Mark Niehus - Two Poems

Bluebird and the Cage

You measure yourself
against the world
during trips to the Laundromat.
You organise your words while
removing the stains on your shirt
and try to keep
the one thing you have in line.

And between
the beauty at parties
you see that there is something
sinister underlying
every social grace.

What a great power it must be
to suppress a spirit
that was once necessary
to invent,
explore
and love
and what do you do
when you sense
a flash of admiration
for its genius?

You refine your pleasure
for the drink.
You enjoy the movement it brings,
the action
and the chance.

And now somehow home
in pursuit of the poem
and in possession
of something good and rare,
something cracks open
that allocates meaning
and hope,
so you can sleep again balancing
the bluebird
and the cage.

Life Machine

The numbers turn
and the infinite mechanism
turns
and grows
and groans truths
and lies.

Such a beautiful machine
entrusting its success
to fulfil its design
on the emotional
unknowing
spirit of man.

And on us
the great weight rests.
It is that uneasy feeling
that comes some nights,
when left with our lives.

We are all working
to fuel
and to make up
the bony parts
of this mad living.

We turn
and burn
toward an outcome
unknown to us,
or this life machine.

Mark Niehus is a Poet and Artist who drives a cheese truck. He likes to get close to instinct and invention to create unique combinations of poetry, street art, music and performance.