All posts by victor

gaia

Poetry

05/20/15

when you were born

i thought i heard a whisper
coming through the trees
was it you talking to me?
outside of the leaves

holy the human animal
coming down from the trees
it was you, coming to me

coming out of night-terrors
electric light and stun-guns
baptized in the wars of
machiavellian autocrats
who want for too much
ice sculptures and learjets

trinket traps,
manufactured barriers
that separate and keep us apart

you, the soft-bodied vermin
of binge and vomit,
leave me pockmarked
with your poison cesspools

at your invisible hand
i know the violation
frequent, fractured & broken
you lay me down to waste

why can’t we play today?

the time when you dreamed
of flint and fire
of the sky god and stars
i nurtured you

now look,
you lock yourself away
in artificial life
ignore my cries of anguish

underground
my depression runs deep
fracking to the surface
thoughts of suicide

will i always be like this?
will i ever be given, the time to heal?

have you forgotten?
planets are born and die
just like people

i need you to return,
from whence you came
—return to the trees
and take with you, your knife
from out my side of twilight

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catastrophic, structural failure

Poetry

Chesapeake, VA 01/20/15

hips become
a matching set
of pestle & mortar
to grind down
sleep
dream
mood

skyrocket discontent

my own personal pain
; i have no time
for your grief
—leave me alone

femoral heads
(most sensitive)
rasp gnarled
in diseased sockets

the clunk
and pop
of worn-out
(misaligned)
ball-joints
of a wobble
automobile

a beater
with nowhere to go
no way to go
no get-up-and-go

the emanating
life force
now shackled
; cinched down tight
like a corset
suffocating
an inactive core

give me
the full monty
behind the
white giant
jesus statue

my incision time
frankenstein
the monster
or the doctor?

please,
can i sit outside
the breakers?
once again

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strawberries in train oil


tender leaves bud hands
waterfall body blue-green
smooth as speckled river rocks

in the name of brilliant sky, whale is taken
while gathering details from the canoe-man’s
bone tipped lance—purified in ceremony
seal-skin bags hang full from the rafters

paddles that end in points, for self-defense
carved ovoids in wood to pass before plato’s fire
projecting human shadows on the cave wall

the dead bear is placed on a throne beside the chief
offering the bear food and drink before eating him

inside the polished cedar box—the sun’s promise
dried crusty sea salt on weathered skin
desiccated souls hang from a line
white men in wooden ships and rum
destruction in the presence of crosses and seagull circles

starfish, killed in their sleep, litter the shoreline
ceremony of seaweed, daughters traded for marriage

potlatch people return to their wooden lodges
to dream under blankets of cedar, the dream of whales

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seed

Poetry,

tan bricks and six years, the clock continues to tick
you pull the tooth that receives the radio signals
and still, the ringing emanates from within

foreign objects inside the temple
because you never asked, in a sea of assume
your bones will be sawed—retooled

lighter fluid sprayed on the fire
thoughts of freewill lodged inside a marionette
the double-helix of a predetermined straightjacket

how to put one foot, in front of the other
marching toward your solitary discovery
where faces of your ancestors look down from the sky

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driving in a lake


foggy morning lake has risen from the land
to obliterate the defined edges
fish float to smudge & smear
with minimal effort all contrast is removed
the shapes of trees and houses are swallowed
—into the murky depths of a fisheyed world

when it’s right in front of you
but you don’t know to dodge it

you were once floating gray weightless
until the manatee was struck by the boat
the propeller, cutting flesh deep to the bone
like sharp teeth striking your forehead
and a colorless world wants to seep inside
to replace the blood lost, on broken-glass stillness

see the late morning sun, head-on collision
burn the floating lake from the aftermath
to expose confusion—taking off his twisted-metal skin

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