341A

Time tampered not with the tepid tempers of
dearest John and his two year tremors, which
run riven and rampant between his sedentary rocks
and glories of his grandpa's stones.

-W. C. Smith

Den Isle Tone

time fisher
learned day to day
ap-pet-tite, to stroke-grow & doubt
which was ordained and which was
for the coffee ground.

-W.C.Smith

1 Cor. 1:18

to the jack-o-lanterns hiding behind faux-pa-pillar,
to the warm october rain & the worms which wriggle
under my door & into my kitchen, happy halloween,
you crunchy-kitchen surprises; trick-or-treats, reminders
of mortality.

-W.C.Smith

Welysburgh

Welysburgh,
a home worth
driving for, when
all the treelines are
alight in glory.

-W.C. Smith

will-O-the-wisp 1

when will-o-the-wisp

hit-the-car and

i blink; we are so.

what is a muse

if untested by time? if not

a little back broken;

reserved for 3.a.m. 

-W.C.Smith

America the Beautiful

Our, fight-to-life society, America.

I love you, but you have taken
the tired, poor, huddled masses,
as a whore; and we are starving from your selflessness.

With little hope we throw our money to your institution, pray to politics,
the new religion, monotonized dream of fat and lazy millionaires.
For my existence, I will get a degree in ass-kissing, and end up alright.

-W.C. Smith

Blockhead

The ice wasn't broken with a perceptive goodbye, rather
the greeting of a ghost, who shows up to see that
he haunts through the fell, frozen impact of three month dust,
told and untold. On the music scenes and over the airways.
In the small boxes and under the oppressive nights. Regardless,
whatever he may see in me, surely,  '100 degrees of nostalgia,'
truly, 'trapped and centi-mental'.

-W.C.Smith

Going, Gallant, Gone

A timeline friend, pulls forth
gallantly, going, ahead; we testify,
both forward and back; we shout,

'Witness, the light of our lives, a light,
two fold, to illuminate the darkest parts
of a year ahead and year behind.'
Life. We find it out.

- W. C. Smith

Val July

Val, my tender sleepless ducklings,
who were crushed by highway passions,
Val, my thunder frustrations, my lack of patience,
is not a pool as admirable as Gods.
Val, my hundred acre tree line, my thousand mile sweaty bed, my million mile mind,
which quickly speed me around the globe,
Val July, Val Greenwood, to a pleasant sleep.

-W.C. Smith

Tragedy, Thankfully

Whether or not
I have wasted,
too much ink,
is tragically, not
up to me, thankfully.

- W. C. Smith

With Coffee

to send you through

the daily uprights

hinged with anticipation,
hanging kiss and creaking,
warm start light, with coffee,
there is simply
nothing more.

-W.C. Smith

A Sushi Joint In May

Snap, the/ training wheel mother
cold, a little lifeless/ the boy
the water / the bar
a saint / critique
for when the belle's gone away.

- W. C. Smith

Chapter 20 (May)

All of the non-poems, and
rabbit headed distractions,
keep coming surely as they will, while
the muse is gone, and replaced only
with real thoughts and, malaise. Twenty,
the beast, the death of me, written while,
watching the clock is watching her sleep.

- W. C. Smith

Smile

How deep to ruin a smiling face? I have tried.
Smile, she is, there, smiling. Perspective puts forth,
how far you've gone, what you've done. How. sick. you. are.
Sick. no. more enlightened amidst manure.
You. are. the. candle in the dark. Still,
she is there smiling. She is God.
How deep to  ruin a smiling face?

- W. C. Smith

Bitumen

We're children mis-wielding the tools
with which our fathers forged the world.
They're off, all corpses driving coffins toward the sun.
O'er bitumen! The oily wheels, the duct tape reality,
paces me along with them. From the
enameled trees, umbrageous, light lined and

ageless, we speed away.

- W. C. Smith

In Art

Fine art, or
the tug of a tired muse,
which lag drags on,
until you have lost purpose, or
find one so watered down that
you cannot even taste your own salt
anymore.

-W. C. Smith

Lonesome Lake

She pointed out 'lonesome lake', in a geography
map exercise, he knew what she had thought of him.
He didn't mind much. Listening to music,
He left class, passed the band room;
with disapproving glances for all, and
saw some guy step in melting ice cream puddle.

-W. C. Smith

The Library

I swear, that
I am among the
draping giant blinds
of the gods, or at least
in the gills of a large fish.

- W. C. Smith

Berry & Green

Understanding; only imitation
spring. I walked and watched as she
showed me berry and green.
Spring, she passed me by
as I could only show her
black and white.

-W. C. Smith

Devil's Hair

If, in thinking,
trees are the devil's hair,
stray, blown in the wind;
then we prance all our lives
on a balding skull, among the
undertaker dander, fearing
what may comb.

- W. C. Smith