As the year ponders its own end,
aghast in morbid reflection,
the world I love stays hiding
in seeds of rejuvenation.
They dare not yet confide
the secrets kept from our ears
until the sun burns warm enough
to melt away their fears.
When wonders smooth out the rough,
blossom like fireworks in trees,
sparking, biting, igniting
life’s vibrant surge to be seen.
Colors bright and inviting,
emblazoned now in daylight,
dim gracefully in humbled bend,
yielding to stars’ conquering night.
Chemicals bound like knots,
in wads of chewing gum,
escape within me through lesions,
cut by fiberglass aggression.
The feelings they give, the mindless chewing;
all distract me from what’s really brewing.
A mattress covered transgression,
answering unasked questions
to find a total sum
of one’s short life well fought,
and reach zero.
Pursue the throat through open bones out stretched
where screams of joy or sacrifice are moved
to live or die absurd amongst refuse.
Rejected, accepted and at last wretched
bereft now upon a wall of eyes smoothed
by past, by present, future all subfused.
What once would shake those tranquil waters fierce
now speaks a common tongue to have them soothed;
silent they watch and wait for more to loose.
Such loss is all that’s left for hearts to pierce,
life’s dues.
It all comes to a head,
sloped in confident stability,
glistening polearm in the sun;
trembling with each primal rhythm,
an apocalypse in hoof beats.
Echoed close like slow dance,
a warrior’s heart.
A tiny muscle fortified by steel,
beneath so much flimsy flesh,
in a hot dark space – cramped,
with fear, excitement, intimidation.
Awkward, boisterous things,
louder than the quiet duty beneath.
The motley pair gallop towards their mirrored end,
while the crowd pours forth celebration,
enough to drown in if murder were not their intent.
In your hand, a frail rose bud,
the edges whispering falls fatal hues,
curled up in exile,
of the once bright colors that remain.
The fleeting caress of petal’s memoirs,
bloom against gentle fingers,
bent like crooning midwives,
soothing scavengers.
This innocence plucked from wounded stalk,
shifts uncomfortably in the wind,
subtle tremors pining,
for the time and place where they began.
A woefully bare stem, violated,
standing amidst the rubble of its life,
a solitary piteous steel pipe,
its thorns shorn, its head in your hand.
The void you etched,
an echo of absence,
dark – wanting – growing,
where the flower never will again.
This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke
This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke
This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke
This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke
Lethargic in matted hair,
moored amidst sticky sweetness;
still warm – [embrace].
Sampson’s strength twirled flirtatious,
as two houses feuding in gusts of wind,
currents wicked with sin.
Reluctantly, with a convulsive hand,
I unearth the treasure within.
Grow Gray With Me 