a thought strikes a match
nothing much, a little flame
moths alter their course
someone whispers, what if this—
the curtain catches the light
a balloon inflates
sky requires another sun
string loosens, goes slack
already counting the stars
on the backs of envelopes
morning finds the chairs
still facing yesterday's stage
confetti in shoes
someone refolds promises
along familiar creases
after all, a spade
fits superbly well in hand
soil under the nails
the gate can't bend or unhinge
rain dons handle with slippers
no trumpets today
the kettle attends to rain
a chipped cup, still warm
someone has darned the elbow
of the coat we nearly threw
Open a bigger locket
In devout letters
To unhinge hours morality
Fending the pessimist off
Grasping empty,
Inlaying foundations
To refine and revere the life's span
With nothing but a jawbone, I
unhinge the night, let silence die—
book of broken psalms, toothless songs
of what was right, of what went wrong
beneath the hush of watchful sky.
No prize, no game, no lullaby—
just marrow's oath and blood gone dry.
I didn’t mean to last this long
with nothing but a jawbone.
Still, blood remembers how to lie,
to shape a myth, to justify,
to kill wordsmiths who don’t belong—
the kind who bite and call it strong.
What legend lives, and who will try
with nothing but a jawbone?
The first thing to unhinge is its lower jaw,
the skull now (sometime in your future),
gnaws the recollection of its bygone face.
It must use the roaming poems of restless winds
as its surrogate voice.
When you are no longer its hands, pick it up,
kiss that sad dome, where its forehead
once pondered upon the meaning of meaning.
Your own eyes are now the very wellsprings
of a hidden depth, which was always the
unsolved mystery of you.
Now here in your illumined hands,
you cradle the foolishly grinning remains
of what you once called God,
yet you were not wrong
for even God moves on.
Sarcophagus emptied onto white sand.
Knucklebones tossed, like dice, with soul case smarts.
Where she’d end up, this burial unplanned.
Like grinding down teeth, time reclaims cast parts.
Connections to each bone release, unhinge.
Frightful corpse formerly the queen of hearts.
Basically, sand and more sand on the fringe.
This beach without a sea, this teen girl walks.
Upon an ascendant, fate will impinge.
As girl tries to leave sand advances, stalks.
Rattling upon the wind, this bone beach talks.
I was lost, thoroughly lost and sat brooding.
Dejected and desperate with no one to share,
Withdrew into the dark caverns of my own shell,
Snapping all connections with the outside world.
Trapped in the piercing claws of despair,
I waited around the bend for the sharp jaws to unhinge.
Did I hear a gentle whisper in my ears,
Like the soft sibilance of dancing waves?
“Arise, Awake, bolster your spirit” Did someone say?
It was like a gentle breeze tousling my hair.
It passed caressing my cheeks and my whole being.
It lifted my spirit above all chaos,
Burnt the blues of every hue outright.
I felt the feathery touch of love,
Granting me the grace to forgive and forget.
A beacon of light was seen in the night sky.
Guiding me and exhorting me to wake up,
Unveiling new paths for me to tread on,
Gifting me with a new sense of worth,
Kindling resilience, unhooking all knots of gloom.
Kissed by the passing breeze of this awakening,
I emerge into a new being, empowered and ready,
To take on life anew, with no chains and no cage.
I feel my wings opening out and the vast sky sprawling above.
Unhinge your jaw, snake, what’s a little more?
You’re eating worlds faster than they make them
And nothing fills you better than a tale of love and war.
You’re ravenous, really, making feasts out of beasts.
You’re every monster’s monster and your hunger never dies
As your shadow stretches over bones you’ve bleached.
Jormungand’s ribs poke like toothpicks in your teeth,
Tying twine ‘round your molars ‘til gaps and the string
Melt to baleen and bone, fangs unused and unseen.
You sift through the dead and your previous meals
Searching for something to take off the edge
Of the wound in your skull that never quite heals.
Come on, snake, devour, it’s all you can do—
You cannibalize the length of your life
When you’ve run out of ways to avoid the truth.
You see thousands of times but won’t open your eyes
‘Cause real life constricts but in mirrors you’re free,
And your hunger hurts no one when you’re eating lies.
Third-person you swallow your tail without help.
