Look How We Are (from Upside Down)

Afraid of the dawn and its sister sun
the blood juries swarm to mother's dust;
welcome to the day when the tarnished sleep,
pissing in hooked mouths
and choking on a beggars heels.
Oh wondrous claw as camp as lillies
as thy years gridlock in the great scheme,
prime those forks and tails
and prepare the murder scam over cancerous Life.
But revel not in sullen soups
for darkness has limits on light;
swing high dear grave dolls and dandies
for the rabid sting that furs your clammy tendons
has you dead as pie crust...

@ Steven Francis poems 2011

Tricia Poe

Aimless we walk the clown candy neon bars
drenched by rain and bourbon,
through deathly pastures
where gulls form choirs of ragged poets
in the throat of night.

A raven audience
of spit and blades!
Strike my apparent iron ballad,
step gently into a valentine dance...

@ Steven francis poems 2011