James Berry


The Rains

    Fictional rain fizzes fumes
    On my figment of road
    Soaks my make-believe back
    Wears the illusion of water underfoot
    To a spate of sand

    All the proverbial rats are drowning
    Gods bawl blue fury in the above
    Fork out a judgment of light

    Till only these real ankles
    And this soggy sheet
    Sport an emperor's clothes of ink
                    and mud

SNOUT

    Last sun squatted smoked in the hall   
    Till dark burst out sobbing
    Baptizing the dirt
   
    Now shadows write longhand
    On the inky diaphragm of night
    Hardened cracked turned to powder
    Under the grey-black buffalo of the moon
        and the stars' bitterfruit

    Ground to bitterest nose
        is the face in my palms
    A hot pellet of gall

    Skin hangs like a pirate flag
    Stomach head feet hurt
    Belligerent rib bone quake

    Smitten, surfaced with litter
    Night is no poultice
    Its Snout imposes in my ear
   
    and the untidy tear sleep,   
    It cracks too loud to quell

Poetry