Death of a Romantic<\/strong><\/p>\n

for Kurt Brown<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soul<\/em> is the first to go,<\/p>\n

followed by Love, Longing, Desire.<\/em><\/p>\n

The moon is untethered,<\/p>\n

sunset mashed under a boot heel,<\/p>\n

all rainbows bled, constellations crushed.<\/p>\n

Forget the firefly, dragonfly, butterfly, moth.<\/p>\n

Singe the ladybug\u2019s wings, pluck the bluebird clean.<\/p>\n

Uproot twining roses, jasmine, willows that weep.<\/p>\n

No alabaster or alpenglow,<\/p>\n

nymph pink, madder lake, Wedgewood blue.<\/p>\n

While you\u2019re at it, 86 the ballads of Berlin,<\/p>\n

Gershwin and Kern, the Late Show,<\/p>\n

flowered china, French perfume.<\/p>\n

Day rolls into night, unquestioned.<\/p>\n

There is Fire, Air, Water, Earth.<\/p>\n

And Truth, perfect and terrible,<\/p>\n

cut in a mirror which is no longer a looking glass,<\/p>\n

swallowed whole down my throat<\/p>\n

which is not a golden flute.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Love Poem to my Chiropractor<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bless you for bowing to these bones,<\/p>\n

this mazy staircase unstrung by time,<\/p>\n

a child on each hip. Now this bank of bones<\/p>\n

sways, a crazed pendulum.<\/p>\n

Bless the heels of your hands that knead each swale,<\/p>\n

fingers that kiss each crest, each relic hollow.<\/p>\n

Beguiler of this gimcracked column.<\/p>\n

Charmer who mends this whittled pillar.<\/p>\n

Who tends me like this? Rends me<\/p>\n

fluid as a girl in arabesque? Rig me,<\/p>\n

lull\u00a0 the muffled throb, render me lithe,<\/p>\n

restore adagio, glissade and glide.<\/p>\n

Unlashed, I stretch on your table<\/p>\n

then rise, ductile a gold.<\/p>\n

Bless you for your hallowed hands.<\/p>\n

Who else loves me to the marrow?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Practicing Atheism<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

And what if there is no God?\u00a0 No<\/p>\n

homunculus with a shock stick<\/p>\n

sparking each neuron?<\/p>\n

What if dead is dead<\/p>\n

and all the prayers you ever huffed up to heaven<\/p>\n

only whittled your backbone to wishbone?<\/p>\n

Yellow would still be yellow<\/p>\n

and by the time you finish this sentence<\/p>\n

50,000 cells would still fizzle out.<\/p>\n

Shrug.\u00a0 Then muster.<\/p>\n

Drop a dime in the meter.<\/p>\n

Your feet flex.\u00a0 Your lungs pump<\/p>\n

though the left will always<\/p>\n

be smaller than the right<\/p>\n

to make room for the heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death of a Romantic for Kurt Brown Soul is the first to go, followed by Love, Longing, Desire. The moon is untethered, sunset mashed under a boot heel, all rainbows bled, constellations crushed. Forget the firefly, dragonfly, butterfly, moth. Singe the ladybug\u2019s wings, pluck the bluebird clean. Uproot twining roses, jasmine, willows that weep. No […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3285,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions\/3285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}