Lit eZine Vol 7 | p-5 | POETRY | Hard To See More Than A Stonecast

SHORT POEM

HARD TO SEE MORE THAN A STONECAST
by Nattie O’Sheggzy

"That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost inconceivable."
- A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Despite our slack skins quaking,
for a year now,
you stare at the psephomancy voodooists
pontificating,
sardonic grief grips your cheekbones.

We cast the last stone grey ballot
to cut short the locust years'
echoes against the granite drought.
After the trembling dance
a red swarm sweeps clean
the grease painted grin
grazing on our grafted parts.

You thrust the collateral cost
skywards
pewter-coloured stars
in a harvest of salvoes of meteors.
The war miming and
the belligerent whimpering
of our brokenness lap
the dregs in the keg.
Busy, we scour the barrel

whispering
this is not the hue of peace we built
in defiance of the winds

or to root the sepia feet on the rock
with the blisters
broken, petrified,
in a thousand places
for a post.

Werewolf you sink your cold claws
in the skin of our calcified wisdom.
Breathing shadows collide in peace.