shoebox | a poetry collection

- crescendo

it begins as a sigh-
a hitch in breath held
too long (escape / gasp / halt).

wait: pause. spiral, twist,
crash on coiled wisteria droning-
stare cross-eyed for clarity &
wish upon charcoal stars.

pry between webbed cracks,
tarnish gossamer naïveté:
threads tearing, seams splitting, thank you;

listen (fine-tune a jackhammer heart
ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-):

hear the isolated whine, the sacrilege
of holy vinyl scratched and spinning,
twisting up up up through the poor
organist's corroded pipes, press the
pedals slam the keys and hear only the
wail in d sharp minor, tragedy in f major

overgrown wisteria. press the buds
into the fresh face of youth—
grind them until they stick (garish, unbidden:
unwelcome) to the synthetic sunshine
& hang in the air on tilted marionette strings,
lavender luminescence
and it's suffocating - feel it bloom and die,
a windswept carcass in two lungs (three keys)

whirring- heavy impermanent air /
shaking tremors & the flame leaps /
a breaking point, perhaps, or
a boy on the precipice of obscurity
tipping - three-legged chair - into
honey-apricot madness, brioche with fresh
glaze in saturday morning's sharp tawny air.

dissipation (breathe)
the water's ready, pick your teacup.
and for heaven's sake: take the kettle off.

- theodore (09.17.22)