kiss grab ass and I’m hard

when I awake temporarily and tremble

step outside for  nicotine relief

refusing to return to same dream

wearing no underwear, underwater

(accept drowning as part parcel)

 

 

sweating,

dark,

naked,

sheets, pillow soaked

–        awake

retreating to thought and space

(!)