Cruel Candles in the Dark

by Janet I. Buck

The city is different now.
Stoplights are a softer red.
Streetlamps seem like green berets
that guard our grass,
all the pastures in between.
Wind and fog, a kiss
from the lips of a god
we are trying to shake awake.
Gutted pride that brings up prayer,
inserts it in our quaking veins.

Haunted by the learned grave,
this cruel candle in the dark,
patrons in a small cafe
walk more slowly to the door.
Waiting seems like lucky coins.
I can't explain the size of change.
I let three cars with blinkers on
squeeze ahead of me in line.
Traffic goes from clots
to summer's oozing slugs —
on tails of a precious rain.

Maybe love will turn
a cacoethes now, infect
a day like plagues destroy
whole continents.
Maybe these refrains of tombs
will be the mud we pick from shoes —
grateful will be flipping sandals
making noise, bellowing
from mountain tops.
Lawrence's old rocking horse
might scream "Enough"
and we might hear the creaking cease.
We're pack rats of whatever hope
might show its teeth.
Smiles just have a longer life.

Janet Buck's poetry, poetics, and fiction have appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Magazine.com, CrossConnect, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Kimera, The Rose & Thorn, 2River View, Southern Ocean Review, Disquieting Muses, Urban Spaghetti, Perihelion, Mind Fire, Born Magazine, pif, 3rd Muse, Verse Libre Quarterly, Big Bridge, pith and hundreds of journals world-wide. Buck was one of U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City in April, 2000. In January 2001, Art Villa Records released Janet's first audio CD of poetry and music called Before the Rose. It is available at: http://www.artvilla.com/shopping/poetry/rose.htm To hear a sample from the CD, go to: http://www.artvilla.com/mp3/umbrellas.mp3.
Note: Featured author in January 2001
E-mail: JBuck22874@aol.com
Writing interests: Poetry
Poems: "The Orphan", "Caught in Lesser Tragedies", "The Broken Promise", "The Gargoyle", "The Going", "The Bag Lady", "Rushing Toward Entelechy", "The Paralyzed Apocalypse", "Frozen Sonnets", "New York, New York", "Live on CNN", "America Under Siege", "Gutter Balls"
Links: Hot Links: Janet I. Buck, Janet's Latest Interview, Desideratum's Doggie Dish, Author's Den, Active Amp.org—Features Janet I. Buck, Poetry Magazine.Com-October-Janet Buck, The Part-time Postmodernist (August 2000), San Francisco Salvo, Moongate: Janet I. Buck, Offcourse, The October Country , Cafe Society: Poetry Life & Times, Kookamonga Square, The Adirondack Review , janetbuck.com, Funky Dog Publishing—Janet Buck's Strawberry Nipples, Athens Avenue—Janet I. Buck, One World-One Heart Exhibit , Ygdrasil: Issue 9 September 2000