Long Sloughing Poems

A Stolen Memory
A Mirthful Chorus
By Sy Roth 


We surrounded him 
Asked to let go.
She stared at the misshapen face,
Unshaven sandpapery skin 
Eyelids a tabula rasa
Fluttery sere skin
And we could see the humor blossoming in his...

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I used to write like
Jack Kerouac.
Words
crumbling down
paper. 
Stark thoughts
marked
by dots
and dashes.
 
Flashes of schoolyard brilliance
The hill I would
climb over
to be
someone different. 
I never saw life
through a dot.
LSD.
My father
was on mushrooms,
when he and my mother
created me.
...

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(This time I've quoted my own poem titles. Everything in quotes is a title.)


"Dear reader," again, this monolog persists.
We're no longer "sparring" with figurative fists.

"The blood of an Englishman" is my last token,
"cursive curtsies" for...

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A glorious sunset in an opening
Never before seen.  Miles from nowhere.
Dimming iridescent sunset.
The forest shines light to the East
Eyes can't adjust to the shadows of the West.
The light of the day led to this...

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Blindingly bright: flames devour rocky: 
                             ...

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As the beams in departure
darkness, they crawl slowly
taking charge and ready to rule
that surrounded shell above all
slouching in their aging gray
fresh again after sloughing its light
as plants in shift of their breath
and creatures, they creep...

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how dare you tempt me, beast (I said)
          you shall not plunge my heart
            ...

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In youth, I lived in gray
Gathering pearls, blood, and dust of those before me,
Straying beyond lines of black and white
Testing-Detesting- Spoonfed sweet lilac by society.

My roots twine deeply into the soil
Spreading different directions like a
Child's...

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"Reduced, the mechanical universe -- 
which includes man -- 
naught is but countless quantum particles of force and matter 
in one vast void."
-- the Reality 
minus the magic

*   *   *

In youth,...

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Aspiration


Antoine had crashed once again when tempting the desert
Freedom fighter laureate poet daredevil testing the call of

                  ...

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LITTLE WINGS

“No,” and they meant it. The dizzy seat
almost threw the 8 year old. He was swiveling
‘round and around and around, starting
to look green, ready to fly, free fall. Slip
of balance to the ground would...

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At the distant verge of horizon
Slowly submerging is weary Sun
With reddened face
Bidding grudging adieus
To his day long drudging
Brooding over mandatory next come

I stood there staring at Him
I wanted to say “don’t depart”
In an automatic reflex
I...

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Androgynous Angel in white
Wings of satin about to take flight 
like some Space Oddity
searching for a bit of life. 
I gaze in fascination at this being
which entered my house as a vinyl cover.
You flirt around...

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Mother, I feel the weight the spinning world.
I feel each parental nudge, as a rock, in the cairn of my life,
the weight coats my fragile fleeing thoughts, dulling.
The spinning child teeters to adult whirlwind, still,...

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I will forever remember the day my Momma lay dying
It is etched into my mind like a permanent scar
The eerie quiet that suddenly settled over the room,
Except for the lowing sounds of muffled crying and
Sad,...

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All alone, in the surreal, rayless eventide, gnarly, disheveled hands gouging from the rooted Earth, tongue forever tied. Melancholia echoing through Gods breath, despondency wrenching your azure-splashed jeans, the susurrus of the Devil's proclamation chirping...

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Slow flames under the blacktop,
simmer-ghost rise
from the sloughing road.

Rubber scorches its skin
shedding blackened snakes.

It's a hot day,
creeping turtles fill pot-holes
with their hot-plate shells.

The highway drums along
to the churr of cricket songs,

along the way, either out...

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We rise in the morning after many sunsets,
Passing death, hurdling heartbreak, sloughing regrets

Off in the distance we see tomorrows, known from pasts
And at last we know, we know its as good as it gets,

Here and...

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I am the traveller with stones in my coat
Made opaque by staying nameless
Though dark I am not darkness
Swallowing the edges of days, overtaking

I rinse my dirty fingers in a painted lake
Running tributary off canvas
Humpbacks of...

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Your blind back is becoming less familiar.
Beside me you sit, chest rising, 
as if you were real.

Your hand outstretched in expectation, 
mine carefully curled in.
Now a sudden squeeze, so rapid a grasp.

My pale heartbeat pounding...

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Your smiling face warms me
like a dagger to the chest,
  so familiar,
       so secure.

The sight of you 
is awe inspiring,
   stealing my breath
like a baseball bat...

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May Heavens bless you today,
Young Lilly of Yoruba tribe.

Like sun shining upon caked sheabutter,
Is your resurrecting touch on my cheek;
For joy returns speedily to my moody heart,
Even as you wrap me in your nursing hands.

Cold...

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