Poem by William J. Barnum

Photo by Chad Parenteau



Contaminated Beds

contaminated beds
are where
we learn
to burn our
flesh
by night
emerging into
light

now crowns today
with fire

precious
for our sight
is darkness to
an eye
which only stares
its brightest zone
through shadows
harboring
pennies

beneath
a white moon
leans into
temptation
we learned
from a loon

many days
woven into
wide world’s
womb
unravel

denude
us
within our
closed room

comparable
bonnets put
onto one
head

where days
hairy splendor
now hatless
are sped

lie down with
old bodies in
life’s final bed

toxicity
here shudders
sky with
shameless
steel

ascending
towers
stretch
spines
to feel
the wing
they’re
made of

until a dove
shall arc us
home beneath
our star once
more

companionway
towards
heaven
opens
seven’s gate

a floor above
elevates
to street
beneath
where truth
spawned
through gutters
of our youth
cuts cake at
a wedding

where we met
too late

Mississippi
delta waving
fronds
where geese
fly wingless
onto backs of
swans
return to purer
nature than their
mirror harms

frigid
temperature
precipices
this room inside
a darkened noon

wind
whipping
ankles

birds
returning
spring
from fallen
song
beneath their
ice-clad
wing
wish people’s
hope-fed feet
in tomorrow’s
summer heat

murky
melodies
maintain
their
plumb-line
straight as
any
lean lothario
singing in

her bungalow
to his love
so long ago

nocturnal
journeys
terrorize
the sun
until our
double
manifest
as one

torturous
prospects
give awnings
the breeze
re-awake-able
warnings
disturbing
our ease
foster
memories
vagrant
from night’s
treacherous seas

totaling
particulars

packing
journeys
into jars
exceptions
to a fool
are stars

exceeding
limits
crashing
doors
where
prisons
cannot
choose their
bars

coincidence
reminds
forgetting
in a corner
waiting for a
breath
to move
while holding
sorrow
winnows
truth from
laughter
as rough seas
crash into foam

temptation
angers
lightening

tongues
rattling
shutters

where a bull dog’s
gentle
kisses
smiling
telephones
hum
over
seas
of sorrow
on tomorrow’s wave

malleable
talking
from man-issued
tonsils
vanish
door-mouthed
ways
left
vacant
beneath
sky-ways

where
wheels
roll for
rain
landing
safely

meet Lord Death
with
escutcheoned
vest

predestined
faculties
back
project
forward
nothing
wondered

wander
towards
timidity
gains
secret
power
within
this sacred
hour

remember
railroad
ties
lie back
across
forgotten
track

where a
man
supplants
the Father of
All Love