Wheee! Two poems in two days! The machine is awakening!

Or, at least, I've had some uncharacteristic time by myself away from the computer. My 90-year-old aunt was coming for a visit with my mom over the past couple of days (travelling with my cousin who was heading cross-country to a meeting ... changing planes at O'Hare ... he handed her over to me on Wednesday between flights and I handed her back last night). Anyway, had "sitting quiet with nothing to do" time on the way out and back from the airport, so got some writing done!


                    WHERE IS AND NOT DECIDED


                    slow simmer
                    deeply entrained
                    discordant
                    disjointed
                    divided and strewn
                    into far corners
                    disparate realms
                    unfit for release

                    we have no rules
                    nor rein
                    we can not reign
                    over these fires
                    we can't command
                    the shadow force
                    for will or ill
                    amid these bounds

                    none see in
                    none get out
                    this isolation is complete
                    an alienation
                    from god and man
                    from sprite and shade
                    from myths and legends
                    but for our own

                    in distant days
                    forgotten modes
                    these shifts brought power
                    and not defeat
                    their twists delivered
                    us from chain
                    and not into
                    derision's hand

                    but now is dark
                    and slow and dim
                    all things unable
                    all dreams disturbed
                    the rivers blur
                    with thoughts of roads
                    as highways blend
                    with yielding sky



                             - Brendan Tripp
                                03/15/2001

                    Copyright © 2001 by Brendan Tripp