Category: ohthatwright

HAZEL evoking a plant, a color, eyes. What if the hazel
BERETs were a group devoted to spreading good, rejecting
FALSE greatness, seeking the welfare of all? An anti-
COVEN, something the larger group embraced, not feared? And how soon would they fail their own aspirations?

BROWN van barrels into the
PLAZA, screeches to a stop.
DRUNK UPS driver stumbles out. Couldn’t
DODGE Fedex driver’s cutting words. So what if the uniform is ugly? Good work is still being done.

DELVE into tale of wizardry, not through book, but
PIXEL’s murk, green screen and algorithm’s haze.
MINOR fascinations given effect, person and story stripped bare.
CLOAK of invisibility? Cast over all that is compelling.

INCUR the last bit of medieval fright:
DRUNK as it were, on ergot, the village imagines a
COVEN, where there is only bad rye.
THERE is now the opposite problem: demons are invisible and hide in plain sight.

CHIME sounds. Other guy darts in and clocks him. Consciousness circles the
DRAIN. Blackness. 3 minutes later, or a day, he comes to.
WHOSE body is he in? Who could have so much pain?
BOXER decides then and there: he’s not a boxer.

VERGE of sand, bordering on sand, looking out on sand.
CAMEL stands there with a camel smile,
PUTTY lips chewing away on a tuft of saltbush.
GRASS would be juicier, but grass is not to be had, here in all this sand.

CRUEL words, a given of life, but uneasy input to a poem.
LIVID comes next, adding to oppressive sense. Cruelty and anger,
SPIED at remove, or experienced up close, or inflicted,
BLEND into malaise. Where is peace, where joy, who can establish them?

RIVETs on the armored wagon finished, he flips up the welding
VISOR. He wants a cigar. War gear he can fashion. But tobacco?
CEASEless forging of weaponry needs iron and fire, stable across much time: war is always
AFOOT. But plants a continent over? More than smithing is involved.