Nocturne

[vaneramos]

Dictators vie for mastery
of hours and appetite.

Sitting still in cluttered rooms,
furniture can't rearrange
to catch earth's shifting polarity.
Life won't even align
along magnetic fields
or tidal sway of quixotic moon.

Northern lights
have gone adrift over Siberia,
effervescent mermaids
enter an archipelago dweller's
midday nightmare.

While home slate shingle
roofs collapse on a bedside table
drown sagging alarm clock
and deflated condoms.

A spent night of remembrance
traced frontal countenance targets
taking political prisoners.

~~~~~~~~~~

First draft, constructive criticism welcome.

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

i love the cadences of this, and the images. the condom sort of bumps me a little -- it's startling, and i wasn't sure about it. but i like the poem. i'd be interested to know how the political relates to the sensual for you here.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Vicki.

Politics here is a metaphor for anxiety, being governed and imprisoned by one's own mind.

When I have insomnia, my mind plays the same things over and over. They might be important, but often they're trivial. It's like hearing annoying political sound blurbs repeated ad nauseum on radio news.

People express cynicism about their ability to influence world events, but this often reflects a bigger, unspoken helplessness in taking responsibility for their own lives.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

oh, i see! thank you for this. (i tend to react to poetry sensually, but i'm not good at digging out meanings, alas.)

i think you're right about that bigger helplessness, and it definitely is a stressor. lately i've felt very trapped by the path i'm on. i can't change it, but only do my best to live in it. it's an anxious time. i suppose i'm not really helpless, but at moments i feel that way.

as i was typing that paragraph, i flashed back to an old phrase from the 1960s -- the personal is political. it's a natural leap to make.

oh, i do admire the "quixotic tides"!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Feeling trapped is really what this is about. I feel it, too.

[ubermunkey.livejournal.com]

it has a sensual yet calm feel to it
I enjoyed reading it several times.

love and peace
munkey

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that you read it that way. I didn't feel calm when I penned these words, but was struggling to take myself there.

Cheers,
Van