Sunday, November 06, 2011

Neil Ellman



 

 

In Love



I am in love
with stars, tarantulas and you
porcupines, pyramids
cellophane
and mayonnaise
Picasso and gumbo-limbo trees
the frost on the morning cloak
shredded paper raining down
on streets
crowded with asteroids
and caviar
with you as well
as the smell of lavender
and the touch
of a stranger on the train
no stranger than
the love I have for you.



Snake



Coiled conceit
unraveling
           
in arms
cold to the touch
the cobra springs
           shedding skin
                   (not  yet her own)—

and I trusted you
for what you were.






From Your Side of the Sun



On your side of the sun
  insinuations
            spread
       this     &      that
              secrets
          in cold colors

         white fireflies
         contained in
         incandescent jars

it never stops
                these rumors
                recriminations

                age define

       dark spots on an old man’s face
       suggesting spittle from its mouth

      certainty

      when there is none.


Vodka



Vodka becomes me
i, it
we are friends
from the playgrounds
of our youth
old lovers
behind a barn
grappling
in the grass
we climbed
Everest
it and I
plunged to the soft
bottom
of the Mariana Trench
where no neighbors
could see us
nothing touch us
we had no shame
where shame itself
was light
no remorse
we grow old
really old
i and it
fulfilling our pledge
till death do us part.

1 comment:

Michael Holme said...

Loved the imagery.