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Something New

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I hold my love before you

in the silver eye of winter.

I nudge myself from a restless year,

dancing upon the crust of a breaking wave.

I feel the taste of Japanese ginger enter my mouth.

My head is full of phantoms. My fingerprints

are held hovering inches from fire.

Starships and everglades are overturned.

Thumbs are caught in car doors.

The blunt scythe of Death carves, shredding

history’s figures of ruthless pride.

Ideas of beauty change from century to century

but not ambition, not the way

the ego demands to be heard,

regardless of brutality or waste.

I open the empty pantry. I write down names

on the pieces of a shattered lamp post.

In the silver eye of winter,

I hold my love before you.

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©1990 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

Published in “Chicago Record” November 2018

https://magazine-record.blogspot.com/2018/11/years-before-his-resurrection-on.html

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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I Dreamt Again

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I dreamt again

of the past encroaching

like a wet towel, tight

around my clothed body.

I dreamt I felt alone, doomed to dance

on a suspended scaffold’s floor.

Among the bitter people I walked,

near their self-pity and inconsolable isolation.

I tried to separate myself, split the heavy air

with my fingers. I tried

to wave their fear into the mouth

of everlasting light.

But love was bitten at the stem,

and the hideous thirst within

grew again like a snake its second, tougher skin.

I dreamt I wandered half-made buildings,

where squatters lived, sheltered

in the dank concrete ruins.

I travelled through without shoes, dreaming

of sand-soft ground.

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© 1991 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Synchronized Chaos” November 2018 (under the title “Dream”)

https://synchchaos.com/synchronized-chaos-november-2018-the-things-we-carry/

http://synchchaos.com/15244-2/

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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After the Day

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.           Love is in my belly like evening tea,

            comforting after the day’s rush.

            Love is there like a discipline

            I used to own, exciting

            because of its blind determination.

The old man walks the alleyway

with his cane and curious eyes.

He waves to me from the window, then

stretches him arms to cup the wind.

Somewhere the stray has been saved

from the freezing-frost. Somewhere

a woman has conceived, and a dog

has found his favourite toy.

            Love is a monk’s old robe

            tainted a rich bluish green.

            Like twilight blankets the day

            it sits on my lap covering –

            cherished, unclaimed.

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© 1992 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Synchronized Chaos” November 2018

https://synchchaos.com/synchronized-chaos-november-2018-the-things-we-carry/

http://synchchaos.com/15244-2/

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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We Rode

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We rode our wounded dream

to a place drawn out like Prairie

ground. A washcloth was all we needed,

a sacred rock or stepping stone.

Lingering there with useless hands,

many times ready for the culling field,

holding elephant bones under

condemning light.

We swept the dead-end from our horizon.

We lived looking within, seeking out some mercy

behind our bondage.

This land knew our pacing,

our ineffectual pilgrimage.

It was fire and still burns like war or

a fallen constellation.

We spun our wishes in mid-air,

tilled the lifeless soil

mourning the hot metal

that poured between good fortune

and the bloodstains of destiny.

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© 1992 by Allison Grayhurst 

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Synchronized Chaos” November 2018

https://synchchaos.com/synchronized-chaos-november-2018-the-things-we-carry/

http://synchchaos.com/15244-2/

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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Pieces to Gather

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            A drowned fish, silver, snared

with an expression of permanent ache.

Eyes, fish stunned, fish glass

glaring from a window in the market

in the dubious afternoon.

            The shattered green

of ocean from a storm-struck sky,

lightening-flesh tipping, ripping the lid

and letting in the rains.

            Mountains of harsh winters, opaque

like the wings on a featherless angel.

Mountains, male in their faith and in their marriage

to moonlight.

            Chains, slate grey and criminal

as clouds over rainbows, as necessary

as a first childhood dream

laughed at, forgotten.

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© 1992 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Medusa’s Kitchen” October 2018

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2018/10/even-though.html

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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Seed of Living

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Mostly possibilities

return a million times

over: the chance

in every life cycle

to escape

patterned destinations.

I could tear my breath

in half attempting

a different rhythm.

I could be burning, bloated

on mistakes and bad beginnings.

Nightmares flail across the void,

sinking through

unimaginable universes.

Then tomorrow, the television,

the zodiac spin, anger at circumstances.

It is the condition that makes sway

dandelion leaves, breaks

the stem of the sunflower.

As dusk denies every pent-up demand.

As morning cleanses every hard-held need

obsolete.

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© 1992 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Medusa’s Kitchen” October 2018

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2018/10/even-though.html

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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