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Slowly the planet turns
upon its axis as morning
becomes evening, and evening
song is restful, slowly
the slivered moon takes center stage
as evening turns to cricket darkness
to early rays of light upon the eastern
sky that later will announce sun's
benediction, slowly blood courses
in the veins, the bubbles of the breath
inform each particle with oxygen,
the circle of the earth, sun, moon,
the planets all and space beyond,
the circle of the blood the breath
lungs heart and brain and somewhere
soul awakens to another brightness,
slowly breath turns upon its axis,
awareness becomes joy, and man
and woman become gods, but slowly.
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Everything was in order.
Temperatures recorded in diary of
Every day's life, sentences uttered
In blankness of white page
Passions played in scrutiny of detail
Pictures placed with certain emphasis
Moments not to be lost in mind.
Even the Christmas tree year after year
Stored completely decorated in a closet
Each ornament hanging in its place
Strictly maintained, not to be disturbed
By the random chaos of a disjointed world
The arbitrary chance that makes living
So difficult.
Coming as he did from an unruly upbringing
Cold martinet father, dotty lesbian mother
Who left (little Jack) to hack a path to freedom
Half-brothers, foster mothers, back and forth
Without a home, no wonder the need
To right the haphazard fall of
Obstinate blocks.
The alcohol slipped so easily through the bars
A parched throat gasping, the anesthetic coat
So soothing to the chill in his breast, the drums in his head
Pounding
Saxophones jazzing through the dark pull of night
Yearning for release in notes of
Pure unfettered music, tamed in sameness
Finally
Doing what people do in order to survive.
His wife, his children, perhaps
Could never understand, too close
To see the sanity of his madness
The way the holding of opposites together
In perfect alignment with fixed patterns
Made a kind of grounding gravity
Alien to the visitor, but completely logical
On Jack's Planet.
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Silvia
Brandon Pérez is a poet, writer and socio-political activist who
presently lives in Pennsylvania with several cats; the number varies.
She has been published here and there. She is dedicating most of her
energy these days to making sure we install responsible leadership.
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Laurence
Overmire is an American actor/director/writer who has worked on stage,
film and television. His poetry, eclectic in form and often provocative
in its direct confrontation of social issues, has been widely published
in the U.S. and abroad, including "The American Muse," "Kimera,"
"Main Street Rag Poetry Journal," "Lynx: Poetry from
Bath," "Stirring," "Cotyledon," "Thunder
Sandwich," "Samsara Quarterly," "Jack
Magazine," "Free Zone Quarterly," "Pogonip,"
"Kookamonga Square" and many others.
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