Six Poems by John Drudge

 

Across the River 

 

Keeping it all   

At a distance  
As the rhythm falters 
Into a beat  

I can no longer feel  

A tune unravelling  

Threadbare 
Everything dissolving 
Into the blurred edges 
Of temptation 
Degrees upon degrees 
Melting into something 
I no longer recognize 

As Champaign flows 

In the old style  

Of living 

In the Ritz bar 

Across the river 

With the ghosts of history 

Dancing  

And eternity bleeding  

Onto the floor

Fading into War 

 

Vague 

In the distance  

Where home  

Is a myth 

Courage 

And extravagance 

Fatalism and war 

Each a coin flipped 
In thriftiness  

Adventures arising 
In the aftermath of faith 

Battlements at the ready 

Armed 

With a need to be alive 

A survival song 

Marching  

To a new beat 

A new form 

Of freedom 

Through the interminable  

Dust of dying 

Holes in the ground 

And in the trenches 

Of lost forgiveness  

Fading fast 

In the dying heat 

Of tomorrow’s  

Uncertainty 

In a world  

Shaped by loss

Ashore 

 

Something 

Broke me open 

Where the horizon  

Bleeds into the sea 
A rupture sharp  

As salt air 
Bleached  

By forgotten suns 
Beneath the weight  

Of memory 

And carrying me  

Over bones 

And rubble roads 

Toward the coast 

Where we once  

Came ashore

Leonardo Falling 

 

Leonardo 

Was unbalanced 

Clever crazy 

Crazy clever 

Something strange  

About him 

Visions 

From the wilder side 

An irritating smirk 

A Mona Lisa smile 

On the road to despair 

Timeless moods 

Mind games 

With a sense of mystery 

And pessimism 

Apocalyptic power 

Mirrored writing 

The alchemy of reduction 

Deluge dreams 

And end times 

Land slides 

Into the valley 

Of judgement 

With trees 

Falling from the sky

Writers on the Storm 

 

An eye 

For sordid actuality 

In the dark alleys 

Behind the row houses 

On the other side 

Of town 

Where secrets are power 

And the ashes of yesterday 

Soften the fall 

And where choosing 

To remember  

Is a style

One 

 

The laws 

Of time and space 

Break down 

In singularity 

We exist in pieces 

Under glass 

Under the sun 

Melted  

Into one

   

John Drudge is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology.  He is the author of seven books of poetry: “March” (2019), “The Seasons of Us” (2019), New Days (2020), Fragments (2021), A Long Walk (2023), A Curious Art (2024) and Sojourns (2024) . His work has appeared widely in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children.  

  

 

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