milky way

melancholy—on each side of its mouth grasping pedipalps                            RN

beads of moonlight strung in the autumn air                                                     CB

avoiding my wife i drink out alone                                                                        OT

salt spilled over shoulder evening chill                                                                RN

snow drifts down slowly into the mossy silence                                               CB

desecrated grave all of my poems hidden from his view                                 OT

                                    --

a rose stalk in my heart rain in bloom                                                                  RN

a brief patch of stars swallowed back into the autumn night                         CB

closed curtains blue mums and unopened wine                                               OT

ghosting your kisses moonlight stuck between my teeth                                RN

the distance between us now measured by red shift                                        CB

waiting for the night bus unfolding irises in work-rough hands                      OT

i remember my face a birdcage with a sparrow in it                                         RN

those wiry old-man eyebrows, a bit of shaving cream on my ear                   CB 

running through a child's shadow my secrets in a toybox                               OT

and one day you will find god trampled by a carousel horse                          RN

ring-a-ring-a-rosies the falcon’s widening gyre                                                  CB

late afternoon train riding into No-thoughts curve of the tracks                    OT

                                    --

in the garden of death a poppy with the power to make poems                     RN

a dragon dancing on foil the summer sun red with wildfire                             CB

we speak of Siddhartha's life another round of espressos                               OT

king Arthur's heart a place where leaves do not turn yellow                             RN

candlelight and shadow the hunt of the unicorn against cool stone               CB

the food i ordered arrived i still despise the apostle Paul                                 OT

the month i sleep all day long the moon does the same                                   RN 

winter solstice, the sun becomes the idea of cherry blossoms                        CB

egg sandwiches i find you adorable while you eat                                              OT

inventing another word for beauty cranes on a snow covered pine                 RN 


above the timberline the mountain boulders a color out of space                    CB

even silence has a feeling :: swaying on this nighttime train                              OT

                                    --

angel's breath the snowflakes that fall from a bedtime story                           RN

the dead grass sharp with frost the call of a hermit thrush                              CB

the voice of flowers: a sealed jar of candy corn between us                            OT

a wolf awakes the mysterious female and the piano gets it                            RN


all the flowers lost in all the solemn rites of spring                                          CB 

dreaming of playing in Duke Bluebeard's beard i wash dishes                       OT




Reka Nyitrai
Clayton Beach
Orrin Tyrell