Summer 2008

Table of Contents - Vol. IV, No. 2

 

Poetry    Translations    Non-Fiction    Fiction    Essays   

Brian E. Langston

 

when even the memory

old vases often break like this:
a chip here, a crack there, & the next thing

you know you're on your knees, picking
through dried petals & pieces of enameled clay.

who gave you those roses & why did you
save them for so many years?

you tried to grow them for so long
& when even the parched earth cried out

you continued to pray for rain, until finally
the seeds hardened in the dust.

now, when you collect what's yours, the idols
& icons of memories faded, sealing them

in boxes you're just as likely never
to open again, I wonder: how much of this

fiction mattered, & was it really me
who gave you those roses, so long ago?

 

Tending Horses

for HR

So you're tending horses now up in Washington,
if last I heard recalls correct, though it's been a while
and I guess anywhere can call the wild herds
grazing mustangs in Nevada or even Shetlands
on gray-skied English Isles.

Of course, if I'd've thought it through better
back that spring I spent chasing a different girl…
But hindsight, well, you know how that goes.

Still, I wonder, watching the sun set into the ocean
from up top the bluffs, if you miss the sea.
But then I think of the wild fields rippling
in sundowner breeze, enough for anyone, especially a woman
riding stallions bareback, hair a fiery sunset mane,

shoulders glistening, hips and thighs
in perfect rhythm
with the slow
moving
earth.

 

© Brian E. Langston

 

            

Poetry    Translations    Non-Fiction    Fiction    Essays   

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