Placebo
Domino in regione vivorum
Darkness
breathes in evening’s ear
as
Bacchus spills his red placebo
over
the western sky
A
moonlit skull grins through the window
a
breeze blows by the sleeping child
memento
mori, danse macabre
The
seashell smoothed to a gleam in time
pink
music plays past golden curls
pillowed
in a dream
Patterns
tracing phantoms of immortality
slipping
through the hourglass where Kairos shapes
a
picture of our broken shields
reflected
by the sea
A Snapshot of Our Times
end
game
the
last rook
in
a blighted tree
ivy
strangling
a
faceless clock
a
heavy tool
in
a dark garage
talk
radio
her
favourite singer
thumbtacked
to a rat-filled wall
she
does it my way
nibbling
her ear
at
the gravesite
necrophiliac
cannibal
man
weaponized
wood
saw
dust
cute
little monkeys
in
a cage at the zoo
morphine
to ease the pain
snowflakes
fall
below
the bridge
the
railing much too low
gravedigger
to
the aging hippie
I
dig man
Cast Out
A
red sun glazes
the
ancient hero's bronze
green
eyes,
casting
a penumbra
round
the drunk,
who
slumps in the shadow
of
an equestrian bum
and
sips his Beaujolais.
Little Boy Blue
sunlight
in the dust
the
smell of the barn
she
looks up
the
cow’s bulging udder
the
boy’s bulging eyes
Unto Zophos Descends the King of Byblos
An
agony of rapture
In
the death flames to the west
The
self-consuming sun
In
purple robes
Is
laid to rest.
Robert
Witmer has lived in Japan for the past 45 years. Now an emeritus professor, he
has had the opportunity to teach courses in poetry and creative writing not
only at his home university in Tokyo but also in India. His poems and prose
poetry have appeared in many print and online journals and books. His first
book of poetry, a collection of haiku titled Finding a Way, was
published in 2016. A second book of poetry, titled Serendipity, was
published earlier this year (2023).
No comments:
Post a Comment