“Sugar”
POETRY FORMAT, 9 Nov 2020
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service
“Sugar Bones”
Original painting by Luke Spooner
Sweet apocalypse in the blood!
Stephen-King nightmare in the brain!
Mortar rounds at synapses!
Invader of our personal stash!
SweetSweet as Delilah’s lips!
Cooing with the voice of Mom—
Bubela, Bambino, come home, come home
To peaches and cream and castles of fructose,
To sugared hot cocoa and honeycombed words
In hives of endearments buzzing on eardrums;
To plaudits and gambits and all sweet beginnings;
To endings and outcomes wrapped in thin wafers
That crackle and clang buds on the tongue—
Then soothe… and admonish
All dissonant voices: No trespassing!
Only sweetness—no light!—
Down labyrinthine portals…
Words like agave flowing down sewers
Where “liberty” trudged, with “freedom” and “heroes,”
To ransack and pillage dreams of the village.
Tenderest mercies are syrup for wounds.
Sweet lies to die for… Sweet lies to kill for…
Sweet God… Sweet Jesus… Kali is calling…
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Dr. Gary Steven Corseri is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. Gary is the grandson of Ukrainian-Jewish and Sicilian-Catholic immigrants. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and in universities, high schools and Little Theaters. He has published 2 novels, 1 full collection and 1 prize-winning chapbook of poems. His poems, articles, fiction, dramas have appeared in hundreds of global publications & websites, including: Countercurrents, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine, Miami Herald, The New York Times, and Transcend Media Service. He has taught at universities in the U.S. and Japan, and in US prisons and public schools. He has worked as a grape-picker in Australia, a gas-station attendant, and an editor. Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net
Luke Spooner is an artist and illustrator living in the south of England. www.carrionhouse.com
Tags: Poetry
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 9 Nov 2020.
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Sir Gary,
That’s quite an anthem for our times.
It reminds me of a stanza from Leonard Cohen’s The Future
“Things are going to slide, slide in all direction
There won’t be nothing, nothing
You can measure any more
The blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold of the spirit
And it’s overturned the order of the soul.”
I kinda hope you’re both wrong.
Then again, things ain’t exactly lookin’ swell, are they?
Roberto
from somber Japan
which as you know
has its own sweet tooth
showing signs of decay
Hola, Roberto!
(also known as Robert Kowalczyk)–
Much thanks for your kind and instructive remarks above. And, thanks for the honor of lumping my sugary words together with Sir Leonard Cohen’s!
I, too, kinda hope Leonard and I are both wrong!
But, alas, the tea leaves are not auguring sunshine and bliss, are they?
Hopefully, these hard times will bring us together, we’ll learn to decipher beyond the sugary words, we’ll grow up as a species, and help the children to grow up wise and happy.