The snake, ouroboros, that endless decay;
You’ve consumed every lie and are left with yourself
And you realize too late you ate your whole life away.
This room does not remember me.
Even when I pull the drapes
the bright sky
seems surprised by my alien eyes.
Some overlong nights
can unhinge you from time and place.
I have been ill,
the nightstand rattles with medications
and the bed is in recovery mode.
This walled-in dwelling
dwells apart from me,
it reluctantly makes way
for my substance
offering only a partial reality.
Who walks now
into my awakening space
as if they owned the place?
My familiarity is missing.
I am reflecting;
my thoughts flutter over a glass mind
as I piece together a history.
Perhaps I will explain myself later,
or by chance bump into my life,
meeting it again after lost years
astonished by how much this 'me'
has changed.
By dark fears pinned; heaven and hell
False beliefs shrivel soul
Once lower desires, we do quell
We expand, feeling whole
We are love, we are light
Bliss that does not alight
Shining by day and night
We've never sinned
By dark fears pinned
~~~
By dark fears pinned, though were born free
Oh lama, exit mind
Once head and heart, with love agree
Delusion does not bind
We are He, do not cringe
Live life not on the fringe
From lower mind, unhinge
Ego's headwind
By dark fears pinned
29-January-2022
Double Quietus
It springs upon you;
gleaming clawed metaphors
struggle to unhinge.
Many-legged adjectives
commence to crawl over the page
shedding endless varicolored skins.
Whole lines turn into robotic centipedes.
Then the seductive purr,
the mannered modes, the manicured forms,
the unmistakable reek of poetry.
The first step they say is 'recognition',
the second step is
to bleat indignantly about poetic license.
The third step is to clean up
after the poem craps itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUkwcPOXzqcInside
within this beating heart of mine
my love for you is true consigned
beneath my skin a flowing rhyme
is tattooed on my soul, enshrined
Above us only stars and moon
are privy to our lovers croon
We are Zosma we are Supra
desired songs of Kamasutra
You can count on me my dear
my love for you is quite sublime
we are orbits of golden times
always close and always near;
To each other we will cling,
as two Celestials Stars unhinge.
Occasionally I dream.
Black ominous spots as my eyes close.
A dream I never remember,
A dream I don't want to remember.
For when I do I cringe with fear,
Sit in a corner of my darkened room,
Trying unsuccessfully to forget.
Fitful recurring dream,
That leaves the palate dry,
Devoid of savored zest,
Flat as unleavened bread.
Murky shadows in a dark room,
Swirling, gasping, mutely roaring,
Ugly, brusque, dyspeptic, and morose.
It gyrates meaninglessly in the void,
A menacing, unpleasant stench
That eventually dissolves into nothingness.
A dream orchestrated to confuse,
Meant to gradually unhinge the mind.
So fatigued, I sleep and dream.
The rest I am awake to face
The terrors of the night.
Surrounded by four impenetrable walls.
Night wrinkles on dim hangers.
Bell-bottom pants,
two-toned platform shoes,
a `kipper' tie,
unhinge from time and mind.
The closet door clicks shut.
Empty hangers swing-on in the dark,
rocked now
by the surviving members
of every rock band
that ever broke up.
Being from the city,
Too much quiet makes me cringe.
What sirens do for others,
Silence makes my brain unhinge.
I’ll take it in small doses -
It’s initially a balm -
But over time, it does
The opposite of bringing calm.
The birdsong helps and music, too,
Yet it’s not quite enough.
For sensory survival,
I prefer the noisy stuff.
drawn the line ever so fine
somewhere between love and hate
optimism wary in the forefront
of caution flirting its blurred edges
the verdict by a thread
loosely hangs in oscillation
dormant danger staggering
lingers behind flimsy curtains
loving you exposes me
leaving me vulnerable
precarious on the balancing beam
over a trench of shifting sands
dodging odds gambled in a pinch
fearing clouded ulterior motives
i want to trust in you implicitly
risking being taken for the fool
though feelings can turn on a dime
should you unhinge my world
on the edge of love and hate
AP: Honorable Mention 2021
Submitted on July 4, 2021 for A BRIAN STRAND JULY 4 contest sponsored by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 1ST
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