Spine
Ernest Williamson III
Today, Afternoon & After Class
spilled along the chalk board
were your letters
hints of hemlock
stained the garrulous feud
frozen
in gray marble
beneath my feet
students were transfixed
like inward taste buds
accustomed to numbness
as whenever the teacher
uttered
words
salient expressions,
built with alacrity
smoothly
yet irregularly
along
faces
dead faces,
moved with faint pulses
for the sake of something
beyond
bland
something
captive
like Africa
today
afternoon
and after
class
Warnings From The Ward
to what end is the end a riddle with spores of mild
minions
sweltering in a Trojan Horse
ensued by the government
I've never walked under a bridge without blessing the sounds
of the fowl
yet millions of dollars are groping every dishonest wound
from Wall Street to the moon
and so poetry mounts atop Mt. Kilimanjaro
as vapor and ringworm
exposed and irked
as nerves cringe
as mouths laugh
as pundits analyze
as death surmounts
as poverty grows weary
as anarchy takes her foot out of the quicksand
singing of revolution
though your arms are weak
her mind stomps the malefaction of America
a great idea drifting into factions and
fractals of stumbling ice caps
The Reaper Of Cowardly Deeds
Constantinople has fallen again
like a rank towel beaded with imitations of algae
in the worst winter of 1678
Constantinople had revealed a ghastly shadow
until the Danes in Northeastern Europe
where the waltz of the corroding winds
hummed up and down the ridges of the great verdant mountains
but now I have traveled into the astounding waste of 1912
bondsmen carry me from African precious stones
within their indestructible nuclei
awaiting my disgruntled cry
for a replenished sitting
while Constantinople reaches for precious Eastern balms
for the extant anguish in furrowed brows
of molested plankton
in all of the human seas of arrogant
bleeding
seeds
and sadly winning is not an option
for walking dead men
with grand ideas
irking inertia
with no time to spare
here nor there
A Liar Unto Uncertain Inferences
seas has settled with the beasts
orange and blue oranges have leaked
seeds
juices
have merged with ice
hanging in diatonic rhythms
of
purple
Black
people
in steeples I see the massive drops of rainbow
sherbet
oozing
from wolf clouds
above
and
below
the séances of blond eyed
gypsies
symphonies
have devolved with assonance
for a rite of passage
into 21st Century
tears
wan ones
layered
subjective
like sex
for men and women
though children play
amongst their genius
innocence and longevity of bliss
splattered
in the weaknesses of their legs
in the possibilities of their brains
like I know
what I knew
as
one
cute
cut
from a history
unfelt
by the brash bustling
most adults
ignore
unwillingly
on purpose
so again
who am
I
Chastity & Cracked Assurance
left by the Osprey
in the dimeter next to the gray living room
Chastity made a commitment
to never smoke cigars again
though the taste of snuff
with its thick tusk
consigned with brevity
of taste
inhaled
with greed
liked me
most of me
abstained
Chastity never tampered
with her maturity
though I wonder why she flinched
with ire
for the many who carelessly gamble
with rest
in hope of peace
like the pieces of chemical
assurance
singing in the wisps of quick minded
smoky
clouds
of lies
leaving smiles unto smiles
though Chastity never knew of them
I know in Heaven she now knows
something
of smiles
of herself
I surmise
with
cracked
assurance
copyright © ernest williamson III
2009
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