Philip Byron Oakes


Brocade

A guild of Penelopes weaving pungent stroganoff,
in alcoves brimming with the success of bleach
A catastrophe of atomic attraction easing up into
everyday objects Fortuitous discoveries in the
physical properties of afterthoughts, best left
running in the suicidal circles of their youth, for
president of the beauty of Main Street The
comma, on the commemorative plaque Rashly
captured moments of fluidity, preaching cream
to milk Stipulations in a monolith delivering
the revelation of erosion, into the liturgy of a
disclaimer as to the wherewithal of experts in
the field The dance of the librarians, spooking
utopians into syntactical blunders The
everymen of the neighborhood, taking
themselves upon themselves, unable to
publicly acknowledge the all consuming weight
of the baggage


Shape of Things

Rhombohedrons in the town square, running in circles
that chill the blood of the cardiologist. Wedding
singers at a funeral, mouthing the words to an
implicit agreement to never speak of the matter
again. The back rooms of dirigibles
afloat on the possibilities of rain. Qualms with shoulder
pads spicing the reluctance to aviate, with anecdotal
evidence of glimmers come to rest on the graves of
wingless wonders. In measuring the girth of a
goose pimple. An ornamental caveat,
warning of the beauty to come.


Peek

Guardrails in a rat race stippled with hieroglyphs.
A limp in a lean to world. Crunch time of a life
spent preening an ethos, without being swallowed
whole by the rules. An elliptical component to
spandex stretching the limits of reason. Well
beyond the narrow uprising of eyelids to reveal.
A flood that has nothing to do with the rain.
A polemic stretch of naughty, naughty planting
briars in the path of two goody shoes. A fashion
tip of the iceberg where the inevitable succumb,
but not inevitably. Phenomenon and on and on.



Philip Byron Oakes lives in Austin, Texas. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Otoliths, Switchback, Sawbuck and Taiga. His first volume of poetry, Cactus Land (77 Rogue Letters), should be out in late 2008 or early 2009.

 
 
 
previous page     contents     next page