Author: David Wright

VOILA, brave new world at my command in one device.
SILLY pursuits easier now, along with serious, perhaps.
AWAKE at night, chasing rabbit trails on a glowing screen.
PHONE, oh such potential! But soul, you struggle to deliver.

EPOXY, superlative substance of stick,
TORUS, shape that sounds so svelte,
THOSE are premium for purposed prose,
CANNY in their usual use. Yet, weird in poem’s lines.

VIGIL at the sickbed, weary drifting up the prayers.
SERUM, final, fragile hope, a life to coax and death arrest.
VAPID flit some thoughts unwelcome, lift up gaze for help:
CRANE, through glass, above the bay, lonely crosses sky.

CLUNG we to good news of union past,
SYNOD yet revealed our sundering cracks.
MELEE of coveting passions, rivaling formulae to judge, to condemn.
CLANG, closing bell! Sound the prayers we cannot pray to bless.

NEVER at rest in Dasein, I endeavor method to cope:
STAVE off malaise by contemplating life’s smaller scales.
LOUSE, humble, despised, but a live link in being’s chain.
QUALM lingers. My own link so proximate to louse.

FOYER: 4 am, detectives gathered.
PRONE body motionless. Cameras click.
STERN presences all; a death is never just itself, meaning: sweat
SHEEN on faces in bad lighting is of over work, but also recognition.

RABBI, hiding at forest’s edge, watching pogrom’s smoke.
SUING for justice a bitter thought; none would take the case.
RISEN in his mind are God’s angels, appearing for the scattered.
SWOOP down, Michael and Gabriel: proclaim God our protection!

DROLL, a hard start to a poem, describing thoughts well along in growth.
ROCKY ground for germinating verse plant; it would not have gone
AMISS had the the seed word been
SPICE, setting up a sensory burst at the start. As it is, blooms are in the offing.

PASTE: something some children furtively eat, with no idea why,
FATTY, not yet a concern to the omnivorous child, and
TWICE as hard later to be thoughtful about consumption, for
SIGHT dominates our appetites—reflective faith must be born later.