September 10, 2017

THE SPACE OF SELF


THE SPACE OF SELF

We lie at the coastline of the ocean,
white foam sprays our backs,
ferocious waves roar.
We are tossed and turned by the summer wind
and by the children with their pails to fill
as though we grains of sand were grains of gold.
We lie at the border of water and land.
We neither speak nor conspire to rebel.
Humility comes easily to us.  
“What good are you?” Once asked a beachcomber
sifting for lost change and finding none.
Bathers soften their steps on their swimmer’s walk,
they lie above us on their blankets.
They shade us from the hot sun and the waves.
We have no need for more.


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THOSE PUNISHING EYES


THOSE PUNISHING EYES

Vampires beguile the unwary
with grins that beam the absence of peril.
How submissively trusting of strangers
to bare their throats on dark cobblestone streets!
Not till the fanged perforation spouts blood
do mortal offspring piece together
their bloody demise, those punishing eyes
ablaze with last reflections, time’s halting
long enough to recruit another living dead.


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