Thursday, November 6, 2014

Jake Berry




Household Objects

Autumn's edge
when summer surrenders
to rust

Each one returns
to its nesting ground –
a twilight play
of mineral intelligences.

How to maintain
the core structures –
trade routes
through the chaotic isotopes

A man whose face
is all mirrors and noise
summons the populace
who'd rather sleep than
fight another war

The clothes hung out to dry
are left in the rain
until nothing remains
but tattered rags
for the birds to shred

“Amen,” the preacher said
and the congregation echoed

Tyranny is a peculiar
form of entropy
Well documented with
murals and parades
and the return of greed
as a virtue

If the philosophers
read the cobwebs
rather than clean house
the feasts will continue
another year, a decade perhaps
before all motion stops

On the steps of the courthouse
wrens flicker black
and children gamble
for the articles of faith –
a chalice
a railroad spike
and the familiar clothes
of their mothers.


                                             © Jake Berry


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