i love you ...
to the cold marrow, i do
beastess of black
the art of you, ritualistic, raw
all your names wrap me
savage, winged and wondrous …
tempt me, tepid dragon
i dream of the pursuit
wrought in timeless space
wispy, winding the world
biting my tongue with bitter citrus
or dripping with rhythmic, parenthetical
perfection …
dance for me -
break at the score, residue-righteous
engendered non-generically
come, venerated venom
and strike true -
crimp, shine, bubble, breathe
sing my veins ...
hot, horrid harlot of the haggard heart
neuron-nasty and aflame
a receptor conflagration, reborn
divinely devilish …
i - Mad Molly's sullied son -
curse you with all i know
and woo you with my innocence, lost
i nail you to a cross
of considerations and care
only to worship your ruin
the lion's paw to your Androcles, merciful
acid tears to wash your feet
and blood …
to bind.
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, February 7, 2021; update November 24, 2023
deafening silence
of midnight -
parenthetical barking
1/8/2022
Parenthetical phrases help you read between the lines
S-P-E-L-L it out letter for
L-E-T-T-R.
Nothing to the imagination
Don’t get it? Just look it up
Online, between the lines.
Read the Spark Notes, they’re almost as well written
Write nonsense, discuss complex
ideas and trivia.
I knew that! But I forgot it back when
Imagination ran away with the spoon
instead of me! I was so traumatized, I couldn’t handle it,
So I covered my eye with hair and turned to a poetry book
Full of stories of my suicides and how terrible my
Middle class suburban life has been!
Can’t you see the depression? It’s sewn into the seems of
my pants that are about the tear!
Driven mad by gibberish tears.
meaningless juxtapositions for the sake of
contradiction. I think therefore I’m confused.
Just tell me what it means so I can go
Back to being oblivious! Just accept it,
because you refuse to comprehend it.
Broken clocks with wooden blocks
And the power is out again.
Cold burning hands lifted up with a little
sacrificial parenthetical nonsense
"Yuletide noreaster winding down"
Of course it will be cold - it always is.
And there will be red numerals flashing
in the morning.
Isaac is having his nightmares again,
Feeling like a tied down goatskin.
maybe it is just that Old Testament slang.
Some say single syllable saliva.
Some say killing time on Mount Moriah.
Now a fifth of gin in the pillowtop linen,
May be worse a sin than to kill kin.
And the blankets are tangled thickets,
The alarm clock is tuned to AM radio.
Parenthetical;
Lovers caught
in ones and zeroes.
i am a broken down clown
living my life like a silent film
moving quickly with no direction
as i apply the makeup to my life's
gymnastics, i begin to see the signs
of corrosion and deterioration
i sit and think of her as everybody in
the world that has ever loved me despite
my flaws and my faults
i make a small but explorable incision in the
centermost part part of my gut to see if anything
exists there still
i realized immediately but tardily that i have not worked
hard to become financially comfortable but worked smart
to be unabashedly afraid
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