Author: David Wright

TOOTHy grin while scheming big.
SKULK around the hose, fill balloon after balloon. Then,
BRISK walk into house and up the stairs, the bin
SLOSHing all the way. Brother’s back in 20. The look on his face, when he comes up the driveway.

SCALDing evening, in a boiling summer.
TABBY sprawled on the vent, but AC conked out.
STYLE of a sweltery night: taking cold baths, and hoping more than a
TEASE comes through the window at midnight: my sweaty kingdom for a breeze.

LIMBO, old invention to help theodicy along, seeing
REVUE of souls passing before anxious inward eyes.
TOTEM and taboo—so, Freud might analyze prior belief, throwing
ELBOW of modernist at prior imagination, in favor of his own.

GODLY is next to cleanly, or is that reversed?
LAGER is a beer that takes time.
STEEL wool is what he uses to clean the vats.
GROWLs to himself to try to keep things clean to start another batch.

CROSS beam holds snake looking mangled.
MOULT the least of its injuries.
STAIN of snake blood seeping down
TATTY pole. Look and be set free.

ETHIC: a thing, it seems, describing a system for others.
ALIKE for self? Hardly. Self is under the rule of self. But they? From
BIRTH they owed it to be good, to be right, to serve a higher good.
SLAIN, though, the good for self. Good is what the self wants.

STOUT is what he’s become, in latter decades.
GROUT and tile is what he does in a day’s work,
RALPH. You need a re-tile? Call Ralph.
RIGOR and care, and speed. That’s Ralph with tile.

SCOUR the world for own advantage.
BLUSH never, say sorry never, admit other views never,
WHINE, claim persecution, slap twice for every slap.
ELIDE at every turn every glint of good a life might reflect.

TRITE is easy, so is
SLEEK. Surfaces are everywhere. The
ALTAR of Surface always bears a flame.
VOTER will vote for simple and easy. How do I dive into depths?