Seven Poems by Rustin Larson - From APOLOGETIC LAGOON

From APOLOGETIC LAGOON by Rustin Larson

 

FOUR CROWS

 

Four crows stroll

on the dark green lawn

like diplomats

 

I know it is just the wind

but those oak leaves quake

as if they are so afraid

 

Two young squirrels

chase each other's tail

around the trunk of a tree

YELLOW CANOES

 

Four yellow canoes

capsize in the middle

of the murky green lake

 

Mourning doves hoot

roosters scream

at children on bicycles

 

Echoing the breeze cool

I have a temperature

of 99.1

CHIROPRACTOR

 

The chiropractor

did not let me sit

in the waiting room

 

There is currently no cure

Rest in God

my boy

 

How long does it take

to get through

300 kitchen matches

 

MATCHES

 

Close box before striking

Keep away from children

Light quickly and easily

 

There is a green light

in the honeysuckle

a limited lifetime warranty

 

A tattered $20 bill

A 2^nd Covid shot

in the Stinger Honey Pharmacy

HAPPY PILLS

 

Calm as Earl Grey

minerals vitamins and herbs

pre-schoolers on happy pills

 

Yellow watercolour paint

on my trousers

clear blue day

 

Windier

than a touch on my head

or Black Forest ham

BLUE JAY

 

a medicine disposal safe

or Christian techno music

of tinkling raindrops

 

Elegant lady in skirt

no stockings

Danish white skin

 

Blue jay squawks

from a stand of pines

rhino skin lake water

ANGRY WIFE

 

A wife angry

before she leaves

with two children

 

3 Students

in flour sacks

and clothing made

 

Let them hear

like lonely doves

in the mountains

ALMOND FISH

 

like almond fish

under the moon

of soft pastries

Rustin Larson's poetry appears in the anthology Wild Gods (New Rivers Press, 2021). Recent poems have appeared in London Grip, Poetry East, The Lake, Poetryspace, Pirene's Fountain, and Lothlorien Poetry Journal. His chapbook The Cottage on the Hill was published by Cyberwit.net in April of 2022.

He is on faculty in Maharishi International University's MFA in Creative Writing program.