Eight Verses
Simon Joyner
Midnight nears the clock clicks its heels
And the birds go wandering home
To empty nests in cardboard houses
Built on vapour smoke and foam
Where furniture and flesh court dust and rust
Together and alone
Like trees falling into the forest no one listens
What happens in the night time
After the sun washes its hands
Of everything yellow light prevents
From the dangers of the dance
Of darkness uninhibited
Do you even want to take that chance
You might end up on a list of missing persons
Black crows beckon from their ledges
High above the ground
They shake the quiet they've gathered
From their wings and scratch out sounds
Which terrify all passers by
The truth is hard to hear once it's found
Then they swoop like angels burned off Jacob's ladder
The holy man announced his plan
To turn wine back to water
He was strung up by the drunken mob
Chanting the time for miracles is over
The wrapped his body in newspaper
And burned him in the words he could not alter
Saying unto a mirror one should never try to flatter
Sunlight rummages the beach
And cleans out hollow shells
The sand flames sufficiently heating
The shadows of lonely sould
Walking on the fringes of waves
Which pounce and fade farewell
To spoil a hope which springs eternally on the surface
The scientific poet dresses up
His images with the facts
He hangs on chains from certificates
In silver frames behind smoked glass
He writes everything that has yet to occur
Has already happened in the past
We elevate wise men by digging ditches
Soldiers fill their pales with steam
For bulletshell-like spines
While trees live and die repeatedly in rings
Which mark the march of time
It crawls by slowly for those entrenched
And for others it speeds unkind
While soliloquies to skulls become confessions
The box we would have distance hold
A lifetime without blame
Is to heavy for the skyway
Without faith-chariots and chains
Although it bloomed on an ancient tongue
Nothing yet from nothing ever came
We bury our answers six feet beneath our questions
Share
More from Simon Joyner
Now We Must Face Each Other
Simon Joyner
Yellow Precious Letter
Simon Joyner
Your Old Haunts
Simon Joyner
You, David, Maria, and Me
Simon Joyner
Yesterday, Tomorrow and In Between
Simon Joyner
When Will the Sun Rise Again?
Simon Joyner
When She Drops Her Veil
Simon Joyner
Vegetables
Simon Joyner
Two Friends Take a Bow for the Record
Simon Joyner
Three Well Aimed Arrows
Simon Joyner
That Was You
Simon Joyner
Sinner's Song
Simon Joyner
The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is a Straight Line
Simon Joyner
She Without Shelter
Simon Joyner
Seizure
Simon Joyner
The Rain Asked for a Holiday
Simon Joyner
The Passenger
Simon Joyner
Nocturne
Simon Joyner
Morning Is Weary
Simon Joyner
My Life Is Sweet
Simon Joyner