shave the wax from gibbous – whittle it down to a candle suspended serenely in celestial splendor lambent piece of eight placed upon the still eye of the world paying the fare for the journey across stellar styx – two ships passing calmly through space
Author: Mitchell Chmielewski
An Interesting Bus Ride
i boarded the bus early that morning coming off a grave shift – a prolonged evening of stocking racks and unloading trucks – prime of my youth – the stop was lonely during those early hours and i waited there alone quite a long time – eventually the shuttle arrived and the long shuttered door…
Breakfast Blend
i brewed a carafe of coffee french pressed and piping hot – i kept the top removed from the kettle then turned the corresponding dial on the electric stove – i leaned upon the venting unit and stared as the element changed – the sooty slate-like coloring erupted emerging from faded ruby to an angry…
Pioneer Spirits
pioneer spirits take to the plains once more – you’ve stood your ground too long – seek out new unexplored avenues scale hills and mountaintops gaze upon a world spread out before you taste the unknown fruits of exploration toss aside the compass of expectation pursue the stars of your constellation let your prairie soul…
Neon Souls
flashpan neon souls igniting the world – electric smiles buzzing loud amidst the quiet – subdued stoic existence – baring puffed chests in the presence of deflated gasbags and disapproving glares screaming in ecstasy hot blood flushing their cheeks – blooming roses in stone gardens barren untilled salted soil – screaming life from the rafters…
Harvest
threshing commences elegant flair of a flippant wrist – flailing upon delicate stalks of fruiting grain – beneath the sun is closing growing dim in the dying days of warmth drawing shades on another passing moment greeting the moon claustrophobic entombment of the granary – no malice in this action merely nature – unencumbered by…
Island Heart
she bids adieu to sun bleached shores slinking through sand before sunrise chilly opalescence shimmering pale morning light breathing deep the nautical breeze gazing off to distant lands beyond the horizon far from where her passion lies shipwrecked heart tossed unto island seclusion suffering rays of a sun which disrupts the darkness confronting the hidden…
Brother Julius
tell me brother julius of nights spent in the open beneath quilted darkness damp heat in the wee hours lost and ignored in a street lamp solar system how you wandered deep into desolate suburban wastes resting affluence of noctilucent methane clouds hanging cold on the edge of night satin sprawled amidst dead heaven how…
The Sun in Summer
sanguine summer sun august above the minted morass hazy sweltering heat humid smog opaques obscuring butter churned rays smeared saffron and cream setting in orange glazed oil paint vermillion yolk frozen stretching out wild in feeble ripples still waters disturbed caught beneath the thrust of mayflies pirouetting then passing on
Shadow on the Plain – Pt. 1
Retreat There’s something hidden here. Insidious, taking root in the erosion of my perception. I feel it, squirming uproariously, undulating with the cacophony of manic thoughts echoing behind heavy lids. It disrupts my sleep. Calls to me from the fringe of troubled dreams. Such visions it bestows upon me in the refuge of unconscious thought,…
Piecework Prose 