Eventually
Tock
— Zumwalt (2012)
Posts tagged ‘death’
In contest with a hippopotamus
In contest with a hippopotamus
me and the hippo
race
to lose weight
at such a frantic yet erratic pace
me and the fruit fly vie
to try to not age
to postpone the next stage
to delay each and every turn of every single page
Hey babe! What? I’m staying away from the eggs.
And the butter.
So don’t stay away from me.
Hey boy! Look — I am not old.
I expect to send tingles down your spine,
not receive a courteous nod like you’d give to your great-grandmother
several years after she’s been buried.
Gee.
This dog I have smells.
No bath rids the odor.
No change of diet freshens the breath.
The only remaining option is to the change the dog
for I am getting tired of changing the carpet.
me and the sunset
will meet again
at some appointed time
until then I compete against the shadow it causes the body to cast
seeking any remaining light while vanishing in the darkness
— Zumwalt (May 1991)
Reposted for dVerse challenge: http://dversepoets.com/2011/11/19/poetics-changes/
The Handcuff King
The Handcuff King
Escape pays for now:
suspend me upside down;
lock glass and steel;
fill fully;
water flowing over.
But if my escapes entertains,
understand that it is my existence.
I can handle building-size milk cans, Chinese water torture cells,
underwater crates and being buried alive.
Faced with flight or forced-fight,
the choice is easy
but understand I must force fight to flee:
no escape is without struggle.
But without escape or the opportunity of one,
I must hang on
and for how long?
Until I burst?
Or until I meet the next world:
the destiny of all that depart?
Explain to me the retreat available:
the extrication that sidesteps;
the evasion that slips the lock,
that springs a liberation.
No, you know no more than I about withdrawal.
You just know more about staying the course
and that won’t help much
when I need to leave, not the visage of death,
but death itself
and its closely shrouded, tightly bound design.
— Zumwalt (2011)
In contest with a hippopotamus
In contest with a hippopotamus
me and the hippo
race
to lose weight
at such a frantic yet erratic pace
me and the frutifly vie
to try to not age
to postpone the next stage
to delay each and every turn of every single page
Hey babe! What? I’m staying away from the eggs.
And the butter.
So don’t stay away from me.
Hey boy! Look — I am not old.
I expect to send tingles down your spine,
not receive a courteous nod like you’d give to your great grandmother
several years after she’s been buried.
Gee.
This dog I have smells.
No bath rids the odor.
No change of diet freshens the breath.
The only remaining option is to the change the dog
for I am getting tired of changing the carpet.
me and the sunset
will meet again
at some appointed time
until then I compete against the shadow it causes the body to cast
seeking any remaining light while vanishing in the darkness
— Zumwalt (May 1991)
zumpoems 