illiam Burns - Seven Poems

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Requite


And the cicadas whirred
I was opening my hand in the darkness
Opening and closing my hand
Thinking about all the things we did
Things we thought about
Things we never would do
And the cicadas whirred .  .  .

After dinner we broke out the recliners
Facing the golden-amber sun
As it sank beyond the edge of the world
In the stillness of the encroaching evening
I contemplated the clouds ablaze
In the dimming light, tiny rivers of lightning
Coursed the belly of the clouds
Snaking toward the setting sun
And the cicadas whirred .  .  .

I have this picture of you
Folded in my billfold
Cracked
Broken
Shattered
I turn around in the empty room
Facing the window
The window where the sun is setting
Your emerald eyes deeper and darker
Than the sky now rich with stars
Add to the lines in my hand
And the cicadas whirred .  .  .

There was a time
When I liked to swim after dark
Now there is something in the
Luminescent waters
Somewhere below the silvery
Surface of consciousness
Leviathans stir the deep waters
The movement of their mass
Ripples and breaks the sky
And the cicadas whirred .  .  .

Ball of Clay


There is this Big Ball of clay
That comes down out of the Sky
And rolls all over everything

Some things get stuck on it
Other things just leave an impression

Some things get broken
Other things hold up
But nothing is left untouched

Strangers


Here they come again
Strange thoughts
They might go away if I ignore them
Hummmmm .  .  .
Nope
Gotta hold you
Cold
In my warm hands
Squeaking like one of those little toy
Dinosaurs

I Want To Be Away


I want to be away
Windswept
     the rain smelled silver

In brown stained blue jeans
     muddy in the stainless snow
I find poetry in the trash
In the curve of the sky
The muddy waters
   twisting through the grassland
      beyond the fence
I track the scarlet maple leaf
     on the swirling waters
The rusty corn husks ignites
They were begging for a match

I want to be away
Windswept
     the rain smelled silver

Grim Haiku


A wind-tossed paper scrap
Covers the dog's eyeless face
The alley is still


Dreaming safe Haven
The broken child sleeps
Whole again


The broken doll floats
Face-down in the road-side ditch
The water is still

Young Interrogate


You were so afraid
        of the water
   afraid of the cold

I didn't nudge you
Waiting instead while
        your silent wisdom
             made its own mind

Now you ask about Death
But it's Life you Fear
Fearful of jumping in
   afraid of the cold

Raven's Day At the Shore


She
Looking out to sea
        electric blue dolphins vaulting
        in her hair

Grey-Green
Oceanic eyes
        cresting over me
Engulfing my every thought

One with the coming tide
Soft
Gentle
Unstoppable