NULL OVER THE BARRENS

Null over the barrens
snows continued from the river
in a single drifting
like the back of an owl
spreading to flight
where dark bluffs began to rise.
I scratched a wall of stone
like strolling orchid gardens
beneath the frozen prism trees.
Held quick in these cold opals
I stood the hill gazing at the white break
with bitterness limb to limb
for the shame of this hurt
to survive for the buried,
I fed you my mouth of flies.


About John Swain:
John Swain lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Crisis Chronicles Press published his most recent chapbook, Rain and Gravestones.  

BELL BRIDGE

The wind ringed like crystal

inside the empty train bridge,

I am heartbroken

by the lesson of this carillon

and the kneeling trees.

Rain painted over the sound,

I changed my voice 

to join the opening of a way

unseen to the soul and metal

always demanding a victim.

Everything moves in a light

of birds back into the dark source,

I reclaimed the hour of birth

for an instant again unmolded

to listen and become a world.

 

 

About John Swain:

John Swain lives in Louisville, Kentucky.  Thunderclap Press published his most recent chapbook, Fragments of Calendars.