Sunday, 7 April 2024

Six Poems by Randy Barnes

 



Sleep Of Peace 

 

There were red flags as always

scorched earth and famine we pledged allegiance

the neighbourhood across the way gone and nobody home

rebar gardens with Kiefer chaos

we’ve known it among the orchards the hymns of monotony

the long turns the weight of present’s past

hear the hum the buzz beyond the clouded sky

wires overhead madly vibrant dealing fear not gently

you might grieve between breaths an unexpectant dawn

bloodied wine on kept tables fit for nothing but the chill of spring

grasses in dusty bloom stains upon an unworthy canvas

the sleep of peace weaving nightmares unfounded

skin-game returns hailed in backrooms the price never too high.

 

 

Notice 

 

Do we have your attention

have we achieved adequate darkness

we wish you the best on your journey down

what about the other side no problems there

let’s unhinge the night and drape this world with its veil

can’t counter the currents the promise of flowers

there’s shade here a forever dream of lesser shadows

we’ll retool the order make it useful till crisis

recognize hell like a rising song to the stars

only another mountain materializing in distant haze

everything underfoot solid but helplessly forlorn.

 

 

Untitled Sonnet 

 

Of silence and industry

the cogs of progress bears its mortal meat

timely intrusions elusive and predatory

territories dealt and divvied

numbers racked for the daily score

the ineffable trickeries the stealth of reason

an ongoing hunger of apathetic coma

life in sedation a powerful end

celebrant legality anything’s acceptable

high order entrapment future shock shrouded and hushed

sarcasm bled sombre diverging retractions at angles

sundry attractions repel truths cut to happy conclusions

walled and caged a cultish prevarication

the catch phrases Orwellian in disguise.

 

 

The Carryover 

 

Not the landscape meant

never the interior signifier doubted

took it in motion by virtue of lapses

proof affectation draws nearer

or branded by the what was the attempt untangles

deep sleep diver of apparitions and night sweats

low-brow hustler in the cruel numbers game

perpetrator of private investigations and averted collisions

riding midnight disturbances rhythm betrayed

natural improv no sitting this one out

a lover of cosmic description involuntary integers

vein depth revulsions’ half dream peopling a room

thieving the senses the scrub of tedium

the unfathomable no longer fashionable

narrow controls sacrosanct among the tribes

bloodlust testaments gathered and garnered to no other purpose.

 

 

The Plea 

 

The light changes a blink of evidence

keep silent with thunder in the chest

a crude case of purpose love scarcely matters

night’s concealed roar a blend of relief in the swarm

yet the extremes the sight the further dimensions

sobs from the skin sucked like venom

grace we seek in reigning shock

this nourishment freezes the blood consigned to flawed pleasures

lives of malice in material urge

briefly mistakes overlooked blown away

O citizens creating a world divided

your songs we suffer the wrong that is more

remember me gently the unease the calling along your shore.

 

 

Tune In Tune Out 

 

The land of the vested

paradigmatic flourishes mix and stir the mess

burnt crosses dissolve in the sedge and shimmer

deadlines blinded in passing

shots of nightlight the shudder of fires of a hung moon

tomorrow overdue in diverse commotion

much the same pierces the being in voice-lock

new meaning music silvers the mindsprings

on the prowl a telling release too far from home

freed of pedestals and the pulse of doubt

marrow sought from the bitter blades of the disinterred

closed eyes pay no quarter this ageless rage of enduring ice

destroyer of time in insurmountable egress.

 

 


 

Randy Barnes is the Lifetime Historian Beat Poet Laureate of Washington State. Two books to be published so far this year: Material Evidence: Dispatches 2020 - 2022 and Tactical Subterfuge: Dispatches 2023. He lives in the foothills of the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges at the southern tip of the Salish Sea.

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