Gemimor

Ancient tarantula motion,
its inverted legs poised on elusive strings.
The past speaks to me, spluttering,
touching me with its old tattered gloves
that cover its double-clawed legs.
It’s attempting to tell me something about this, the present.

Its extremities are very fuzzy and rather plain,
they caress my frozen face
transfixed by the images of
rows of civilian corpses.

Whispering chelicerates explain that this world is porous,
that remembering is the antivenom.
forgotten back muscles
brewing aeons

The guitar’s resonance crackles under the needle,
lulled in polyvinyl chloride.
trace, gap, dust:
reality’s sieve

Terror convulsions induced by unrest,
amplified by the incessant humming
of the heat sink fans and the subway train breaks;
the mute warnings of the past who insists on keeping
its mygalomorph appearance
as if to say
that those assassinating our present
will inevitably come for our past.

But the past isn’t just
an overhanging ivy bush clinging firmly to a shop front,
its dense foliage concealing the blackbird,
or the memory of your close circle's phone numbers,
it's also poetic justice.

Kaput

chief’s head
screwed on tight, crowned with a cap
matted gaze monitors the ranks
rub your eyes all you want
the ghosts aren’t going anywhere

no mourning will yet dispel
the wraiths who still dwell here
how can we provide them a haven
without offerings,
without whispered words?
the years we’ve tried to exorcize
mass grave awaiting amends

truncate it to maximize top-down
ignite the fringe promoting violence
anvil of guilt crumbles
captive internal opponents
the framework of hubris

a thousand scenarios playing out
in chief’s head, on a narrow checkerboard
dancing to Bartók’s Suite for piano
echoes ricochet over open field paranoia
barking staccato
knees shaking, barrels aiming
weather vanes of change following orders

caterpillar tracks crawl over footsteps left
mud, drones, dread
despair sharpens sedition
the head honcho’s conundrum
ahead in the polls, formerly

gullibleater revealed
haunted by his spiel
systematized excuses
laws that shield him from consequence
quote concessions unquote

what exactly are we waiting for?
a leader, fortuitous no less,
come to liberate us from his predecessor?
this is a cry
its words, stewed,
coat the raw remains
piled up at chief’s feet

Circumscribed

Expectant sigh in closed yard has rung
Organ window intending to sow
Plain sight, discreet costume, call it suit
Tight inner folds of the necktie knot
Eyes parked in a combustible grin
Gas lamp undulating over naught
Emit pleated faces, coy and mute
Chewed ineptitude hangs from a bough
Feelings, seamless egress through the tongue
*

Lamp eyes parked in coy faces
Costume in a tight knot
Pleated neck folds from undulating bough
Sow seamless inner sight over it
Rung organ sigh, tongue chewed to naught
Plain suit-and-tie ineptitude hangs
The yard has a discreet closed window
Call of combustible gas, expectant grin,
Mute feelings intending egress

*

Rung costume hangs in a window, pleated necktie
And plain parked feelings in a tight organ suit
From the yard, combustible bough has eyes to sow
Discreet sigh, knot intending it,
Expectant call of coy ineptitude
Undulating inner lamp, seamless grin
Chewed mute tongue folds emit naught
Closed faces, egress through the gas
Oversight.