By: William Pedlow
Hush
something wasn’t turn
to ashes fast enough
wasn’t grow or not-grow
and that was the go-between
how the soft heart
and the dynamo quarreled!
put a close on every note
that makes it move, make (it
ain’t non)sense?
big age is lightbulb on forehead
we find ways to say it that
fit the revelations mood so if
you’re at a party and it
gets too loud hush right
under the audible and
people will catch on
or someone else
will hush for you
Soft Magic
there is no risk in dark magic games anymore
summoned Bloody Mary tipped
the Ouija board
it is startling just how manipulative
people can be after 10 PM
the tricks they will pull to
make you believe
if they can’t rope you in
with the hard stuff
they will offer you soft magic
like astrology
which goes down real smooth
or watch:
the candle smells the strongest when it
gutters out
in the dark a neck bends until
it splits
a flash of black
bugs scurrying down the body
rejoin the shadows
or
the strongest ant
curbstomps the second strongest ant
but he can’t keep on like
this forever.
he has to figure out when
the second strongest ant
is far enough in skill that he
can leave him be
then he can kick back
and get
fat
or
shimmer ragged
flesh of peach
sweet water holds tight
to itself
brighten the cavities
never a false set
even if a false set were more
practical or cost-efficient
I would want to go through this pain
or
lurid lurid stooped glaring
like a rind fingers
solved the next piece of the puzzle
not the mind
stars emptied all their loss onto the morning grass
it was so much loss and so little morning dew
they talked of it all night
and unfairly
I was so frustrated because that is exactly
what I did NOT want
to do tonight
soft magic
I was supposed to be drunk twice over by
now
William Pedlow is a New York poet. He works as a Park Avenue elevator operator and occasionally makes music. He once choked on a lifesaver mint. When the sense of panic subsided, he realized that he could still breath through the little hole. The lifesaver is still there to this day.
Comments