Three Poems by Dr. Charles A. Stone

 

In the Dream

 

I was a child

full of shadows

naked    invisible,

a slow undercurrent,

sad

unapologetically ill…

 

looking into dreams,

manipulating humanity.

 

I would

meditate and pity mystery,

reminded that

we are not transparent.

 

I was the thumbprint of my portrait

(tooth    and   claw),

a puff of smoke

getting angry    caring too much.

for tears…

 

tears already

written,

an answer written

at the conspiring hour.

 

graceful    visible    timeless,

(a river),

my eyes were painted shut,

clouds were boats –

I will not remember this!

 

 

 

Suppressed

 

Poems caught

inside rural minds

are like words

in a closed book –

dark as memories

in shuttered rooms;

vague versions of what

sadness is, like husks

of letters scattered

in unlikely pastures

where even crows

refuse to land.

 

Eclectic thoughts

of spring planting

keep ranchers

from composing

pages of blank verse,

and are like anxious cattle

corralled before

thunderstorms claim

canvas skies,

before crops are covered by ice

and the cloth of sleep smothers

the urge to write.

 

 

 

Follow Me Home

 

Summer slowly extracts its claws from the tired landscape,

leaving behind dry thistles and bleached bones.

 

In the meagre shade that stitches gravel to the driveway

a crowd of grackles watches a dark-skinned man

 

Set fire to a lean-to barn, brimming with dust

and old lumber that even spiders have abandoned.

 

When the fire has satisfied its appetite, the grackles

imagine the old man will salvage charred nails

 

And whatever bric-a-bracs he can to rebuild

the only home he has known since his wife died

 

In a cigarette-sparked fire and the kids moved to the city

for whatever gains and grins townspeople have to offer.

 

Not much will change, of course, for the old man – the thistles

will remain dry and the bones bleached… until his bones

 

Are laid to rest next to those of his wife

and two names are carved into a single headstone.

Dr. Charles A. Stone - The pseudonymous Dr. Charles A. Stone (born in Green Bay, Wisconsin) holds doctoral degrees from Marquette University and Johns Hopkins University. He has authored numerous scientific articles and contributed to two dozen medical textbooks. His poetry has appeared in poetry journals, anthologies, and other publications. He has also edited six poetry anthologies and served on the Board of the Austin International Poetry Festival.