Four Poems

Hello friends,

Four poems this week, written under a relatively new literary constraint (which first appeared in my chapbook The Noson Sonnets).

Inspired by the univocalism — a text that employs only one vowel — the “alternating bivocalism” employs two vowels, but with the additional rule that these two vowels must alternate throughout the poem.

Enjoy! (And if you do, please consider supporting my work by purchasing The Robots of Babylon — from which the below poems are taken — or one of the various other items available on my website.)

BLACKBEARD

Blackbeard — 
menace at sea.
Enslave all the waters
and shred all the waves.

As the mast,
helm and stern
race fast,
bear the flag
jet black;

spread the blade
and the name.

---

IO

Long I trod, 
dislodging rocks,
blind on Io’s wilds....

Now, I hold
this cosmic god;
this fossil of iron;
this lost lion
with torn wings:

Now,
I hold
Io’s sphinx.

---

THE MUMMY

Thy muddy urns: thy guts; thy lungs.
Thy dusty husk: thy crust; thy skull....
By duty, turn — crypt spun.
Wry, shun thy murky church.
By dusk’s hymn, mummy, lurch.

---

WANTON HARLOT

A bold harlot
wants to flash,
shock a dockman,
so gallops along a coast,
to a boat,
to cast off a polka dot bra.

Now,
a hot, wanton harlot
wants to allow
a dockman
constant romps.

As lost shadows
fall on cargo,
a boat rocks
atop a shoal.