20140218

Philip Byron Oakes


Yo

Cloistered in a crowd of colors. The scent as adjutant.
A cryptic text of goose pimples. Founded in a struggle
to sweat the elephants, calling your room their own.
The goldiness of locks on lips. To strike a chord for
how it misleads. A baptismal pitch to a legion of
entwined shadows calling it a night. The learning
curve into the homestretch stealing atmosphere, via
a clever ruse discovered at the click of a switch. A fresh
crop of ripples, butting heads with a yesterday only a
mother could love for what it wasn’t, but will be someday.
A lullaby to rally troops. The complementary, the clash. A
swirl in remembrance. Critically conjoining for mass
beneath the stars. To assist the desperation in living up
to the quietude. Seasons curried by the spice of half
opened eyes. Espying what moves but never goes
anywhere. The you to whom you owe your life.



Terra

Down to an earth of one’s choosing oneself
as gardener, assuaging the interim until spring
is here. A manor of sweet nothings gone to seed
of an awakening, to a spurious climate growing
out of its clothes. A season for all manners of
settling into patterns predicated upon the
weather coming true. The furrowing of a brow
posting notice of a wrinkle in the time to harvest,
a bumper crop close to the vested, in a yield to
the rites performed as theatre in the field.
Requital in effigy sprouting tendrils of a wish
worn as garland, for the heady mix of blossoms
crying foul for the winter. Connoting an amber
wave goodbye.



8

Figure ate and left.
Tired feet turned suspect
following footsteps, into the
quagmire cheating purgatories of
their fun. Stippling perceptions of
collateral ambience, to play the foil
brewing signs of life stage left to
wonder. What fills in absence
without leave of allowance
for a banquet room to breathe.
Feast and philander with the road
winding tales around its motive.
Galvanizing the ephemeral for the
long haul, to a form the figure’s
looking for within its many
selves.




Philip Byron Oakes is a poet living in Austin, Texas. His work has appeared in Blackbox Manifold, gobbet, Cordite Poetry Review, among other journals. His third volume of poetry, ptyx and stone, (white sky ebooks) was released in December.
http://philipbyronoakes.blogspot.com/
 
 
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