A Pointless, Arbitrary Thing

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

The Rage of the Alder Tree

The wind was gone,
lost beyond the end
of the ocean's round
silence that came...

before

No waves stirred...
no ripples spread
across the face
of the dead sea

Nothing moved
nothing dared
for at the shore
maelstrom raged

In the heart...
in the soul...
of the Alder Tree
at the Crossroads

No gale, no typhoon,
had buffeted the Tree
as savagely as it now
thrashed and flailed

Branches tumbled down
the Queen and the Lark
fled in absolute terror
no time to pause or pray

Unseen forces unleashed
in the Tree of Alder Shore
a tree that now writhed
in fierce agony of the mind

A Tree who had kept still
who had never questioned
if his accrued knowledge
when weighed was wanted

The wild rage of the Alder
was threatening to split
the wise old Tree asunder

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Princess in Disguise

It was clearanced clearance
the last chance ditch it sale
where I found it and noticed

another sad houseplant
a philodendron with hints
of aged burgundy wine

I couldn't leave it there
simply to wither and die
and idiot that I am...well

I bought it for the price
of a gas station hotdog
and took home to see
if it could be salvaged

An unremarkable thing
just another sad plant
that turned out to be
a Princess in disguise

(Pink Princess Philodendrons are among the most sought after species of houseplants and their prices reflect that. Pretty much beyond my budget, but this sad royal, I picked up for song.)

Meet Princess...that variegation on that newest leaf is signature Pink Princess.

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Rant

I don't want to rant,
it seldom does anything
except widen a chasm
so I will speak frankly...

that unedit block of prose
with ubiquitous vocabulary
is not really a real poem

it is an incomplete concept,
the real work and words
stuck in stasis without
essential follow-through

I won't rant, what I want
is for you to read, listen
experiment and observe
the parts and the whole

of poetry...

because it is much more
than benign, beige prose
posted to a poetry page

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Amputee

I had no thumb
until I dared
to actually try

and learned
that to grow
both plants
and as a soul

it requires
a hands on
approach

not just a green thumb

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Bonsai

You marvelled
at the bonsai,
an odd balance
of hardy and fragile

But you overlooked
the time, patience...
the failures and redos
it took to get here

(or)

NaPoem 2023

You handed me a block
of ordinary conversation
I passed it back...

but

included a trowel
and pruning sheers

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Memory of Imposter

Blow hole spume,
plumes of spray
on the black trap
roughened stone
that abraids...

even the toughest
of calloused toes

Thin fingers, nails
chewed to quick
poke and pry
to find a hold

a crevasse or fissure

to grasp

as below the waters,
the heart of Charybdis
beings to churn anew

wind and spume and dread
in a death spiral reach out
a vortex, waiting to swallow

as bloodied toes
start to slip...
and tired finger
lose their grip

headlong, free fall
into the siren's call

fluid splice into air
a vaporous cape
of sea foam...billows

breaks

as something
yanks
reality back
into focus

the twining trunk
an impossible reach
of my lovely elephant,

Imposter...

holds me tight

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Hold

the bills are paid
the house...clean
the center holds

for another week

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Falling Through the Street of the Lifted Lorax

Quicksand torrent
there in that circle
of coal grimed brick

Straight down
in a madman's jacket
of nothingness

Terror in the void
no light nor air
eternity in sand

Touch the only
lodestone found
on the way down

Nose gains on toes
topside to toppled
wrong way round

Sands of time
in gravity's thrall
plunge in too deep

And find the sea
that flows on high
where constellations
reign in a foreign sky

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Hymn of the Selfish

When you are given a chance to reach the place you used to know, the one place you need to be, and it is just where you can't get because you've lost the path...and don't know if you'll find it again.

A single wish to use or yield...

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Return to the Water and the Wild

Run fast as you can,
do not look back,
eyes ahead,
and begin again

As the light slants
like the Hellebore
as it grows, defiant
bright and strong

Find the stolen seeds
laid into the earth
as the old year died
and look for a chance

brand new growth
for awaited royals
a feast before
an impossible flight

Return to the water, the wild
you reckless human child

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Footprints of a Monarch

From a rain blurred look
out an old crank window
of the backseat of a car
parked alongside
a weed choked ditch
on a quiet country lane

canning jar in the cup holder

Afternoon recess, a bright day
in October, Indian Summer,
and toes in white sneakers
touch a brilliant azure sky
the wind soft and vital
and the view between
the scuttled flock of clouds

Monarch Butterflies...too many to count

And a small bit of awe
in what it would be like
to fly that high, that far
a journey of untried wings
a flight not limited
by the chains of a swing

Years have flown and
those sneaked toes still
occasionally seek the sky
on that balmy October day
milkweed gone to seed
a handful nabbed, hidden
as the dog looks on

to be planted before
the hoar flowers bloom

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Streams

Stream of consciousness
an angry, muddied torrent
that leapt and sought
to grab the weary doeling
stranded on the trolls' bridge

A scrap of salvaged paper
in the pocket of an apron
water wrinkled fingers
set to work to fashion
a boat, maple leaf as a sail

Ride the torrent, worthy crew
the only way open, onward
beneath the trolls' bridge
to reach the trapped doeling
whose bell tolled a warning

Swiftly as a spinners' pod
that little paper boat flew
along froth jawed stones
eddies, silent slingshots
that tossed the boat on

The grey hulk of the bridge
loomed, a denser shadow
huddled upon the pylons
as the waters crept higher
and the doeling bleated...

