by James Piatt

The Enigma of Non-being
my mind wanders
stumbles.
falls
winter winds fill minutes
with cold uncertainty
and… something else
i stagger listening
to echoes of absurdity
i hear
someone from Nowhere
sobbing for those like me
then
timelessness silence wondering
echoing nothingness
memories lost in darkness
of uncertainty
lonely contents build
in the vastness of briny tears.

Reality Vanished
Arriving in the late hours
of an iron colored metallic night,
rusting symbols
covered with an aging patina
of dark contractions
whispered across my mind,
causing anguish.
Crystal poems
written in scarlet ink,
were shattered
by metamorphic hammers
pounding words of grief
into gloomy synonyms,
causing dark allegories
to ache inside the cold dreariness
of my aging mind.
Images of broken tombstones
amongst unknown graves
entered my consciousness,
trails of tears soaked
into the cemetery’s soil,
damping it with
more sorrow,
than it could hold.
I sensed
once forgotten memories
being awakened.
As sharp pangs
of grief started piercing
my collapsing mind,
reality in the blink
of a ghost’s eye,
vanished.

James Piatt

James, a poet and novelist, lives in Santa Ynez, California, a once simple rural farming community, with his wife Sandy, and a dog named Scout. He has published five collections of poetry, five novels, and thirty-five short stories. He has also published over 1750 poems in scores of national and international literary journals. He is a twice nominated Best of Net nominee and three times nominated Pushcart nominee. He earned his doctorate from BYU, and his BS and MA from California State Polytechnic University, SLO.

_{^{Artist: Sam Brave}}