In Vaudeville, the Bicycle Rider, by Charles Demuth

Never Forget and Psychosomatics

Never Forget

I will never forget
how quickly your scooter sped down the hill
how much fear was etched
on your mother’s face,

how forcefully you hit the gravel,
how hard your body jolted
on the pavement,

how intensely my heart surged,
as if shocked by a defibrillator,
how desperately I sprinted to reach you,
each second stretching endlessly,

and how grateful I am
you are still here,
to also never forget.

Psychosomatics

I lost my fear of death
a few years ago

So why did
my chest shutter
and my head flood with cold
when I noticed
this mole had grown?

My body is me, but I am more than my body

One day,
when I reach
what I am (not) afraid of,
we both will be raised

Then my body and I will be at one with another
as we are in You

September 14, 2024




Further considerations

[poetry]

Lowcountry Blues and Judas Kiss

By William R. Stoddart

If I could feel sorrow // for a thing entire of itself, // it would be St. Helena Island.

[poetry]

Cache

By Damon Pham

There’s a kind of meant to be // wearing in // I’m newly knowing of

[poetry]

The Next Note

By Tony Brinkley

Improvisations - little more than // preludes as inclined by other options // and expression as to what will happen

[poetry]

Wild Turkeys and Thirteen

By Jessie Brown

Mossed path through rhododendrons tall as trees // and here come the hens, burnished legs slow-stepping // eight, nine, ten copper bodies like Aladdin’s lamps