Ochre Flash
Footstones in a garden guarded by a dragon
chiselled out of Afghanistan Red Alabaster
glowed like Atlantic puffin beaks at midnight
as car lights streaked through wooden rails
shedding intermittent phantasmagoric luminesce
over rose bushes,
shrubbery, gourds,
herbs, and vegetables.
Home to black dahlias betrayed by dark shadows
and dissembling clouds that insinuated solidarity
tubers burrowed the pushed green shoots through soil
renewed life among winter pressed leaves where centaurs
boasted mental prowess, fought with brute honesty
left hoof prints
sans horseshoes
in fossilized dirt.
Urged on by circadian rhythms & pumice echoes,
the daystar’s absence signalled time for a floral respite;
spiritual Bonzi plants sleeping in the far corner
channelled the “alteration of generations”
into dreams of germination, growth, death
while cinnabar caterpillars emerged
from minute buds, lounging—
meditating—on reflective leaves.
Cars passed in early hours, bathing flowers dead and alive
with fleeting amber drift beams, as bright and warm
as the dragon sentinel inhaling, exhaling smokey breath
stirring art metal pinwheels, creaking in breezy gusts;
rusty whistles heralded dawn’s encroaching stealth
sunrays blinded nocturnal shades
flooded dew covered cabbage patches
supplanting graveyard celebrants till dusk.
Road Rage Cinema
Car dashboard computer screens
display maps & directions
inform drivers about music, singers
& song placement on playlists;
no need to concentrate on details
when smart cars vomit information
programmed tasks allow simple minds
to forget all about manual turn signals;
people now slip into vehicles
for conversation & solitude,
they welcome electronic voices to soothe
& cleanse them with kind words seldom
exchanged
between partners. The A.I. revolution
creates
a social implosion where high pitched words
travel through speakers, beckon blind
motorists, marshal human thoughts
until hands exert feeble back seat control
& incensed voices curse jammed power
windows.
Water Bottle
An abandoned water bottle
litters the roadside
dripping with Gatorade residue
smeared lip
gloss
Chapstick
and spit
rolling left then right, bouncing
against discarded Slurpees,
McDonald’s wrappers and beer cans
ricocheting off Altoids tins
moving like a spooked rabbit
dodging reflective traffic markers
beyond the asphalt jungle
as each cyclist passed
the jettisoned container
kept shifting like a tumble weed
then shot over an embankment
rocky
steep
treacherous
(any biker’s nightmare)
before landing in a gully
and drifting out to sea
where otters swatted
the plastic canteen
like a potable volleyball
bobbing on each cresting wave
till dragged by an undercurrent
jostled by a swirling vortex
battered and buried in sand.
Hooked on Half-wit Devices
My
first
cousin
worshiped
all
stupid
inventions
from
car exhaust barbeque grills
to
airconditioned sneakers and stiletto umbrellas.
At
home
she
wore
microwave
toe-warming
slippers
emptied her car toilet at work
sucked down extra stout Guinness with baby bottle nipples.
Oh
dear
cousin
Lori, take
off your “face glove,” toss
out those Billy Bod Teeth, ween
yourself from dumb contraptions (keep pet rocks if you must).
Supermarket Chariots
Senior citizens crawl into scooters
that move across linoleum floors
at a frightening pace as they crash
into cereal boxes, knock over cylinders
of Quaker Oats, and scrape past
plastic soda sixpacks that would have
vibrated like glass glockenspiel bars
had they been made of crystal bottles.
Like enraged Roman charioteers,
the octogenarian shoppers lash invisible
whips,
at children searching for candy, blocking
aisles
all the while envisioning themselves
as golden-age gladiators—21st
century Ben Hurs—
racing for the laurel garlands bequeathed
upon those who master quantum two-for-one
bargains, laying rubber enroute to
cashiers.
Sterling Warner - A Washington-based
author, poet, educator, and Pushcart Nominee, Sterling Warner’s works have
appeared in such literary magazines, journals, and anthologies as the Galway Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Lothlórien
Poetry Journal, Ekphrastic
Journal Review, and Medusa’s
Kitchen. Warner’s volumes of poetry include Rags and Feathers, Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Edges, Memento
Mori, Serpent’s Tooth, Flytraps: Poems, “Cracks of Light: Pandemic
Poetry & Fiction, Halcyon Days: Collected Fibonacci (2023) and Abraxas:
Poems (2024)—as well as Masques: Flash Fiction & Short
Stories. He currently writes, hosts “virtual” poetry/fiction
readings, turns wood, and enjoys fishing and boating along the Hood Canal.
https://www.amazon.com/Halcyon-Days-Collected-Sterling-Warner/dp/B0CC4P5YZ4?ref_=ast_author_dp
Sterling Warner
English Professor Emeritus
Evergreen Valley College
Sterling Warner’s Author
Website
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