The current built, batted
that little poor paper boat
as a cat toys with a mouse
as the reckless captain
understood the problem

No way to stop, no way
except to fly right by...
until that deeper shadow
moved, a big, strong hand
reached out, caught hold

of that little paper boat

And just as the hand held
tight and strong and true
so too, did that moment
as the troll held the boat
as safe, steady as his gaze

The daring sailor clamoured
up the slender maple mast
and reached for the doeling
caught hold of her collar
and leapt over the edge

As hooves and toes touched
the origami crafted deck
the steadying hand let go
even as the torrent surged
pushed the paper boat on...

beyond the geyser of spray
that rose behind the stern
no way back...as they sailed
into the sun spattered west

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023


Hummingbird, Magpie, Fox

In the rage of June gale
the Fortess of Box Hedge
fell to the Legion of Wind

Amid the wreck and ruin
of those shattered twigs
a sole survivor emerged

A lone Hummingbird chick
barely fledged, poor soul
ugly and unkempt as a grub

A lingering death loomed
for such a hapless thing
orphaned with no home

Wiley dark eyes gleamed
from the old Alder Tree
restless wings fluttered

Clad in black and white,
Magpie saw the fledgling
stranded on the stones

She fluttered down to see
this sad grubby little thing
there in the hedgerow ditch

And that little bird cried out
in fear and hunger and pain
as Magpie dared approach

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

Ducks in a Row

Still as the stone
the tide slumbers
a flock of ducks
on its surface
squared and tidy...

And out of that sea
that flows on high
water and air shiver,
shimmer and roar
as silence shatters

Hammerd by a Gannett,
a Great Ripple Gannett,
not the Last, but another
scattering ducks and stars
a fledgling broken free

 

[Darkkin]

NaPoem 2023

At the Edge of the Air

Charybdis raged around a Monarch’s eye
as I heard the words of Smith and Borne
music in my ears and lyrics in the sky…

There at the edge of the Monarch’s eye
I knew the time was nigh, the place right,
at the cleaved rim of air, I dared to try…

To my lovely elephant, Imposter, I said,
‘You have to let me go, sweet Imposter.’
And so my elephant returned to my head.

Free fall into the edge of the air, wild high
of a reckless need to face the gaping Maw,
even with that White Pelican flight nigh—

Into the Eye of the Monarch, mind in thrall
Scala and the Sirens a counterpoint refrain
to the roar of the Selkies’ round, as I fall…

Maelstrom and gale in a triskelion bound,
as the pounding thrum, the deepest dream
of the butterfly holds the raging tide down.

Riptide, spume and cloud and bitter rime,
grab sailcloth wings, new pinion feathers,
untried, now unfurl into the dance of time.

Ride the riptide, Ripple, try Gannet, fly!
Even as I plunge toward the flooded door,
I see the wings of that lone fledgling try.

A gust and bobble, flutter of a butterfly,
Great Ripple Gannet in that slipstream,
on a journey to find the Sea in the Sky…

At the Edge of the Air, I looked down,
and saw the lost Door of the Drowned,
that yielded only to the Selkies’ round.

That triskelion refrain sang to the stones,
and unlocked the door in the sandy floor,
passage through, instead of broken bones.

Catch the riptide, land astride the back
of a Great Ripple Gannet, and plunge
into a world beyond as reality cracked.

There at the Edge of the Air, I now fly
fingers clutching tight to bright feathers,
but not those of the White Pelicans nigh…

 

[Darkkin]

 

[Darkkin]

Cardboard Cassandra

Seated on the edge
of a wide brick planter
she sat with her sign
cardboard held aloft
to divert the cold rain
cuneiform potents
emblazoned in Sharpie
and a jackal on a string...

 

[Darkkin]

Music Like Venom

The first notes
four chords of power
strike clean and true
too loud in my ears
idiot lights ignored
as music like venom
seeps deep in my skin
the silent intoxicant
a supple neurotoxin
as I lay down my mask
and trust my self
to just let go
and dare to dance
knowing no one can see
the masterful disaster
of dyspraxic, chaotic joy

Tchotchkes rattle in time
on the off beat of one
missed two and three
as my socks skim
safer than any skate
on asphalt or ice
in a Tokyo drift
the dog closing fast
hysteric with glee
joy matching joy

Music like venom
as I dare to dance
disjointed and woeful
in perfect abandon
with my ridiculous dog
joy to precious joy

 

[Darkkin]

I found out about this book at a recent open mic night poetry reading. Released in 8/22 by author/educator Chris Martin out of the Twin Cities area, this book is fierce. It is one of those books that resonates on multiple levels. Autism, poetry, and linguistic...special interest read made to order.

 

[Darkkin]

Air Riff

Dance as never before
hearts, minds in trance
body in motion
fluid and bizarre

retaliation Jack Black taught
to haunt the source
of these broken dreams

dance to a perfect air riff