33 short poems

By Jack Brummet

 

  

Stealth

You think one thing,

Say another,

And do a third.

                    ---o0o---

The host and tenant lock

In benign equilibrium.

                    ---o0o---

Each valley followed by a slope.
Every going followed by a return.

                    ---o0o---

There is no relief without an ache,
 And no virus without a host.

                    ---o0o---

Bricks tumble into the moat.
The king's body hangs naked from the flagpole.
                    ---o0o---

For a fleeting moment

The condition for change exists.
                    ---o0o---

A roiling thunderstorm clears the air
Like Wyatt Earp's peacekeeper
                    ---o0o---

A bad beginning can be overcome
But a good end lasts forever

                    ---o0o---

When you strip away the stage flats, makeup, and costumes,

It’s all one story starring our private heroes and dreams.

                    ---o0o---

  

Resurrection

He was ready to live again
Even if living just meant running
To keep ahead of the ghosts.

                    ---o0o---

  

It’s so still and calm
In the mosque,
You could hear a fly expire.
                    ---o0o---

The Marriage

Two tattered mannequins
Prop each other up
In the Salvation Army Store window
                    ---o0o---

  

Gone Fishing

As the forests swamps and bones turn slowly to coal
The last pterodactyl
Soars overhead, calling for a friend.
                    ---o0o---

It's so quiet you hear
dust motes six feet up
bump in shafts of sunlight.
                    ---o0o---

  

Take the worst that could happen
And add two zeros.

                    ---o0o---

High fidelity clouds gather over
The tattered stage flats of a world on fire.

                    ---o0o---

  

It's Getting Crowded

We cover the earth with Venn Diagrams

As our steps bisect old steps.
                    ---o0o---

The glass is not half-full

I saw our dreams disappear
Like a white pony
Over a low grassy hill.
                    ---o0o---

The Golden Rule

Listen to the songbirds trill
But keep an eye
On the buzzard section.
                    ---o0o---

An orchard of salt pillars
Circles Gomorrah's ashes:
Lot's Wife had no name.

            ---o0o---

 If I don’t write it down

The words race away
Like a hit and run driver

                    ---o0o---

Your Wooden Leg

Run if you still can.
Drag that wooden leg behind you,

But keep up, jogging after your pipe-dream.

                    ---o0o---

Weather Report

Life is a raindrop
Sizzling as it skitters
Across the universal griddle.
                    ---o0o---

"And after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in masquerade"

The truth exists; the lie must be created.
                    ---o0o---

Waiting

There is no tomorrow

until we get through

the day after yesterday

                    ---o0o---

Possibilities

In your chest beats the heart of a Good Samaritan
Who never quite got off the starting blocks
                    ---o0o---

Torches & Pitchforks

The whole
Is far less than the sum
Of its parts:
                    ---o0o---

Mission Statement

The Army has two duties—

To break things, and kill people;

Everything else is just fluff and overhead.
                    ---o0o---

Dodgeball

We weave around and through

Unseen hazards and shoals,

Always feeling less safe

Than we actually are.

                    ---o0o---

The Odds

  

Simple probability and statistics
Tell us ineluctably that the more times
You stick your head In the lion's mouth,
The more likely it is that one day he will close it.

                    ---o0o---

The Man In The Mirror

There's a civil war in his head:
Lobe against lobe.
                    ---o0o---

  

Falling per se is not a bad thing.
The problems arise when falling
Becomes not falling, or, the uncontrolled landing problem.

                    ---o0o---

The Return Of The Kings

We never picture the aliens
Coming in peace
Because we never came in peace.
                    ---o0o---