Five Poems by Terrence Sykes

 

Techno-Idiot

 

memorized the periodic table for years

titanium - lithium - aluminum

decades turning that Rubik’s cube

colour coded manipulation

television taught me

humans & machines

merged into borg

automobiles & telephones

track my every morning move

have I morphed

into a data gatherer

for computers

earthling or alien

a mere drone

awaiting Hal

 

 

Prophecy

 

an unholy collaged hunger

ravaged marrowed souls

thistles & dandelions

sailing ancient galleons

against oceaned sky

beneath chestnuts & lindens

unforgiving

seeks

forgiveness

shipwrecked

muck & mire

 

 

Transcendentalist Spontaneous Ascension Southern Baptist Sunday Service Sermon

 

Oh wandering one

with restless soul syndrome

here is your pew

amongst the grand

divine cathedral of nature

its lot cast before you

this river you came to seeking

is it not as holy as the Jordan

for surely angels tread

upon its waters

to watch over you

 

autumn leaves fall

sounds reminiscent of rain

as they descend about

from clay you came

to sand you can go

Heaven is not above

but below you

at your feet

for all creation

arises from the

sacred soil

 

 

JUDAS

 

the lost gospel of Judas

was lamented & scribed

upon that midnight freighter to Tangier 

but such is the price of salt 

when those bells peal of treason 

upon shadowed dregs of exile

 

 

I still remember

 

that summer of 2022....It was so hot that I decided to go down to the creek & take a dip but the swimming hole was dry so I decided to fish .... then I heard my sister yell at her friend across the street that aliens had landed at the strip mall on the edge of town ... I guess intergalactic fashion is a season behind here since the clearance sale started today .... it was good to know someone out there in the wild blue yonder still appreciated a good bargain

Terrence Sykes is a cook & gardener & forager & heirloom vegetable researcher and was born and raised in the rural coal mining area of Virginia. This isolation brings the theme of remembrance to his creations, whether real or imagined ....other interests include cooking, gardening, heirloom vegetable research & foraging wild edibles. His poetry, photography and flash fiction have been published in Bangladesh, Canada, India, Ireland, Mauritius, Pakistan, Scotland, Spain, Turkey and the USA.