Two Poems by J.R. Carson

Glucose

keys::locks::doors
swinging
o[pen]
closed

                                   stuck

unhinged

in some haphazard fashion like the

smile _hanging from her

dis[illusion]ed lips the night

she walked away - that night

I said "p[each]es" when I
should have said "apple"

fruit

low-hanging fruit d[angling]
from a dead

            tree

in some concrete grove filtering the lives of
barren women
and fetid men;

men like [badge]rs chucking and fucking and

pret[end]ing to love her

dis[illusion]ed lips holding
up the haphazardly hinged smile like
some rotten fruit oft [romantic]ized by
grizzled faces

at        l  a   n   g   u   i   d                     paces

in some coffee shop on the edge of town:

"apple"

she s[cream]s

and on my own tongue I still

taste

p[each].

Prayer for Dissimilation

Organized hate is no more divine.

A church of peace can not crusade.

The politic of religion is oxymoronic.

A god that divides will never reign.

These are undeniable truths denied

every day by crass

individuals speaking for masses

that have          voice,

that have          mind,
that have          faith,

though you’d never know it through

the thick and bloody fog of
             murder             excused
as war.

I am not the one

that bombed your hospital
with the red cross as target,

I am not the one

that reduced your house of
blocks square to rubble ragged,

I am not the one

that stole your husbands and sons from
your homes in the lie of night.

I am not responsible for these things, yet

I am represented by those who
are.

(this is where you pause to think)

Fair is a four letter word

                         (like race),

that means nothing yet is fought over by

hordes.

One man        hates       another

for his            love         of a third yet claims
an all-loving  god.

One child strikes another

for his shoes made by a third
an                                                                  ocean away.

Whosoever protects the weak -
           shall be treated as weak.

Whosoever defends the different -

           shall be treated as different.

Whosoever cries out against ruthlessness -

           shall be treated ruthlessly.

So sayeth the Shepherd -

           so sayeth the sheep!

 

These are undeniable truths upheld

every day by sanctified individuals
speaking at masses

with    voice,

with    mind,
with    faith,

such that you’ll never know the truth through

the thick and ruddy fog of
            rape disguised
as disease.

These passageways were

meant for boys
            to become men,

not the reverse,

            not the perverse,
                        not the verse:
                                               chapter:
                                                             book

of words changed by the ruling

party                 countless times

over                  thousands of years.

Would that god(!) should leave a mark,

a footstep not filled by those
crushed

by the weight of his church

                for believing

in some           other god,

but the                        same god,
yet a               different god –
not                 my god.

A building and two sticks don’t make

one pious,

a prayer and two songs won’t grant

one salvation,

a tear and two hands won’t bring

one forgiveness.

But a gun and two bullets…

                                                                       (one for you
                                                                                                      and
                                       one for me),

what a wonderful world it would be.

Amen

 

 

 

 

J.R. Carson has multiple prose pieces in publications such as Anathematic, Skive Magazine, and Defenestration. An award-winning playwright, his poetry placed at the 2006 Sandhills Writers Conference and garnered him an invitation to Bread Loaf in 2007. In most of his work, he tries to tell at least three different stories from at least five different points of view, or whatever the cosmos may give him.