Fleshy
Still sticky, halloween around the corner, flies upon flies on top of each other madly mating. Carpe diem. Their mad orgies, on top of another. Landing on your lips. Crawling around in your hair. In the cutthroat night of capitalism, reducing your life belongings. Late nights with a wooden block for a pillow. The oceanic dance. What is it? Good graces, you cannot earn them. The electric kettle has given up the ghost. Trying to be here, anywhere. Every dust mote is another universe. Portal to lost dimensions. Coattails of the romantics. Starry night skies. Psychedelic sunflowers. Feeling lonely, you swivel in your swivel chair. You never thought you would miss it, but here you are, missing it. The burning in the bosom. Fleshy but also soulful.
Blaze
Your uncle suffering from dementia before dying this last weekend. He was a great painter, out there in his little shed. The most kind hearted man in your family. His paintings hang on your walls. Small Irish cottages. Shawled matrons. Thin stick men paired off in conversation. Bulbous fishermen in bright orange clothing. Their moored boats. Their blue red and yellow caps. One with the oars slung over his shoulders. After your Mormon mission, searching for new spirituality, your uncle fed you cans of Guinness, and the stairs were moving, right there in front of you. Back in Portadown, after so many years in America, you felt the warmth there. You cannot return to the place you started. Your cousin, 49, heart attack, two stents in her arteries. She is suffering from heart sickness after the loss of her father. Sometimes the body is no longer a metaphor. Sometimes heart break brings us together. Ladies and gentlemen in outer space. We stand upon this little rock spinning through vast emptiness. Blazing into the alien future.
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Marcus Slease (Portadown, N. Ireland) is the author of Puppy (Beir Bua Press),Never Mind the Beasts (Dostoyevsky Wannabe), and The Green Monk (Boiler House Press), among others. He comes from a working class background and currently teaches high school in Barcelona. Find out more at:Never Mind the Beasts