Zen

your zen
is blackout
drunk

no memories
chalk thoughts
dreams

meditations
on calm
in a crowd

no different than
eyes closed
alone

beside a tree
in summer
your breath

the steady
breeze
drink more

to clear
you
of you

 

(originally published in Jokes Review, Summer 2017)

Excessive Drinking

I am a sun-drenched willow field withered and
purple. Headache remiss, wonder when the liver
will churn its nightly clarion call, squeezing rags
to drag the water out.

Sometimes the nights are like that in the silence
between friends. The drafts replace talking.
You can’t hear the words with breath so still
and distant, willows soon awakening.

 

(originally published in Transcendence Magazine, Summer 2016)