Slow -walking nocturnal steps
around a blank-faced time.
Gained intermediate cloud space.
Rolled over,
watched from inside an electric dial,
wrist-watched from a digital clock,
eyes within eyes.
Walked on
into a concrete laboratory,
knocked on woke white walls
listened for
the breathless sound
of body-roots breaking through
climbable inches of sky.
Swooning…somnambulating apple hunt,
sweet and sour scenes of climbable trees.
Dreaming…swinging, branches confront.
Palm filling, chewing…night’s day to seize.
Scent of white or red flesh in Autumn, squeeze
delicately its outer dress of green, yellow, red.
Gobbling to bones…cores surrounded by bees.
Juice runs down my chin as I wake up in bed.
9/26/2021
Where honeysuckle grows
On decrepit wire fence
Held aloft by decaying wooden posts
But still climbable by motivated boy,
A barrier between neighbors
That yet brings them together,
An elderly couple enjoys
The laughter of children on our side,
My sister and I, sun streaming
Through leaves of backyard elm,
Guessing at the treasure
Hidden in white blossoms,
Our neighbors tasting too
Uninhibited childhood antics.
Children buzzing from flower to flower,
Like bees in the warm summer air.
Brian Johnston
February 6, 2015
Unclimbed Stairways
by Odin Roark
At the base of the stairs
He lay on his back
Upon his chest
He propped his hero
Peering up through GI Joe’s
Stand-your-ground stance
All seemed climbable
Just like in the movies
But he knew
Summit of the stairs
Was the attic
That frigid place
Lures of the forbidden
With air suffocating its captivity
Like his mother warned
Such was the explanation
Penned studiously by the doctor
Connecting the dots
Of thirty years subsequent
The strategy of solipsism
Where more forbidden climbs
Ensnared him with madness
And a padded enclosure
The doctor thought he had control
But the man/boy knew
In front of him
Just a mother in a cheap suit
Warning
Always warning
Was Van Gogh warned?
Was David Foster Wallace warned?
Is the next Hoffman going to be warned?
Check your stairways
To the bathroom
Safe
To your bedroom
Probably safe
To the attic of adult life
Oh my
Caution
Or
Instinct
Here we go
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