What is Now

by Richard Martin

1

I could go back to the beginning

To words sheltered in peacocks

And fools

I was timeless for a time

On the back of a hand

I could arrange planets and stars

Into destinations still

Unknown

Remember you said

Spring quells the cries

Of sterile birds

I have a mind awake in the dawn

Of silent eyes

A flash of meteors across the sky

An unfinished puzzle of storms

And sins

The news is on

The time has come to offer the sun

A bouquet of love

Let me flower you said

In the drumbeat of raindrops

On dancing streets

Now what

Isn’t the answer

2

Time like intervals of lightning

Secured our arrival into what is now

Jungle gyms of youth

Taunt us with distance

Remember yours: a red fiat –

Excessive speed down country roads

Beyond the hyper dream of nature –

Sunset without a woman

In the passenger seat

I co-authored denial –

A verse up my sleeve

On absence in the presence of a drunk moon

And angry father

Old Testament

Old Testament you screamed

Running red lights

Until the police gave chase

Ticketing the necessity

Of desire

3

I’m the son of the wizard of displacement

Can you hear me now

Do lakes rivers streams of trees

Thought-free oceans

Ring in your ears

Answer me

The church of who we are

And what we’ve done

Would like to know

From there to here

From here to there

In scatter shots of blue sky and dark clouds

Is the message

The horn of words creates the self

From magnificent dust

We return to reside

In the ephemeral home

Of eternal syllables

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Richard Martin is the author of five books of poetry, including White Man Appears on Southern California Beach(Bottom Fish Press, 1991) and Under the Sky of No Complaint (Lavender Ink/Fell Swoop, 2013). His work has appeared in Fell Swoop, ACM, Exquisite Corpse, Gargoyle, Artichoke Haircut, Shattered Wig (post) and unarmed. He is also the author of boink!, an antimemoir, published by Lavender Ink (New Orleans, 2005) and four chapbooks. A past recipient of a NEA Poetry Fellowship, he founded and coordinated the Big Horror Poetry Reading Series in Binghamton, New York, from 1982-1996. He lives in Boston.