"…..light like a feather, heavy as lead."
Bob Marley, "Misty Morning"
Flesh and blood unrest in youth with no tide no kumina
chip foot print . grabbing any need repair with hands on
wheels untrained for lanes only to be followed by gold
rim rides from bonier faces pulled from gun lagoons for pock
mark cases ̶ as if scatteration was every general's first
business of order.
Which leaves the rally run come mask force with fronts
to tier, galvanize alley ways for little ones to crouch
behind till the day is over.
Even our Nan's sheltering ankle hems step tight 'n' tense
as the sun takes cover, time left no longer sustainable by
dance habit such is the thatch dread of lamp flicker . boot
raid limb lay rip _ redress . all you own.
You reel? so you fold back . as fight
we might at the holding yard where roosters louder call
at dawn than head wrapped song and where . to next
wind strong?
Kingdoms come . hearts packed wait each last flight out :
crows hover blades swish dust requesting unlock words
which, bark strips round her bed, our Granny passed :
my Soul to Thee . with eye lash dew : "Mon Dieu!
what kept you so long?"
As breath ends cabin belts release . navel cells
applaud a ground safe landing, faith complete.
Out side clutching lines doubt sky board times
> short as a prance, this life.
– W.W.
A FEATHER'S GRAVITY
'Strenght through assertiveness!'
And through strength? Ageing, disease,
corruption and slow rotting
to translate such compost into buds.
This is the field of flesh as a lot
of stinkweed. Even popes get sick
and end up begging Heaven
for mercy. Even kings,
rich cowardly bullies
and heartless thugs must, on their
death-beds, regret their feats of force.
Not even a healthy lazy sage
is free from earwigs and razor-grass.
Perhaps all such men are trying
too hard? Whatever became
of plain-old wood-chopping
and water-fetching? They
also are hard but at least
the path they form between the shed,
the river and the stars is not forced,
except as a mantra may be thought
to be forced, but is a willing
surrender to a sure glimpse
of Light beyond the gnomes
of pressure by weight, Light
beyond the weightless undines,
sylphs and angels of air and fire,
Light behind masked eyes of hinting stars.
(from "Readiness" by Brian Chan)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 