Search Results for: Michael J DeValve

Almost without sound you round the corner and then there 
      you are:
I turn like the gears of a clock, compelled beyond 
     resistance and
Again, I am confronted with a circumstance that 
     defies reason: you
Smile and roll your eyes as I try and fail
To show you the course of heartblood in me
As it traces past my loins, toward my feet and then out,
Tributary to the wide and swift current, a glacier poured,
Almost silent, irresistible, sliding to the sea.

Mere belonging, my belonging is mere.
I was, become, and am, a smear
On a canvas; round strokes rich with indigo thick 
     pigment and
Thin yolk yellow squeaks hold court with angry mud and 
     laser red;
Rusty blood blameworthy waters hopeful green, but 
     The Painter cannot be found.
The painter is found
In silence.     There is no painter, no paint.
But there is color and sorrow.
And hope.     There is hope.
Hope and sorrow are lovers, one inside the other,
Moving deeply.
So entangled they are, hope and sorrow, that only one
Can be seen at a time.

Bodies mangled by choices, smashed by meaning, 
     somehow stand
And move, not knowing
They’re already rotting.
Fear and Reason throw gasoline and acid at the bodies
Never seeing the children they doom to suttee for it.
Fear and Reason, turns out, can’t see children.
I can, because of you, and because of you I do my best
To dry their eyes and hold them, shivered, sobbing.
Fear and Reason throw gasoline and acid into a mirror.
Because of you, tomorrow I will hold them, too.

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Poetry ©2023 Michael J. DeValve
All rights reserved

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