These are two short poems that I think go together. They were both written after reading a book or story that made me feel such strong emotions I wouldn’t normally feel that I had to attempt to capture them in the best way I could. However good that is. Those emotions: cowardice and tragedy.

Cowardice:

Cages sought to destroy,

Weaken at the rims.

Ploys meant for men

Shade into a curtain.

They lift up a smell...

The cages whimper, crashing

From weight of endless

Choices.

Never made.

Never used.

Only hidden

In the shadows of their caves.

Tragedy:

Heartless tears come soaring,

Midnight spaces out of sight.

Let blight stare from nowhere

And where

accusations find their sources.

But life presents moments

Like droplets on a frosted pine

Pining after roses...

Before and after

The clamp.

     the sound of croaking out of sight.