the world is shattering,
with a raven hovering.
the wild creation with big strong wings,
coming closure, spreading darkness, hiding everything.
visibility has gone even with dilated pupil.
humans trying to remember ethics and scruples.
this will end soon, we chanting every prayer,
the old and infant both survive and again we get fresh air.

I, often, see famous people
Stuck inside a job like a grave
In a cemetery, like an empty notebook
That ought to be rife with full verses
With you, I am always empty
Being hungry is better
It's a nice kind of emptiness
When everything seems to make no sense
We suffer from a similar indignation
Romance is a solitary expression
Of great affection and beauty

You saw the twinkle
In his eyes
But the shining stars
Now all but die
Breathing shallow
Heartbeat does lack
The light within
Now fades to black
One final look
Into the sky
To seek the place
Where angels fly
One final breath
Oh so deep
As he exhales
To an eternal sleep

wild violets in the forest
colored like a friendship’s dream
could not be like the morning glories
yearning for sun’s golden beams

they live softly, close to earth
they are fragile, in confession
but no less vivid in their shade
or indeed in their expression

Capricious clouds we know and cherish
Unfurling like a fisher’s netting
They come to birth and then they perish
We are adoring, then forgetting

I can’t forget the yellow flowers
That sprouted in the sunkissed field
Where I spent countless cheerful hours
The memories are pressed and sealed

The field is gone but I still breathe
The world around me falls and rises
Like the water in the salted seas
A ticking clock with no surprises

The ocean’s days are all the same
But water lives in constant change

my first apartment
was so mall

it could be licked
and put on an envelope


Whit Howland © 2020

We collided by mistake fate dancing
in the rafters
as I wandered
the room until I saw you