Thursday, August 11, 2011

Joseph Farley - Three Poems

No Person Shall Be Deprived Of Property
Without Due Process of The Law


The air and water
and even the future,
property of all,
has been stolen.


We know the names
of the thieves.
They laugh now
and count their profits.


The mob presses faces
against the gates
of corporate palaces
begging justice.


It shall not come
from filthy hands
covered in gold and oil.
It may not come at all,


but righteous anger
can not be silenced.
We shout, mad,
at the swirling sands


as gray skies
turn to thundering blackness
and rain acid extinction
down upon our heads.



Scene of the Battle

a field grown thick
with wild bayonets,
stalks gleaming silver
with stains of red,
here is the home
of the fallen,
and those who fought
for nation or home,
all gone to seed
in the yellow sunshine,
pricking the afternoon sky
with troubling history.



Written In The Sand

White sand and a large umbrella
I watch the ocean, listen to seagulls,
safe from the sun under layers of oil
and a wide circle of portable shade.
I read a few pages from a summer novel.
It is light reading, but seems overfed.
The book tumbles from tired hands.
I do not try to pick it up.
Instead I run fingers through the sand,
tracing gullies that link into words,
a few short lines that bake in the heat
until a rising wind erases every thought.



Joseph Farley edited Axe Factory for 24 years. His books include Suckers, For the Birds, and Longing for the Mother Tongue (March Street Press).

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