P O E T S     ON THE LINE
a continuing anthology

Founded by Andrew Gettler & Linda Lerner

NO. 9 & 10         T H E  M I L L E N N I U M  I S S U E

Edited by Linda Lerner


CATFISH McDARIS

Kokopelli
Anasazi dust
scattered
in four directions

paint smudge on mountain walls

no sacred smoke lingers
in abandoned kivas

ghosts of cliff
climb no longer

traveling far i have seen
the end and returned

my flute shall speak again

death comes silently
then reincarnation

a timber rattler crawling
into life

my flute shall speak again
quietly
on the wind

dancing in your mind


CATFISH McDARIS

No Longer Here
a dying bull's eyes bulge
from a nightmare disbelief face
amigo's daughter is dead

i watch his soul
shrivel & walk away
tears river down granite jaws
fist sledgehammers pound

hearts to a bloody pulp

not expired not passed away
no longer alive
a piece of meat for worms

23 years
she'd been his life
her whore mother long gone

there are no words to convey solace

watching my daughter
opening presents under the tree
i lapse into guilt & pain
a blue sorrow
i can not imagine
it claws my eyes to blindness

my wife stares at me
without understanding
like something abstract
a de Kooning

"this is suppose to be
a happy time" she explains

But I'm gone


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