the deepening ground

Amazing

We are not mice methodically dropped
into the sterile labyrinth,
blindly nosing our way
through ancient trimmed hedges,
the variable walls our only reprieve
from wood chips and wire,
a bit of cheese our only consolation.
We are not cruelly tossed
into the confusing and elaborate
puzzle of the legendary artificer,
slave of the king.
Though the beast resides within,
we are not lost.
Having gone before us,
greater than Theseus,
He is the unicursal path to the center;
now seated, seeing from above,
He ushers us triumphantly into the eternal heart.

May Day Demonstration

(a poem of only words made from letters in the title)

I am no monstrosity!
I daresay, I demonstrate
I am a man,
my tinder enmity
my damnation.
Tensions and emotions
detonate on May Day,
many men made monsters,
distorted into demons.
No moderation,
a nation made mad,
adamant men
admire animosity
one day in May.

9 for 29

Nine seconds sprint in record time
to fame Jamaican and sublime.
Nine minutes is a deceptive tease
when sun still sleeps ‘neath horizon’s sheets.
Nine hours devours a third of the day,
exhaustion gnawing the span that remains.
Nine days hasten to needed rest,
the body ill-fitted to perpetual stress.
Nine weeks quarter the academic’s life
defining successes in blacks and whites.
Nine months carries an expected end
when love sown in secret finds new life again.
But nine years bears a ponderous weight
when exhuming the past calls for digging new graves.