Sugarplum on the 4th

Sparklers drip and pinwheels spin
mind aboard the carousel again
where choke cherry lips
and cotton candy grins
all yawn until the spinning
top
stops
stalls
and lights go out
mommies hushing
and school girls shout
"I can't see you, but I know you're here."
as borders blur
and smiles smear
like fudgy finger-painting
in electric dyes
or neon ink across the velvet
skies
skewed
the symbolic blots
kaliedoscopic crayons connect the dots
that bend the line
and slow the ride
that raced the heart
and pried the eyes
wide
open
ecstasy.

(re-inspired and re-discovered thanks to "Almost Literary.")

Sharks

She so vulnerable
Can’t swim
Panic on her face
In her eyes
Survival only.

Omitted

The manual does not describe, in its entirety, the way things work, in their entirety.

Fish

Do this...

Cypher Dissident

props to Che

feline

Hold on or let go
a cat on a dying limb -
rage against the choice

Morning-
hour mourning-
gone the moon
and night's repose.

Waking-
sour waiting-
sun's bright sting
cruel intruding dawn.

Lying-
flower-eyed lies-
and dream stained sheets
bemoan the day-lies.

Leering-
through the pane-
glass bends sun sting
and bends today...gone.

Brother 1

The Debtor

The chase
eleven years and running
an enigma...
Good! Hard-bitten kill.

The toll
not silver pieces
nor two widow’s mites.
Good! That kinder bill.

Elope
or evade
the severe chimera
that bold, tailored knight.

Drink deeply
from this circle
from this cipher
bardlike, old tonight.

We’ll sip
you’ll sup
sucking the marrow
from blind hot godlike art.

Until the ecstasy
until the alchemy
of the journey
to the ill-boding dark.