January 2023
Bio Note: Although I live in an urban area in Phoenix, my house is close to the large desert park and the mountain. This year has largely been one of recovery for me and I have benefitted from the wildlife that flies or sometimes wanders through the neighborhood. I often think back to this quote from Miguel Hernandez when I realize how much nature give to the creative process: The lemon tree in my garden is a bigger influence on my work than all the poets together.
The Moment's God
for Allen Ames
To Lorca the lizard
was one drop of crocodile and to
the earth he is
its inner life emerging through a crack.
An inch of speed
is all he needs to run
from leafy shade to
sunlight hitting a sidewalk
with summer force. His spine
curves left, the body right; he’s a nerve
afraid of everything he sees
and a whiplash ready
to defeat it. He can dream
while gripping a wall by
the stars where creation intended
his feet to be, dream
a desert mountain
performing push-ups
and a roadrunner spontaneously
combusting. To anybody walking
slowly on
an afternoon without shade
he appears as a thought escaping
while in the speck of his mind
he’s the spark
that lights the fuse for a record
high when even the flies
are winged light.
With one lazy blink of an eye
he prepares for the seconds
he’ll race to become the moment’s god.
He sees himself pinned
to a rich woman’s dress. Now
he’s a dragon and now
his heart is dancing
in a leather pouch. To those for whom
the world becomes
too difficult
to understand he outruns
sadness, and he’s small enough to be
the postage stamp on
an envelope addressed to infinity.
©2023 David Chorlton
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to say what it is about the poem you like. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL