Author: David Wright

AIDER of the lost ark, so he intuits. The reflex
RIPENs in Uzzah’s brain, shoots down spine.
VISTA, sliding ark met by hands rising and last sight:
WHEEL, jammed, lurches forward–then the deadly jolt.

SHARE in the now,
VAPID meanders bid cease,
OUGHT, too, abey. Watch:
HERON standing still, waiting to strike.

CANDY the outbuildings with paint and ornament,
PRIVY is still a privy, the handyman thinks, painting
NINTH stencil on its side. He finds it all too precious.
DRIER wits will henceforth call it “the Lesser Versailles”.

NURSE ambitions, while slamming shutters to the soul.
LEARN blanketing darkness, grinding step by step, shrink to
BITTY horizon, till there’s nothing beyond today’s desire,
CRUDE purpose, of no value to you or anyone else.

SUAVE, jaunty, debonair? Or,
PASTY, uncertain, jumbled? Some
BYLAW of fate may contain the pronouncement.
BLINK, though, and whichever it is, you’ll have missed it: we are vapor.

HARSH, black space—survey craft appears from jump.
SHORT peace, then crew alarms, sensors blare.
KAPPA may be constant, but tensor here shows local space evilly curved,
SOBERest of questions: far enough from black hole to claw away?

HARSH winter gales, but now sighting refuge of huts,
LADEN from successful hunt, they
SLYLY calculate the changed
RATIO: hope rising with full bellies, fears declining as hunger recedes.

SURLY bonds of earth to slip, not by travel, rather to transcend,
TOUCH beyond small space, short time, escape prison of
SORRY human state–yes, its bursts of beauty, yet then
WREAKing vaster ills. Faith, cling as mover moves!

SEIZE what you desire!
A BASE of followers underwrites
ETHOS. Surely, what the crowd wants is
VALID?