Happy There in My Agony / Painting by Jude Dillon
Poems are from The Fractured Garden.
I keep you in the dark
about yourself
new words run out
to catch the mail
the blind monkey who works for magic
licks the stamps
I lost my repertoire
a bottle of red closing up in the dark
a rusty trumpet on a failed street
the grace of you in sloppy clothes
______________________
All who know you
complain of your kindness
prowling among the sparrows
like a cat
as quick as you look away
a line is loaded on your tongue
finds the shadow-room I keep secure
a prison with a name like yours
corners me
with a yellow bulb in a midnight room
a wicked place
far too spacious to explore
it’s 5 AM and I wonder where to tie the rope
when dawn blows a fuse and puts on her slippers
it’s a beautiful day
for photography
nothing sticks to light like rain
______________________
I miss the hum of your skeleton
the light you walk through
the dark that presses down
let the rats chew electric wire
let the phone ring
stir a dead martini to life
bring on the olives
the darker girls
the ones with gravity
POSTED ON 9.11.13 AT 3:25 PM (PT).
Jude Dillon was born in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated in English from Queen’s and spent a few years as a newsphotographer, winning several awards. Jude also studied painting at the Alberta College of Art and Design. He has been published in magazines online and in print throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.