For Anyone Named Ronit

Not a loyalist
A little self loathing
Enough to take issue
Change position
Protagonist
Fragile hero
Broken bottles
Barren midsection

Not a flaw
The way it boils down
Cracks in the surface
Embolden the flavor
Give way to substance
Or interesting mixes
Of scents and identifying marks
Scar tissue
Blister pop
Sleep creases

Knotted hemp
The way it happens
Organic meander
Around beads and bones
Sharp looks back
Define as much
As owls in the now
Those very first eurekas
Living in a fat cell
Deep in the guts
Or flabby arm
Released when needed
Knowing who to be
At the right moment
From had been before
And thought it was
Now a short walk
Ankle biting
Wet ears
Hairless

Not a candle
A way of life
Experienced on a day
When nothing else happened
A bomb may have sounded
A car alarm may have reacted
But in the heated eclipse of moments
A nothing day
Cradling the identity
Leaving a patchwork cover
To stitch against a solid
And unmovable idea
Kneading it slowly
Getting things to go rubbery
Releasing the moisture
But adding elasticity
Ancestral water
Blending back with the atmosphere
To come and go as it pleases
As always
Forever and ever
Flickering oil lamp
Black sooty wall burn
Table left scattered with crumb
Beginning to see clearly
Then gone again
On and on
Relative humidity
Unrelated water log
Notification of table rising
Lowering again
Again and again
Stratifying colors
Banding together
Separated with borders
Compressed unintentionally
Going solid
Small changes
Changing everything
--
8.11.09

Comments

a modern clock to chime. said…
This one reads as a sort of onslaught of sensory experiences for the first two-thirds, which is done nicely. This method easily becomes muddled in a lot of pieces, but you have tied it together so well in the last third, particularly referencing the movement in the phrase "going solid".
August 11, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Enri Zoltz said…
AMC - Thanks for the positive critique. I usually don't like to leave things "untied," or "loose," if you will. As you mentioned, it is hard, depending on the method, for me, or any one poem, to find completeness. That being said, I am also rarely afraid to take a poem in a different direction mid-to-end of poem. I have been cautioned about this from some people and even told that several of my poems are actually "two poems" and not one at all. I am very stubborn when it comes to the organic flow of poetry and don't usually heed guidance when I feel I am right. To my detriment sometimes, I am sure, but I am always glad to hear that something with so many directions has found a comfortable path.
August 12, 2009 at 11:35 AM
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