POEM: "What we hope for"

“What we hope for”


Lived once near a
small town named Roadkill
where years ago the
fencing was taken down
and where all the
people looked well-fed…

What we hope for
so capable of happiness
instead the infantile rage
takes us and braces
down into the ground
the unhappiness and despair

can poetry complete the
circle we can wonder
all we want about
how our language betrays
good notes and sense
gets carried far away

ground me in love
connect me back up
connect it like electricity
all the extra apples
good men and women
some art that saves

the alien and other
the fear it won’t
get any better and
the hope it will
so tired of questions
the interrogations and sins


© 2017 Rob Schackne

POEM: "Becalmed"

Becalmed


He becomes a writer
a thousand years waiting
and for some reason

for a harmless detonation
he writes odd poems
of hearts and souls

(by all means, sweet love
transfer those cultures
Astérix to Astro Boy)

he starts off on the Mekong
a thousand years waiting
for the wind to pick up

a kite gets caught
between the gust & the air
and falls at the border

he watches a boat
by a slow silver river
play an old game in the mind

the inklings to scatter
from blows and the hot wire
sparks fly off the thousand words

the kite goes as high
as it can, one eye spotting
the dangers below

looks like soldiers
in a thousand fields sow hearts
marked in land mines dark

a poem comes grudgingly
like a body pulled along the ground
and silent people stare


© 2017 Rob Schackne