Fifteen Poems
1.
I am
the immovable tree
hacked away at
helplessly
2.
To accept
and thus
let go
to settle the debt
which you owe
You cannot lose a thing
which does not
first
exist
you cannot reconcile
that
which is denied
And so
I wake
until exhaustion
for fear of obedience
to that
which is arbitrary
The moon
was full
and bright
that night
and you
without pretense
offered me a light
3.
Sometimes
I think there is no good thing left
but love
and it is not enough
and I am captured
in the sunlight
through the elevator window
subdued
in thy grace
and nary a dour visage
my reflection
in your wake
4.
I am thinking big
planning big
for the sake of being big
for I am now
very small
have always been
small
The cat greets me
in the yard
before the sun comes up
pleased with the dead rabbit
below him
pleased to be big
pleased to be free
pleased to please me
I wonder
how that must be
5.
Driving past the train
full of grain
in the rain
where the powerful
lay claim
to your body again
6.
Bono says
he has Glaucoma
and I think
its bullshit
The butterfly
ne’er emerged
and the cat
is sitting in my chair
7.
I am playing somber songs
among your brushes
and your paints
so tender
your rebuttals
to my stricken
and delusional
affronts
The doorways always close
just as I arrive
the revelers
aghast
that I would try
I am weak
in my desire
for your welcome
8.
How hastily the heart doth wither
‘neath the pity of the horde
the practicing abstainers
of remorse
In time
the bated breath
will run its course
9.
Illustrating a return
as your hands
in watercolor
as my nude form
in the mirror
All of the love
our bed has seen
all hidden desires
and secret requests
A tender gale
befell my heart
as now I wander
o’er the glen
of every vivid prism
in my head
10.
If heaven’s where I’m going
I would like to take you with
If hell awaits below
I would like to plead the fifth
11.
In the throes of hallucination
the warmth comes in waves
and then is gone
The sun is setting
on the window sill
in pink and orange
The Wren chicks
flutter ‘round me
not yet understanding
the danger
The nightmares
all are razed
in firefly haze
of rueful summers past
We hasten in our curses
of the serpent
tho it was God
who bade him forth
to tempt
12.
Yawning
at the dated posture
of the alpha-male
The cycle returns
of boy
to man
to boy
to man
At dusk
I was running
astride
with the dogs
by dawn
I returned to my cage
cowed
‘neath the glare of the hunter
13.
Pissing in your garden
I recall
the copper taste of impact
the blood’s ensuing flow
the whiskey-tinted blow
One thousand bombs
are bursting in the street
the Sulphur air
smells sweet
14.
Inebriated freedom
in the night
when all is quiet
I am laughing to myself
at the warmth
of the spirits in my gut
I am crying to myself
that every star
was never really there
for me to see
The Rabbit flees from me
the birds emit a warning
on my passing
as I’m thinking of the bodies
in their beds
Rounding the corner
of my block
I think the sun
would be embarrassed
to greet me
15.
Wrought from the earth
as a mountain
ever achurn
as the sea
fantastically fleeting
as fire
anchored and sure
as the tree
Joseph Sulier is interested in the pursuit of survival. He is currently practicing it in St.Louis, Missouri.
