do a U-turn on Lawless Road
poets with priors multiplying
reverse into South Street
back onto Lawless
your world hangs, melts
upside down
sirens chatter on highways
paperwork too weighty for a Friday afternoon
slips, slides in your direction
bullets speed like fire in the sky
you're falling in reverse
on black and white newsfeed a body dangles from a hangman's noose
a jumper lingers near the Tallahatchie Bridge
another 'incident' crackles over the Metro train speakers
you pause on Lawless Road
look up at amethyst skies, they're not
violet anymore
your tomb is lodged half-way up your arm
where your heart should be
Lord, dear Kristen, keep on reversing like this into the real!
ReplyDeletebut wear it on your sleeve, that lawless road has such heart!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a book of poems consisting entirely of directions, recipes ... telling what to do and how to get where and so on
ReplyDeleteThanks fellow poets :) Rob, much more reversing to be done into the real - perhaps in future poems! And, yes, James - Lawless Road definitely wears their heart on their sleeve. And Kit, I love the practical/literal turn you often take on poems - it got me thinking that a book about directions could work really well - particularly for those of us who are spatially challenged & always getting lost :)
ReplyDeleteI was spatially lost
Deleteuntil I thought I saw the sun
I adjusted my blue cap
I raised my hand in greeting
my fellow poets
sweating out the night
Thanks Rob - I like those images in your boomerang poems! :)
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