Cat three-tooth, cat stone-deaf, cat sidewinder walk,
Old Bealman stalked the croaking, the croaking,
with forepaws meek stroking
airs of a summer cool night.
Bealman, Bealman, Meow & Sealman,
Pacing, still racing, one two three man.
Bealman—frog fisher & free.
Delphinium, the roses, lupine interposes
a shadow of fortressed green leaf
disguises the notion my Bealman supposes—
to seize, dismember it through,
make self-concocted, dishering frog stew.
Bealman, Bealman, Meow & Sealman,
Pacing, still racing, one two three man.
Bealman—frog fisher & free.
Night hours accounting, morning’s surmounting,
a bird warning Bealman, his patience to thin.
Croaking still blending, a flower stalk was bending,
two legs, peaking out, sent Bealman straight in.
Bealman, Oh my Bealman, Meow & Sealman,
Pacing, still racing, one two three man.
Frog fisher & free.
I saw Bealman beaming; I saw Bealman beaming.
How cats manage beaming I’ll wonder again.
Since Bealman was twenty, any beaming is plenty.
I loved my old Bealman, my frog fisher friend.
Bealman, Bealman, my meow dear Sealman,
Frog fisher & free.
I fell into a shallow dream
as often as I have, and do;
amongst sleep and wake where things seem
so nebulous between the two.
A dead leaf floating down a stream;
the cold unknown lurking below;
the radiance of sun on high,
slow winding in the gentle flow
while some familiar friends drop by;
a mourning dove, a cawing crow.
There’s wonder in our shallow dreams
just past the point of counting sheep,
where nothing is quite what it seems;
a world half in, half out of sleep;
where laughter interposes screams.
You can awake; it’s true to say,
sometimes awash with burning guilt;
did I really she betray?
Whose crimson blood was it that spilt?
The bedclothes wet, in disarray.
Soft sibilance departed a while past now;
lost in family, familiarity,
an indiscretion.
Soulless silence interposes churlish crows.
The weightiness of strangled screams hangs heavy
deafening the two.
Whisper; wounded, slain.
This or That, Vol 18 Poetry Contest: Wounded Whisper
Sponsored by: Edward Ibeh
Date written: 24th May 2023
maroon lunatic
earth interposes moon and sun ~
invisible cape
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