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Best Poems Written by Elmo Wallace

Below are the all-time best Elmo Wallace poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Details | Elmo Wallace Poem

Fall

Hands full of sticks
Pockets full of stones
You look up at the autumn sky. 

Wisps of golden clouds adrift,
Aimless.
This forest’s been painted red.
A single leaf hangs loose on a high branch.
Presently, 
A strong gust of wind tears it off the branch.
It starts to fall.
Slow. 
Circling. 
Happy. 
Like it didn’t know it was falling. 
Like all the while it was up there,
It wanted to fall. 
And that it knows the ground will catch it when it falls.
And with the fall,
Some way off where you stand,
Completion.
Home-coming. 
Belonging.

And suddenly, you wish to fall.

Copyright © Elmo Wallace | Year Posted 2015



Details | Elmo Wallace Poem

Salt Fields

Are we lost my friend?

Here is my muse.
My trance.
That I created
As I walked your salt fields last night.
The breeze,
A beast of burden
Came to rest in my arms.
The sea never felt so at home.
For they said,
Every word I spoke
Took shape
Like living things,
Casting moving shadows,
Dancing to a rhythm
Lost.
In the abyss of my soul,
My being.
And with every step I took,
Did I grow younger!
And the lead I have been given for blood
I felt it move.
And though it could hardly be more real,
It was as if my feet wouldn't touch the ground.

Nevermind, I left traces.

Copyright © Elmo Wallace | Year Posted 2015

Details | Elmo Wallace Poem

Sybil

This frail squint eyed woman
She wears the crown
She goes around town
Her hair matted and coiled
like entrails.

Pass her on
She’s your brother’s hand-me-downs.

This dark-skinned immigrant 
from an old barren distant land
feeds on this town’s useless information. 

She laughs so hard it stings.
She is simple and decisive.

“You will never learn a god damned thing”
“You are a sad song that played too long”

“I’m in demand…ask all your friends.”

“What a shameful game she played”
“Don’t you remember yesterday’s embers?”

“Show me your army..”

“Where do you go when no one’s watching you?”
“Wish I had another stab at your pale face”

“Whatever keeps you warm at night.”

This warm grainy palm
On the rusty banister
Is the grand vestibule to our small town.

Copyright © Elmo Wallace | Year Posted 2018


Book: Shattered Sighs