There appears to be an inane assumption,When we prize too dearly the groans people makeAnd their pain and complaint and compunctionOf some less tender portions of their fate; It would seem that people don’t like the bother;I’ve met young women afraid to leave their roomsBecause they know what a burden they are to others:They believed too well the words others used. Just look at the … Continue reading Inconvenience by Zeke Greenwald
Every morning from his roomI can hear the deed:Boaz at his Jewish prayers,Bound in phylacteries. He is dead, who doesn’t wantComfort from someone;Ajax called out to the skies, notFor god, but for his mom. In my neighbors’ yards, their dogsAre left there all alone:And if you’d walk past you’d sayThere was no master home. Dogs don’t deal in silent prayers,That’s why they psalmodizeAbandoned in their … Continue reading Dead by Zeke Greenwald
Blood gets transfused into my veinsFrom a bag which from the ceiling hangs;Some pipettes from the bottom runLike legs with someone else’s blood. So the maroon cephalopodFloats from the pole it’s fastened on;Staved by a hook, it makes a squid,Who slowly bleeds out drip by drip;I lay below the drying fishOf plastic bag with blood in it. What is blood, but such basic stuff,But blood’s … Continue reading Bubonic Colonic by Zeke Greenwald
I love youAnd i want to hug youUntil i feel your ribs breakingUnder my fingertipsWith that sand filling in my hollow wellsSo that no one else can drink from themWhen you are gone I love youAnd i want to live on your tongueIn itIn meIn us I love youSo much i want to surrenderTo those heavenly watersIn the blue of your eyesAdmitting my every sinAnd … Continue reading Sand by Nadia Telenchuk
Were those really bats we sawover the Hinterhof?Or were they birds swirlingto show the evening off? And was it really hemlockWhich grew around the lake?Or was it an umbellifer,Which it wouldn’t kill to take? Was it really all that grey?Were the streets at night so dark?If Berlin was so morose,Luke, I need not pine at all. Yet German doctors wrote you rosesTo combat your stress.And … Continue reading Chemical Imbalance by Zeke Greenwald
A still grasshopper’s swivelingHis antennae endlesslyBecause he’s lost. Two iridescent alley fliesCircle the house until they dieAlso confused. Just as the house does to the bugs,A very old and yellow spongeDries in the sink. And I am, too, thus at a lossTo be not so like how I was,Or want to be. Continue reading Infestation by Zeke Greenwald
My hair sweats in the hot weather;I think there’s something to be saidThat somehow I can be made hotterBy the thin hair on my head. I’d like to be able to take a walkAnd not break out in a sweatWhich drips out of the folliclesLike a bleeding paper cut. The wound is small, but still the goreDistills somewhat profuselyFor apparently it doesn’t takeA lot to … Continue reading Hélas by Zeke Greenwald
It’s early morning, I hear an owl;I heard that owl a night agoWhen a strahl of orange street lamps wereA brass band for a single owl tone. That’s when I went to sleep, and likeOther people I was in bed;I did as others for a night,But I’m an unfellowed kind of man. I heard the owl this morning for Last night I didn’t get to sleep.Once … Continue reading Hooters by Zeke Greenwald
Annie told me just one thing,When I bought a knapsack:Not to fill it over-full‘fore I put it on my back It seemed like advice I’d keepWhen she said it, in that moment.Since then life’s made demands from me;Since then I’ve over filled it I’d like to say I’ve helped my Bag with its longevity.But what choice had I, when I’veHad burdens, but make it heavy. Continue reading My Sack by Zeke Greenwald
In Annie’s apartment there is some stuffFrom which thin things she’s made decorAs if she didn’t just move in there,And life worked out for her before. Luke rearranged the furnitureIn the room where he’s been living. He uses his space better nowThan he did in the beginning. I invite you now, look at my room:There’s not much by way of showing.I’ve kept it sparse, not confidentThat … Continue reading Spartan by Zeke Greenwald
