The Paralyzed Apocalypse

by Janet I. Buck

Our posit on a curled hook,
hanging straight like slaughtered beef
in lockers of our chosen chill.
Our sins and organs all contained.
The cows had no choice.
And I lament our still lives
on their way to death.
We shut down music
in the mid-stream of a song.
(Unwind, is all) we often say.
Blackouts grow as comfortable
as cool pillows licking chins.
Pouring our demise like tea.
Sleuth we think it is, it ain't.
Pain's video, a tape to play another hour.
Drowning torch that might have
led us through these caves,
sorted gem from pressing dark.
We paralyze apocalypse.

I resent this shape, demolished dream.
Stuff pages down a toilet's mouth;
paper floats despite the flush.
Art's overflow is disappointment on a rage.
Importune and fetid in its honesty.
Can mallets swing at nothingness,
strike some unalloyed delight?
I drag you through these syllables
hoping for askance to take
as palsied legs just pray for steps
beyond a body's aptitude.
Strip frosting from nice petit fours,
discovering the dry square,
familiar parch like morning eggs
common in their tragedies.
Can silence be a verb that bites?
Can blood ferment because of booze?
Sleuth we think it is, it ain't.
Thwarted by corks, carried by beer
to some assumed falsetto dawn.

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