Rich Murphy


Morosis Diagnosis


Returning to homeostasis,
to the furniture in living room,
the discreet organist congregated
with pipes and vessels in dear skin.

The self-absorbed musician,
using the slipper-shod method,
hummed for definitions when inequality
burst through the whole system
in mass-execution style: Allostasis
pounded out Requiem for Glands on the ivories.

Edgy nerve endings tore up contracts
with muscles and ligaments.
Frightened fingers out on limbs
let go, and the trunk plummeted: Timbre.
Stress ricocheted within the rib cage:

A mall gunman within every mannequin,
the amydalated backbone racking up reasons.
Asteroid opioids map for an escape route.

Brace in the diaper and bracket for wardrobes,
new arrivals. Home? No one goes, not even once.




Rich Murphy’s poetry collections have won two national book awards: Gival Press Poetry Prize 2008 for Voyeur and in 2013 the Press Americana Poetry Prize for Americana. Asylum Seeker is the third in a trilogy out now (2018) Press Americana. First in the trilogy was Americana, Body Politic, the second, published by Prolific Press in January 2017. Murphy’s first book The Apple in the Monkey Tree was published in 2007 by Codhill Press. Chapbooks include Great Grandfather (Pudding House Press), Family Secret (Finishing Line Press), Hunting and Pecking (Ahadada Books), Phoems for Mobile Vices (BlazeVox) and Paideia (Aldrich Press).
http://www.richinkworkshop.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richink/
 
 
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