March 2020
Bio Note I have long been a resident of Phoenix, after growing up in Manchester, England, and living in Vienna, Austria.
Once upon a time I spent many hours painting and had several exhibitions. My poetry has found a way into publications in print and online,
the most recent book being "SPEECH SCROLL", a long poem written in 2020 and published by Cholla Needles in California, which also brought out
a shorter book last year, of poems written by one of our cats, Raissa, along with my scholarly analysis. Back in the day-to-day world, I
love the desert and try to keep track of the local birds.
Editor's Note David added this note in his email to me, in response to the submission request "How did you hear about V-V?":
"I had quite lot of work in V-V already, and how I first heard about is unsure. What I do remember is Firestone's feisty replies to my first approach, detail oriented but still imbued with his usual warmth!"
Editor's Note David added this note in his email to me, in response to the submission request "How did you hear about V-V?":
"I had quite lot of work in V-V already, and how I first heard about is unsure. What I do remember is Firestone's feisty replies to my first approach, detail oriented but still imbued with his usual warmth!"
Assassination Studies
Trouble in the Middle East. Hummingbirds
sparkle in first sunlight. Their wings
make a whirring sound, audible to those
who are still, when they hover at the Coral bells.
Purple gorget, white stripe at the ear, time
stopping in air. By all reports
the drone was perfect in the way it struck
and whistled fire into a general’s ear.
The afternoon concert begins with a piece
composed when half a continent
exhaled relief at Joseph Stalin’s death
and features folk songs transformed
to brassy starbursts
and with lightning from the strings
as demanded when violins
are played with such deadly precision.
Peace is the grass,
the water shining in a shallow
dish the quail drink from. White-crowned
sparrows interrogate the earth,
the sky glides within a circle made of clay,
grackles and the Gilded flickers
take turns at orange halves, and it occurs
that the victim must have died in silent ignorance.
©2020 David Chorlton
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -JL