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I like a man with fire in his bones
And where his head should be,
There is a home.

And I wax and wane like the moon
If you turn away you might miss me,
I'll be gone soon.
© Amara Pendergraft

I'm gone with the morning.
his two right-handed sons bite equally into the legfat of his ambidextrous third.  he photographs all three by closing one eye at a time.  his boys look so real they could be paintings.  his wife makes an odd announcement about dinner.  an announcement that includes

paper plates, her therapist being kind, and the recipe she’s repressed.  

     he thinks on those for a moment.  then on the terrible things he’s sure to reveal.  his palms.  the downward progression of his mother’s push mower.  the scissors he stole to replace the scissors no one used.  the ******* the school bus he’d punched in the back of the head so she wouldn’t see her house burning.  in the back.  of his.
autism     to blame

for the white     in white

male

     (I blame)

***

for shared     abstinence     (I blame)

my former     self     for my

former
transference     my baseline

jumper     on

poverty     the gnome

in your front yard     on tough

interior

art
to find
it’s the other
way

around-

life
a metaphor
for sport.

to know
     without

sufficient
notice

we’ve been here
so long
that none
are from
the future.

to provide
the afterlife
to those
left, those

available.  

     to realize
the town
of our birth
awaits
the return  
of our most
male
follower.

to be kept alive by a disease loyal to another.

to scroll, down, and cross
our legs.
I often stare into the sky at shadows on the moon,
with my attention fullest on the days of the full moon.

Discerning craters, mountains on its dusty pockmarked face,
that glows when sun stares winking flares upon the blushing moon.

I squint to find the waveless flag, the rover parked somewhere,
discarded by the shiny humans come to greet the moon.

Her light gives sight so subtle as to soothe and not disturb
circadians whose radians are rhythms of the moon.

Tree silhouettes' slow pirouettes sway by the summer breeze,
bathed in the sun's own afterglow under the watchful moon.

Imagining the lunacy of werewolves in the night
who, bathed in glow, to dogs they go a howling at the moon.

While all around the nightsong sounds in symphony they croon
the ballades of the wonder of the lighted sky queen moon.

(C)2013, Christos Rigakos
Ghazal
 May 2013 Fragano Ledgister
st64
From a pavement bistro, enjoying an alcove espresso and jam scone
After fresh rains, scenic smiles yet the road is of red sand
Young children play ball in park adjacent, some teen skaters pass by
Skirt-tugger hangs on for dear life, while she perambulates the baby.

The little, old man places with care, two stones behind his back wheels
His car stuck on the muddy, wet road
A small, slow push by stranger passing; it rolls easily from soft, red ruts
A wave of thanks, a friendly smile and off he goes.

Anna steps in ruddy hope, septuagenarian in jaunty hat and Sunday best
Ready to meet the one of a lifetime, widow of a decade
Correspondence long-time with namaste-man, final reward
Ribcage busy, beat in mouth, eyes flit eagerly, hearty salutes.

But nobody knows that someone is being watched,
From across the distance of the park, a clutch of strangers
Their beady eyes, hooded expressions, they wait
Fate is sealed when car drives by; irrevocably red.




S T, 11 May 2013
So, sunshine fled this morn.

There are other people in this tale too, but I can't remember too much of them.

Work of fiction.
Found songs as gifts to you are little treasures
I've sent in the mail now, how many feathers?
Aha.
For being so far away from one another,
We do dance a lot more than our fathers and mothers
Till dawn?
Wind and water make what you see,
Tell me again how the blue meets the green.
I love that story.
Kiss my lips a little softer than the sun kisses my skin
I'll put mine to the paper until we can meet again
Fingers are extensions of soul.
My, my, your words form your shape
That's the image of you I can't erase.
*Not that I'd want to...
© Amara Pendergraft 2013
There isn't really any significance in our attempts
The sweater's string is being pulled as we continue to knit

But the string is unraveling and we are left only cold
The pasta on our plate is nothing but an appealing fake

So our bellies are empty and our shoulders are shivering
We lay there limply as we are slowly wrapped in our own string

Wrists and ankles bound by unfulfilled and color-coded dreams
An S & M horror show in the sheets with life, us, & we

Dancing like a jerky ballerina, eyes glazed over now
We used to know how to walk and talk, but we've forgotten how

So as puppets we are told that we are not cold nor hungry
And that everything is fine and everything is as it seems

So we smile, thinking our wooden houses can make us happy
We don't notice that everything is painted the same color

Or girls and boys look exactly like their fathers and mothers
And we are just waiting to be piled onto the dead heap

Of broken toys and broken dreams that sometimes plagues our deep sleep
That feeling when you get really sad sometimes, that's what that is

So cut your strings, and think some things, breathe out as human again
The puppeteer has no time to hear of a few strings snapping

He has his hands full keeping down the human spirit, you know?
And when he's sleeping, cut off his fingers and his little toes

I know you are worried because you are tiny and alone
But he can't do anything if he has nothing to control

If the blade is still ******, do not clean any of it off
Use the blood and blade to cut the strings and soak their wood awash

Wood stained red, breathe life again, their eyes light up with words unsaid
And the lonely alabaster trees are swaying in the breeze

Red streamers tied to the branches to signify what is free

If only someone really had the courage to cut the strings
*I could go for the gritty, teeth-biting, ******, anarchy.
© Amara Pendergraft 2013
on the day they were born
I murdered my brothers
in reverse order
to teach them
about sticks

more specifically
about my love
for what can break
easily
on the knee

     for what gets smaller
the more
it is shared

- 

premonition?  the delayed seizure of our mother’s countenance.

she could recall the brokenness of a toy car but not the location of the shop it drove itself to.

she needed two people.  one to smooth the map before her.  and one to laugh when she’d blow

playfully    
from her palm
the ants     the car’s tires     had become.

- 

to remain
brothers

     brothers
keep silent
within
earshot.  

distance?

     the hole
god leaves
by not
existing.

     confession?

the seashell comfort of a woman’s hips.  

- 

in baseball
one could ******
the pastor’s
nose

wipe the ball
on a white shirt

and transfer
worry
to the tick
heavy
dog

lazing
in the rabbit blackness
of its ongoing
joy

- 

     as an inner child searching for its twin

     the loneliness
of our sister
is twofold.
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