Five Poems by John Drudge

 

A Narrow Path

 

Vines of the soul

Reawakened

The stammering

Of my skull

Receding

Beyond the footsteps

Of my fading

Seeking swift shadows

Down the narrow paths

Of slim hope

Pressure

The room

Has a complex shape

The bed is strange

And repressive

A shameful sanctuary

Of escape

Where monsters lurk

In the confines

Of disbelief

And dreams strain

Against the pressure

To find some semblance

Of relief

Stirred Up

 

Into a blur of shadows

He awakens

And stokes the last

Of the embers

In the fire

As a new sense

Of dread

Streaks across

An enamelled sky

Like a blast of electric fire

Staggering him back

With a sudden crack

To the skull

Before disappearing

Into the emptiness

Beyond

The fresh orange blossoms

Of morning

Footsteps

 

Most places

In Paris

Are not in the habit

Of changing

As we walk

Through the history

Of spaces

Into the deepness

Of enduring

Fully arrived

And fully formed

In the vibrant awareness

Of our surroundings

Touching each stone

Through time

With the eagerness

Of our footsteps

Rambling

 

In the cult of celebrity

And the land of sycophants

Pure art prevails

In rebellion

A quick light

From across the bay

Seen for miles

Through sadness

And shame

A bounty of provision

For ships lost at sea

Roiling

Under black clouds

And down winds

Into a new kind

Of fog

Where tiny creatures

Drown in the foam

When the tide

Runs too high

Into blind alleys

Behind the sun

Taking cover under desks

From big bombs

And the milky days

Of old fashioned

Dreaming

Over the grey breath

Of one last winter

With final virtues

Bleeding into everything

Along the frontiers

Of desperation

With a lone heroic need

For something

More

John Drudge is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology.  He is the author of four books of poetry: “March” (2019), “The Seasons of Us” (2019), New Days (2020), and Fragments (2021). His work has appeared widely in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children.