Voices is intended to be a collection of poems written and illustrated
by Mike Burr .
grind
i sail my ship alone
around its warts and barnacles and hulk
their long grey swell are urgent thrusting
for winter is on the seas of June
sad blue albatross make your long play
upon these frozen slope
for thoughts of her have flown
with their coo-doves
to some palm island far away
and their tropic heat
and their turtle nights
and their paradigm
a fluttering as green as myrtle
with thin tenacious fibre
but little substance in their meaning
meantimes my feelings winnowed on the ice torn cloud
are tense within the gloomy window of the sky above
for in the night
i make secret land
and stalk upon the dark intensity of forest glades
like a bad animal my silhouette
low prowling urges makes
and my teeth they grind upon the moon
in my hand i have your heart a glowering
its beat a radiant light upon the beast
that alter self
and on the trail it ran
as through the glade its cloven foot
did spring upon the grasses
which grew as if in flame
it fired empathy within the womb of silent things
its suffering bonded to their filaments
and when the cold winds blow on autumn days
some bracts may break and from the brake to waters
never sleeping fall
where to the seas the branch as a message bobs and weaves
and one day will stranded
like jetsam on your turtle shores
reveal in part
its tale of crusty barnacles
and madness in the distant wood