Ben Adams - Two Poems

Roman Sky

Youth is an empire braced
against the invasion of years.

In summer heat
speed-limits shimmer
on the roadside,
yellow outposts of control
ignored
by the rush of passing cars.

We drive towards
our proving ground.

There, waves sound
in the distance, while scorched leaves
are whipped from the dirt
by oven gusts of thick, dry air
& stone cottage walls are
frontier ruins, baking in the sun.

Through long afternoons
we gulp falernian wine
and send word back from the edge:
there is nothing out here, nothing left
to defend...

except an idea. This empire braced
against the invasion of years

and the sky above
like Rome itself,
a canvas of splendid
familiarity hung
above the burning wind.

Dead Piano Keys

Wishing to rid myself
of all the
useless
accumulated things
the baggage
and the burden,
the papers & bottles
the broken key chains
and tattered envelopes that once held letters
long misplaced

I think of all
the sayings
the scripture
and the spiritual tracts:
the life of the soul is not made
of earthly material
and hell,
even in the realms of art
losing those early manuscripts
in that left-behind suitcase
was the best thing that ever happened
to Hemingway.

But wishing to rid myself
I cannot

and the proof that life once happened
here

floats around
like bottles on the tide

filled with dead piano keys
snapped ends of
violin string and flowers
pressed & petrified
that once smelt of something young
& alive.

Writer, arts graduate in History and English, voicer of opinions both sophical AND philosophical, Ben Adams has recently worked as South Australian ambassador for National Young Writers Month and hails from the state capital of Adelaide. His poems have been published in Australian Reader, Gloom Cupboard and Clutching at Straws.