Submissions by Strangeways_Rob

From my Father this strong heart
From Mother the fear
From the soil the rage
From the afternoon storm
(Into which I entered, Stage Left)
The humility, before and after,
Actors circle the backdrop of a new play.

The day’s final breath bathes in
Industrial fumes, diesel, space hubris
Sky dust falls unheralded -
Its regal silence answers the question:
“How can you write poetry in a place like this?”
Are we merely trying to read
The braille of the years between
With stumped fingers?
Desengano drums from a...

In the restaurant, alone
An island skirted by cruising waiters
Foot stepping down their personal Nullarbor.
A sense of waste in their walk, but somehow vital
To the passing existence I owe them.

Alone in the restaurant,
Fingers of my folded arms
Strapped, prayed in-perpetuity.
Cutlery, plates, wine bottle
Assembled for (s)played chess.

In the restaurant, alone
The Three Wise Men are framed
By aubergine, spice & solitary thoughts.
Arc of sun shapes o’er ceiling, reminds me
Of Piss Christ, quenching...

Metaphor hanging from my front door
Knuckled knocking fist builds gallows.
Moon and wind fill the garden, with
Darkened leaves torn from their home.

Veins in my hands are
Shaped as a felled tree.
Lost the ease of being in my own skin.

From frosting window
Shoeless child ties knots in laces.
In window frost a written vision, perhaps -

Her map will be a mirror
On her lap, she will paint it black -
Nail varnish from Mother’s
Bedside medicine cabinet.

A stolen C Minor crushes
Piano rib cages, ...