A Poem by Sy Roth

When Visions Collide

 

dreams collide in his fevered brain

with the beasts who

issue from the mists;

these beasts from the maelstrom

trundle the grimy streets

burdened with their passionless reveries.

 

he senses them through their fears

smells their trepidations.

blesses them with a rood crudely drawn,

hands shifting the steamy-cold air

cracking the frozen wall of air and hearing

it fall to the ground in syllabic tinkles.

 

lariat encicling air

forms a bond with the

man languishing in its silent whorls.

it swirls in the roundabout where he dwells.

dust breezes lift the corners of his crimson hair

in undulating wavelets at no one in particular.

"Oremus," he squeaks from the tinkling silence.

they rush by him, heads rock like landslide-boulders

shifting awkwardly on their shoulders.

his fingers stab at the air.

he gurgles, "Oremus" through parched lips, but

supplications do not come in the world of colliding dreams.

"Amen," he mumbles at their passing buttocks.

 

the gray-dust of a dying sun slices his face

into a bifurcated Greek-theater mask.

dust settles on him as they pass.

 

 

 

 

Sy Roth retired after forty-two years as teacher/school administrator, he now resides in Mount Sinai , far from Moses and the tablets. This has led him to find words for solace. He spends his time writing and playing his guitar. He has published in Visceral Uterus, Amulet, BlogNostics, Every Day Poets, Barefoot Review, Haggard and Halloo, Misfits Miscellany, Larks Fiction Magazine, Danse Macabre, Bitchin’ Kitch, Bong is Bard, Humber Pie, Poetry Super Highway, Penwood Review, Masque Publications, Foliate Oak, Miller’s Pond Poetry, The Artistic Muse, Word Riot, Samizdat Literary Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Screech Owl, Epiphany, Red Poppy Review, Big River, Poehemians, Nostrovia Poetry’s Milk and Honey, Siren, Palimpsest, Dead Snakes, Euphemism, Humanimalz Literary Journal, Ascent Aspirations, Fowl Feathered Review, Vayavya and Kerouac’s Dog.