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85 · Nov 2020
- cherophobia -
Rob Cohen Nov 2020
my finger lingers
on the trigger
safety pin
deep inside of me,
waiting to pull
a jellyfish parachute
floating me into the dust
and the dirt,
at the slight sight
of an upward curve on my lips.

in my rickety raft of uncertainty,
bobbing on the sea of momentary
tranquility;
waves of warmth
wash over me,
as i douse myself
with a liquid nitrogen
concoction of self-preservation,
steadying the swing
for a cushioned fall.

hardwired in the vaults
of my memory-bank
are big screen flashbacks
replaying scenes of endorphin
robberies,
tattered scrapbook
crime-scene photographs
and chalked off reflections
illuminating the lineup of clown masked
ghosts.

crestfallen from Goliath heights
without a stitch of pride,
still i fall
from roller-coaster summits
on groundhog,
scratched
stuck record tracks
to a heap of rubble and debris
lying
where the tower of Babel
once was seen.

my dark,
barking mad dogma
echoes whispers
in Greek
from the ink
of Hegesias and Heraclitus;
and surrenders to French truth
captured
by Voltaire and Rousseau
in safety net ceilings
cementing my plight flight
in a lifetime of all-time lows.
85 · Nov 2020
Lives + Afterlife
Rob Cohen Nov 2020
I

a voice in the pocket of the outside crusader
screams in diluted darkness
crawling on blood flooding knees

from prison cell dead end canyons
crossing deep graved cave ravines
curtained by smoke and steamed mirror terrors

light burnt out under collapsing night
bound in the noose of lingering rope
tightly tied to faded flashlight demise

stretched synthetic wet-suit fabric
torn and unraveling into threaded anchors
leak cold salt water into a punctured spirit

torch batteries burnt fatally flat
the leather’d limb matchstick ember
whispers slow fatigued flat line breaths

bed of rock extended beyond
obstacle field crawling lengths
where metres faded into millennia

II

softer than a dandelion cocoon
a breeze sweeps from a hairline crack
roaring life into the cavity tomb

lifted from the empty lung
crushing stranglehold and inflated
floating onto clouds of feathered flight

crippled by fear of fatherless children
a second breath bounced from ropes
into seasoned soldier strength

jaws of death slumbers hopeless
dozed off by the anesthetic bite
fighting to escape the narrowing gates

unscathed and mightier he flees
from the enclosing fallen walls
with strengthening stories of power for all.
(RIP Derek Mahon)

— The End —