The Carousel

The muscles and tendons tautly freeze in rearing gallop
as canopy flaps, and nostrils flare.
From the blackened sky rises a whirling funnel wind,
fans a spark, rouses a flicker,
and the calliope plays slow, a drifting droning dirge
while briny boards begin to smolder.

Hands flutter and flit, reaching fingers of fire, coaxing
anguished cries to steep the night
and noble steeds melt down to drool eyed mounds.
Planks begin to groan and buckle
the boardwalk tilts seaward, the carousel slides and screeches
as music syncopates in startled screams.

With a sudden shudder, it crashes to the sea
charred and bobbing in the tide.
Cotton candy ashes fall in hair of crying children
their innocence consumed by licking flame.
As a grass tangle tumbles patterns in the sand,
the winds erase without a trace…




Poem form: If Six was Nine

The “If Six was Nine” poem is composed of three stanzas containing six lines per stanza. Each line of the poem alternates between a nine-word line and a six-word line

This poetic form allows one to wave one’s freak flag high! Wave on Jimi, wave on…