10/13/2010

Deliverance

Bodies shift underground and
it is difficult to keep the dead

where they are. Among gravity
engineers it is questioned

whether or not the earth moves
because the dead push against it.

Plate Tectonics (n.) is defined by
Douglas's Dictionary as, "the dead

expanding under the blooms
of willow roots." Whether a force

makes currents rise depends on
how many dead reach for the moon.

At his grave, knowing he was no longer
there, I watched the movements and memories

of him descend through me as if I were
a synaptic water park, a faint

scent of finality, like vomit on the air.
All is noisome outside a watery cavern.

The dead are delivered. It is
the living who must endure the landscape.


----------

The Architect

He built the frame and skeleton and sealed it up.
This is the end of architecture, he thought.

Before he could get the attention
of the people, the harelip child

came crawling out of the manhole.
The people sensed other developments,

ones more flexible and achievable
than his domicile. It was at that point

the architect realized the dream of being
the end was only the beginning.

With his hands crumbling the graphs
he explored other avenues.

Giving up steel and stained glass
he chose to work with earthier substances

such as wood and hay, but even this decision
was fleeting. The present seemed to be

drifting out of reach. Everyone knew
the future was in boats.


----------

Robert Creeley

Going without
a patch
I feel the skeletal

world
blow life into me.
This empty

socket, the ghost
of an eye,
intuits

the world of industry.
You don't
need

perfect vision
to see
the earth has

given birth
to smoke. Just feel
your way

out. And if you
can't make it,
death

in its coughing
shoes
will carry you.


----------

Douglas Korb lives in Marlboro, VT, with his wife and son. Aside from writing poems, he pretends to be an astronomer and inserts phrases such as "that's a deep caldera" and "what a unique obliquity" into conversations. His poems have appeared in RHINO, 5AM, Poet Lore, The Innisfree Poetry Journal and elsewhere.